The term “slave” is used to describe a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them by law and/or by force. The term itself refers to different forms of un-freedom, with different meanings and consequences over time and place. In the 6th century, for example, “sklabos” (Greek) meant an un-free person of Slavic descent, while in medieval Latin “sclavus” more generally meant “a person who is owned by another.” Today, the term is more generally used to describe people from Africa who were bought/captured and enslaved by Europeans and forced to work on plantations, often under inhumane conditions, within European colonial projects. Increasingly “slave” has become contested by activists, scholars and the public alike, as it is argued that using the term is to normalize the category “slave” as an inherent identity of a person, thus ignoring that this identity was created not by choice but through violent force. The term also denies the humanity of the person, reducing them to being no more than the property of another. Recently the term has been used to describe the victims of contemporary human trafficking or forced labor.