Other forms: enslaved, enslaving, enslaves
To enslave is to make somebody a slave. Enslaved people, enslave a population, enslaved for generations.
Writing has shifted deliberately from slaves to enslaved people, because the participle names something done to a person rather than what they were — the change is now standard in history and museum writing. Figuratively, to be enslaved by a habit is to be controlled by it. Note that the en- makes a verb.
1verbenslaveTo make somebody a slave.
“Millions of Africans were enslaved and carried across the Atlantic to work on plantations.”
enslave is a subjugating.
Middle English
sclave
English
slave
English, today
enslave
Built from
From en- + slave. slave comes from Middle English sclave. Middle English sclave, from Old French esclave, from Medieval Latin sclavus (“slave”), from Latin Sclavus (“Slav”), traditionally assumed to be because Slavs were often forced into slavery in the Middle Ages. The Latin word is from Medieval Greek Σκλάβος; see that entry and Slav for more. Displaced native þēow. thrall and bondsman/bondswoman, however, remain common synonyms. a doublet of ciao and Slav. An alternative hypothesis derives sclavus from Ancient Greek σκῡλεύω, σκῡλάω (“to strip or despoil a slain enemy”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA