Just Say ‘Slavery’
<em>Involuntary relocation </em>and <em>enslaved person</em> are misguided euphemisms.
by Graeme Wood
Jul 11, 2022
4 minutes
In my seventh-grade Latin class, 30 years ago in Dallas, only one of my classmates was Black. When we learned the noun —the root of English words such as , , —one of the white students instinctively defied the textbook definition and translated it as “servant.” “The servant loves the girl.” The lone Black student let this translation slide once, then twice, before bellowing, “SLAVE. It means SLAVE.” He was right. That was the translation in our book, and in ancient Rome, a was most likely not a freely contracted guy who answered your Craigslist ad, but a human being owned
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