Dictionary

blackbirder en · NOUN

Etymology

From blackbird + -er.

Meanings

1. A person involved in blackbirding (kidnapping Pacific islanders as cheap labour).
   • The renaming of New South Wales’s Ben Boyd National Park — named for Australia’s first blackbirder — as Beowa National Park in 2022 was a good first step. But apologising for running a slave trade that tore tens of thousands of Pacific islanders from their families should not be a hard sell in Australia’s parliament. 2024, Graeme Smith, “The Frontiers of History: China Discovers The Pacific’s Dark Colonial Legacy”, in Annie Luman Ren and Ben Hillman, editors, China’s New Era, 1st edition, ANU Press, pages 187-196:
2. A ship used for blackbirding; a slaver.
3. (US) A slavecatcher
   • Runaway slaves and free blacks were constantly being kidnapped by New York City’s many “Blackbirders,” slave-catching bounty hunters who deported their captures to the plantations. 2011, Colin Woodard, chapter 22, in American nations, New York: Penguin, →ISBN:

Forms