[a. Sp. barracon (?), augmentative f. barraca: see BARRACK sb. and -OON.] A rough barrack, set of sheds, or enclosure, in which negro-slaves (originally), convicts, etc., are temporarily detained. Also fig.
1849. Weekly Dispatch, 16 Dec., 7/3. Contrasting the decisions of their immense, wealthy, industrious, intelligent populations with the bought and be-cudgelled verdicts of Thetford, Stamford, Woodstock, and such barracoons of white niggers.
1851. T. Parker, Wks., VII. 290. The chain visible on the necks of the judges as they entered the Bastile of Bostonthe Barracoon of Boston!
1861. Du Chaillus Equat. Afr., xi. 141. I made a visit to the barracoons, or slave-pens.
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VIII. lxviii. 358. The empire became no more than an ergastulum or barracoon on a vast scale.