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

[angiepen.livejournal.com]

It's illegal to breed slaves in quantity, yes, but without some sort of systematic sterilization, a heck of a lot of breeding is going to be happening anyway. When you're talking about millions of people (tens of millions? maybe) there's going to be a lot of breeding going on, even without owners trying to dodge the system and run their own little breeding farms for profit. :/

However much breeding is going on, though, there's definitely some. Cutting off that supply of new slaves, whether you go all Draconian on the breeding itself or whether you declare all those children free, that'd still solve a chunk of the problem, however large or small a chunk we want to argue it might be. At that point, tackling the economic problems which cause free people to become slaves would have some real impact in the longer term -- say, a generation or two.

If someone got their arm ripped off in a loom, oh well, go hire a new girl from outside the gates. Whereas at the same time down South they couldn't afford to be quite so careless.

And yeah, ironic how slavery benefits the slaves in that one matter. Greed and financial self-interest would maintain some minimal standards, at least. :P

Angie