[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.

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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.

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1851.  T. Parker, Wks., VII. 290. The chain … visible on the necks of the judges as they entered the Bastile of Boston—the Barracoon of Boston!

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1861.  Du Chaillu’s Equat. Afr., xi. 141. I made a visit to the barracoons, or slave-pens.

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1862.  Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VIII. lxviii. 358. The empire became no more than an ergastulum or barracoon on a vast scale.

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