Topic for discussion - manumission

[epeeblade]

(I haven't done one of these in a while, so here goes...)

I was reading the latest bit of A Kept Boy last night when something occurred to me.

In it Jensen vehemently denies being part of any family, and denies any identity other than that of slave. He's not the only one raised from childhood to be the perfect slave.

So what would happen then if the abolitionist movement does pass a manumission clause? Now granted, it's probably not going to cause hundreds of people freeing their slaves en masse, but I can imagine wealthy owners "freeing their slaves" in their will after they pass. What happens to the slaves who can't imagine a life outside of slavery?

(And yes this would probably be AU like whoah, but it's something I'm interested in seeing explored in fic...)

Comments

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

It would be irresponsible for the abolitionists to provide for all-out manumission without providing some mechanism for taking care of these slaves.

Absolutely, and they're well aware of that--at least, the sensible ones are. The tack that Dylan in particular is pushing is the idea that if Congress doesn't do something to allow for gradual manumission, it's going to happen all at once at a time not of their choosing--and they're going to be first up against the wall.

The Reformist strategy is twofold: to make it harder for people to be enslaved in the first place, and then to allow those who're already slaves a chance to obtain freedom. Eventually, when the class of former slaves becomes large enough, you stop allowing people to buy slaves at all. And then you emancipate everyone. But we're talking at least a century or so for the process to be complete.