Definition of "slavery" []

• The state of one bound in servitude as the property of a slaveholder or household. (noun)
• The practice of owning slaves. (noun)
• A mode of production in which slaves constitute the principal work force. (noun)
• The condition of being subject or addicted to a specified influence. (noun)
• A condition of hard work and subjection: wage slavery. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "What is sometimes not appreciated is the distinction that was drawn by governments between slavery and actual slave trading: for example, Britain prohibited the _trade_ as early as 1807, but did not abolish _slavery_ within the Empire until 1833; the United States prohibited the trade in 1808, but continued to practise slavery in her slave states until the Civil War."
• "That the abolition of slavery is within the sphere of legislation, I argue, _secondly_, from the fact, that _slavery as a legal system, is the creature of legislation_."
• "The leading object of the second section was the readjustment of the representation of the States in Congress, rendered necessary by the abolition of chattel slavery [_not of political slavery_], effected by the thirteenth amendment."