Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

slavery

Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court

Definitions from Case Law

From 203 U.S. 1 - Hodges v. United States · 1906Most cited · 329 citing opinions

defined

in Webster slavery is defined as 'the state of entire subjection of one person to the will of another,' and a slave is said to be 'a person who is held in bondage to another.' ... servitude is by the same authority declared to be 'the state of voluntary or compulsory subjection to a master.

How often courts cite the cases defining “slavery”

18401850190019502000203070

Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “slavery” — 337 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.

All 2 definitions, chronological · 1843–1906

  1. ORIGINAL

    Slavery is the property which one man has in the labour of another, and the right to the custody and such limited use of the person of that other, as the particular laws allow.

    definition as property