What Does Peonage Really Mean?

Peon usually refers to a person subject to peonage: any form of wage labor in which a laborer has little control over employment conditions.

What is the meaning of peonage?

Peonage, also called debt slavery or debt servitude, is a system where an employer compels a worker to pay off a debt with work. Legally, peonage was outlawed by Congress in 1867.

How is peonage different from slavery?

is that slavery is an institution or social practice of owning human beings as property, especially for use as forced laborers while peonage is the state of being a peon; the system of paying back debt through servitude and labour; loosely, any system of involuntary servitude.