Title

On the Definition of Slavery

Department/School

Philosophy

Date

2020

Document Type

Article

Keywords

slavery, slave, definition, conceptual analysis, modern slavery, contemporary slavery, the 1926 Slavery Convention

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/theo.12276

Abstract

A number of non‐equivalent definitions of slavery have been offered by historians, sociologists, bodies of international governance and legal scholars. None is clearly adequate. Here I review extant definitions of slavery found in or suggested by Lovejoy, Patterson, Honoré, Bales, Ingram and the League of Nations 1926 Slavery Convention, and argue that each is subject to counterexample. I then attempt to formulate and defend a more adequate definition, one focusing on consent, control, and the intentions of the slaveholder, and relevant for the present as well as the past.

Published in

Theoria

Citation/Other Information

Rota, Michael. “On the definition of slavery.” Theoria, 86, no. 5 (2020): 543-564. https://doi.org/10.1111/theo.12276.

Share

COinS