Enslaver

Reparative Description Preferred Term

Preferred Terms: Enslaver(s), Esclavizador

Non-Preferred Term: Modifier form: slave owner/slaveowner/owner, Dueño de esclavos, slave holder/slaveholder, slave master/slavemaster/master or mistress

Related Terms that May Continue to be Used: Slave manifest, slave claim, slave payroll

Guidance:

Enslaver is the preferred term. Use of the preferred term enslaver addresses slave's harm in the context of Western chattel enslavement of Africans and their descendants. However, NARA should not remove all uses of slave, particularly in its use as a modifier for economic systems or types of documents. This approach will be reevaluated as policies and practices at peer institutions develop.

Examples:

Example:
Scope and Content Note - [...] Many payrolls indicate that the person from whom the enslaved person was hired (enslaver) was "unpaid" or show no payment, meaning that the payment was not recorded on that particular payroll. This likely means that neither the enslaver nor his or her agent went to the Confederate officer for payment before the payroll was submitted to a higher-level authority. Thus, the same transaction should be found on a second payroll created at a later date when the enslaver or agent finally went to the Confederate officer for payment. [...]
General Note - This archival description was reviewed and revised as part of the NARA reparative description initiative on [mm/dd/yyyy]. Original archival records have not been altered.

Example:
Title - Censuses: Compensation Commission, St. Croix: Lists of Enslavers and Free Formerly Enslaved People on St. Croix, 1848-53
Other Title - Censuses: Compensation Commission, St. Croix: Lists of Slaveholders and Freed Slaves on St. Croix, 1848-53
General Note - “Censuses: Compensation Commission, St. Croix: Lists of Slaveholders and Freed Slaves on St. Croix, 1848-53” was the original title of this item.
General Note - This archival description was reviewed and revised as part of the NARA reparative description initiative on [mm/dd/yyyy]. Original archival records have not been altered

Example:
Title - Records of the Sale of the Enslaved Imported by the Royal Guinea Trade Directors on His Majesty's Account, 1778-1780
Other Title - "Records of the Sale of Slaves Imported by the Royal Guinea Trade Directors on His Majesty's Account, 1778-1780"
Other Title - "Forhandlings Protocoll for den Kongl. Guineiske Handels Direction over de fra Kysten Guinea for Kongl. Regning hertil St. Croix ankomne Slaver" is the original Danish language Other Title of this series.
General Note - "Records of the Sale of Slaves Imported by the Royal Guinea Trade Directors on His Majesty's Account, 1778-1780" was the original title of this series.
General Note - This archival description was reviewed and revised as part of the NARA reparative description initiative on [mm/dd/yyyy]. Original archival records have not been altered
Guidance - Always retain existing original Danish language Other Titles. These often contain additional, untranslated information not contained in the English language translations. In cases where Other Title is used for Reparative Description, it is treated as an additional Other Title.

Example:
Scope and Content Note - [...] There are two additional lists for July - August, 1863 (labeled "extra call") and July - September 1863. Entries in these lists include the date of receipt, names of enslavers, first names of enslaved people, and total number of enslaved people received from each enslaver. Also included are some notes concerning enslaved people who ran away from the fortifications. There are a few entries for January - June 1864.
General Note - This archival description was reviewed and revised as part of the NARA reparative description initiative on [mm/dd/yyyy]. Original archival records have not been altered.

Where does this apply?

This applies to changes in descriptions and authority records. See the Appendix: Reparative Description Preferred Terms for guiding principles and general guidance.

Rationale:

See first the rationale in the preferred term page for Enslaved Person.

Much as "slave" normalizes the condition of enslavement as a state of being, "slave owner," "slave master," and variants normalize and sanitize the action of keeping a person enslaved. Using "enslaver" makes visible the continued interpersonal violence that was necessary to keep Africans and their descendants in the economic, social, and political bondage of chattel slavery.

The term dueño de esclavos is a Spanish-language variation of enslaver. There are no instances of the term “dueño de esclavos” in the Catalog. However, we recommend an inclusive and proactive approach in addressing any possible future uses of this term in the context of enslaver for Spanish-language records by updating that existing guidance to include the Spanish-language variation. Stakeholders from the Puerto Rican community emphasized the value and importance of inclusivity for Spanish language preferred and non-preferred terms, especially with intersectional topics such as race, gender, sexuality, class, and, in this case, the history of slavery.

Date added: July 19, 2022

Date updated: December 19, 2023