reenslaved

Reenslaved is a term used to describe the act or condition of forcing someone who had previously been enslaved to become enslaved again. In both historical and contemporary discourse, it can refer to a returned or reimposed state of bondage after a period of freedom, escape, or emancipation, rather than a continuation of the original bondage without interruption. The term is often used to distinguish cycles of coercive control from ongoing, unbroken systems of slavery, and it is frequently discussed in relation to legal, social, and economic mechanisms that undermine formal freedom.

In historical contexts, discussions of reenslaved individuals have appeared in studies of emancipation periods where freed persons faced coercive practices, violence, kidnapping, arrest, or debt-based systems that compelled them back into some form of bondage. The concept is also connected to analyses of how former slave societies and post-emancipation regimes attempted to regulate labor, mobility, and personal autonomy, sometimes reasserting control over those who had been freed.

In modern usage, researchers and advocates often frame reenslaved conditions within the broader category of modern slavery, including forced labor, debt bondage, human trafficking, and coercive or exploitative marriages. Some scholars prefer to describe these circumstances as “re-enslavement” to highlight histories of overlapping coercion, while others emphasize continuity of exploitation under different legal or social guises. See also slavery, emancipation, debt bondage, human trafficking, and neo-slavery.