Slave, Slavery, Enslaved

Working Definition:

These terms were fraught for Americans and Filipino/as alike during American colonial rule. For instance, debates over colonization of the Philippines were tinged with questions about the legacy of slavery and abolition in the United States, issues that shaped the question of imperialism for Filipino/as who lived as subjects of the U.S. Moreover, anti-imperialists in the United States balked at the idea that slavery would be allowed by U.S. colonists, after the U.S. signed the Bates Treaty with Moro datus, whose historiocultural use and understanding of slavery differed from that of the United States. Historically and culturally, then, the meaning of slavery varied across the archipelago.

Related Terms:

Suggestions for Further Reading:

Michael Salman, The Embarrassment of Slavery: Controversies over Bondage and Nationalism in the American Colonial Philippines (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 2001)