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Slavery vs Peonage - What's the difference?

slavery | peonage |

As nouns the difference between slavery and peonage

is that slavery is an institution or social practice of owning human beings as property, especially for use as forced laborers while peonage is the state of being a peon; the system of paying back debt through servitude and labour; loosely, any system of involuntary servitude.

slavery

Noun

(en-noun)
  • An institution or social practice of owning human beings as property, especially for use as forced laborers.
  • A condition of servitude endured by a slave.
  • (figuratively) A condition in which one is captivated or subjugated, as by greed or drugs.
  • * 1818 , ,"The Revolt of Islam", canto 8, stanza 16,
  • Man seeks for gold in mines that he may weave / A lasting chain for his own slavery .

    See also

    * debt bondage * bonded labor * bonded labour

    References

    * * * * Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary , 1987-1996.

    peonage

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The state of being a peon; the system of paying back debt through servitude and labour; loosely, any system of involuntary servitude.
  • *2010 , (Christopher Hitchens), Hitch-22 , Atlantic 2011, p. 217:
  • *:But there was work to be done down in the Salinas Valley where César Chávez was organizing the grape pickers and lettuce workers out of their state of un-unionized peonage .