The label ‘slave master’ falsely legitimates a relationship that was always contested

Evidence

I find that the label “slave master” invests a finality and legitimation to a relationship that was always challenged. This term offers a more accurate reflection of the contestation that was inevitably present under slavery. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1910

Categorization

• DEFINE: Frames a deliberate terminological contestation: choosing terms that reflect historical reality of resistance rather than fixed domination.
• XREF: Connects to broader debates in historiography about how language choices encode interpretive stances, similar to debates over ‘slave’ vs ‘enslaved person’.
• SEED: An essay angle on how the vocabulary historians choose for racialized subjugation shapes what the public believes was natural versus contested.