Meanings
plural blackbirders
- A person involved in blackbirding (kidnapping Pacific islanders as cheap labour).
1 more example
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 - A ship used for blackbirding; a slaver.
- USA 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
Origin
Cite this entry
blackbirder. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackbirder
“blackbirder.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackbirder. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “blackbirder,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackbirder.
Source: blackbirder on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.