[BANESTORM] Ending slavery in the Evil Empire

[Michael Cule]

Yes, the first unexpected reaction would be from the serfs! "Why are you giving Those People Over There the chance to be free when we aren't?"

Which leads to the rural nobility reacting against reform because they see their workforce melting away If This Goes On.

(Historically, the Empire reacts ferociously to serf revolts or 'petty treason'.)

The appeal to Roman precedent would need some research but might give the reformers some sort of coherent intellectual status.

Originally Posted by Varyon

Well, first, what is the nature of slavery in the Evil Empire? Is it a punishment for crimes? The lot of those on the losing side of a war? An option for paying off a large debt? A way to leave your family better off than they were before (you sell yourself - or your parents sell you - into slavery, your family gets a decent sum of money)? Is it racially based? What kinds of jobs do slaves typically work - do they just provide raw muscle for unskilled labor, or can you find them working just about any job? What kinds of people own slaves - are they a curiosity for the superwealthy, commonly owned by landowners, or does any family above the means of a peasant typically own one as a general-purpose servant? How you go about disentangling your economy from any degree of reliance on slave labor (a necessary step to abolish it, unless you're fine suffering an economic recession when you do), and how the populace and elites will respond, is going to be heavily dependent on the above.

Well, all of the above. Slavery in the Empire isn't racially based (nor species based) though there are a lot of war captives from the Nomad Lands.

All of the above uses for slaves are possible but the largest numbers are on jobs that free people want just Too Much Money to do. Physically hard jobs like mining and forestry. There aren't so many slave staffed agricultral estates as in the Roman Empire: there are serfs for that.

The best way to end slavery would be with a technolgical advance that makes it less and less profitable. But on the other hand look at what the cotton gin did and on the third hand this is Yrth: the Ministry of Serendipity is very down on all kinds of technological advance.