Enslaved Person
Reparative Description Preferred Term
Preferred Terms: Enslaved person, enslaved woman/man/boy/girl/child, enslaved [profession]
Non-Preferred Term: Noun form: slave
Related Terms that May Continue to be Used: Slave claim, slave payroll
Guidance
Enslaved person is the preferred term for an individual. Enslaved persons and enslaved people are preferred terms to refer to groups of people. Enslaved can be used as a modifier instead of slave before a person’s name, role, or profession, or the modifier slave can be removed and not replaced in that instance, especially if the description elsewhere provides context related to enslaved people or slavery (mentioned elsewhere in notes or indexed as a subject).
Do not remove all uses of slave; the term should be retained when used as a modifier related to economic systems. Restrict its use to existing terms and bodies of records and evaluate on a case-by-case basis for future records. This approach will be reevaluated as policies and practices at peer institutions develop.
For the subject authority file, the new preferred term is enslaved persons and slaves is the non-preferred term.
Examples:
Where does this apply?
This applies to changes in descriptions and authority records, especially the subject authority file. See the Appendix: Reparative Description Preferred Terms for guiding principles and general guidance.
Rationale:
Use of the preferred term addresses slave's harm in the context of Western chattel enslavement of Africans and their descendants.
Over the last decade, many archivists and peer institutions in the academic, library, archives, and museum communities have transitioned from the use of "slave" to "enslaved person" when discussing slavery in the United States. "Slave" normalizes and reifies the condition of slavery as a state of being, rather than an active process of dehumanization and bondage imposed on a person or people. Nell Irvin Painter, noted author and scholar on race, says of the term "slave" that it "seals [enslaved Africans and their descendants] within the permanent identity of enslavement."
In contrast, "enslaved person" and its variants emphasize the condition in which kidnapped Africans and their descendants were kept while reinstating their personhood, and often their gender, age, or profession.
Resources:
- "Why should we use the term “enslaved people” instead of “slaves”?," Choices Program, Brown University, 5 Feb. 2020. Accessed 17 Feb. 2022.
- Painter, Nell Irvin. "How we think about the term 'enslaved' matters," The Guardian, 14 Aug. 2019. Accessed 17 Feb. 2022.
- Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia, “Anti-Racist Description Resources,” October 2019.
- Glossary, National Park Service, Language of Slavery
- Harpers Ferry Center, National Park Service, HFC Editorial Style Guide
- Telfair Museums, "Why we use "enslaved"
Date added: July 20, 2022
Date updated: June 27, 2023