History glossary
bondage
a condition of being enslaved or held without personal freedom.
- Category
- Institution
- Region
- United States
- Date range
- Before 1865
What it means
Bondage means being held in a condition of forced service or enslavement. In the Civil War story, it refers to the legal and physical unfreedom imposed on enslaved people in the United States.
Related terms
Stories using this term
The American Revolution and Early Republic
From colonial tensions to independence, this traces the birth and early struggles of the United States of America.
The American Civil War and the Abolition of Slavery
The American Civil War determined the survival of the Union and led to the abolition of slavery, fundamentally reshaping the United States.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece was a civilisation of city-states, sailors, philosophers, soldiers, artists, and political experiments whose influence reached far beyond the Aegean world. From Athens and Sparta to the Persian Wars, democracy, philosophy, drama, and Alexander the Great, Greek history helped shape ideas about citizenship, empire, knowledge, and culture. Its legacy survived through Rome, Byzantium, Islam, and modern Europe, making Ancient Greece central to the story of the classical world.
The British Empire
Britain built the largest empire in history through sea power, trade, slavery, industrial wealth, conquest, and rule, before decolonisation reshaped the modern world.
