Hi Deb,

One poster provided a great example (Amistad) of how the slave trade tried to
change those who were "enslaved" into "slaves."  Enslavement is a process;
slaves are usually the result of the process.

Looking at the etymology of "slave" (below), one sees the assumption that
slaves are inherently 'lesser than'.  To "enslave" is the attempt to impose a
'lesser than' status.

I hope this helps!

Sincerely,

Jay Heuman
Assistant Curator of Education
Nora Ecccles Harrison Museum of Art
Utah State University (Logan)

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slave - c.1300, from O.Fr. esclave, from M.L. Sclavus "slave," originally
"Slav," so called because of the many Slavs sold into slavery by conquering
peoples. The verb meaning "work like a slave" is first recorded 1719. Slavery
is from 1551; slavish "servilely imitative" is from 1753. O.E. Wealh "Briton"
also began to be used in the sense of "serf, slave" c.850; and Skt. dasa-,
which can mean "slave," is apparently connected to dasyu- "pre-Aryan
inhabitant of India." More common O.E. words for slave were þeow (related to
þeowian "to serve") and þræl (see thrall). The Slavic words for "slave" (Rus.
rab, Serbo-Croatian rob, O.C.S. rabu) are from O.Slav. *orbu, from the PIE
base *orbh- (also source of orphan) the ground sense of which seems to be
"thing that changes allegiance" (in the case of the slave, from himself to his
master). The Slavic word is also the source of robot.
[Source: http://www.etymonline.com/s7etym.htm]
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