I agree with both of you for reasons that "slaveholder" may appear to be a little less demeaning, though both mean "bondage." On a related note and while we're on the subject, blacks were not "slaves" because our ancestors weren't born slaves -- our ancestors were "ENslaved." It's pretty much a semantical argument (and, perhaps even syntactical as well) which doesn't make either way right; it all rings of attempting to euphemize what is an affront to civil liberties and thus offensive to us all. My 2 cents, for whatever it's worth ... Deborah