bondage

Yet Southern politicians had insisted there could be no Union-saving Compromise of 1850 without the law, which forced every citizen of the North to cooperate in returning black people to bondage.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

He enslaved more than 100 people at Mount Vernon, and historians continue to grapple with the contradiction between the nation’s founding ideals and the human bondage practiced by its first president, among his strong mythology.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026

In one fell swoop, Congress used its guarantee clause authority to establish multiracial democracy where human bondage had previously held sway, enfranchising huge numbers of formerly enslaved Black Americans and remaking Southern society.

From Slate ● Jun. 3, 2026

“This festival is intended to lift up our ancestors that came to this country in bondage, terrorized, brutalized,” Ludlow said outside City Hall on Wednesday.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2026

Now colored folks like Ophie and her mother, historically in bondage, exercised the freedom they did have to make their way to the city, escaping the chokehold of Jim Crow.

From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland