slave labor

SEE SYNONYMS FOR slave labor ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

persons, especially a large group, performing labor under duress or threats, as prisoners in a concentration camp; a labor force of slaves or slavelike prisoners.

labor done by such a labor force.

any coerced or poorly remunerated work: Data entry at that salary is slave labor.

Origin of slave labor

First recorded in 1810–20

OTHER WORDS FROM slave labor

slave-labor, adjective

Words nearby slave labor

slave bracelet, Slave Coast, slave cylinder, slave driver, slaveholder, slave labor, slave labor camp, slaveling, slave-making ant, Slavenska, slaver

Example sentences from the Web for slave labor

But free labor to-day differs from serf-labor and slave-labor only in that it has a legal right to contract.
Socialism and Democracy in Europe|Samuel P. Orth
Eventually, the climate was to prove an even greater obstacle to the transplantation of the slave-labor system into Kansas.
Stephen A. Douglas|Allen Johnson
Under the New System, such troublemakers were banished to the slave-labor details of the precious-earth mines to the North.
Blind Spot|Bascom Jones
He was the political economist of the slave-labor system, as Calhoun was its political scientist and constitutional lawyer.
The Middle Period 1817-1858|John William Burgess

They nearly all continued to trade with the South, and to use the products of slave-labor.
The Grimk Sisters|Catherine H. Birney