servitude

servitude, slavery, bondage agree in meaning the state of subjection to a master.

Servitude may refer to the state of a person, or of a class of persons, or of a race that is bound to obey the will of a master, a lord, or a sovereign, and lacks the freedom to determine his or their own acts, laws, and conditions of living. The term is often vague or rhetorical, sometimes implying lack of political freedom, sometimes lack of liberty to do as one pleases

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I am as free as Nature first made man, ere the base laws of servitude began, when wild in woods the noble savage ran— Dryden

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More specifically servitude denotes the condition of one who must give service to a master and perform labor for him, whether he has bound himself (see BOUND adj) voluntarily or is a convict sentenced to penal servitude or a slave. Slavery implies subjection to a master who is the owner of one's person or who may treat one as his property

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taken by the insolent foe and sold to slavery—Shak.

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or entire loss of personal freedom and subjugation to another

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is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?— Henry

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Bondage applies to the state of one bound as a serf to the soil and sold with the land when conveyed to a new owner; it can apply also to a state of subjection from which there is no hope of escape except by breaking one's chains

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what more oft, in nations grown corrupt, and by their vices brought to servitude, than to love bondage more than liberty— Miltony}}

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