BaseBornBastard Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 I'm a little confused about how slavery works in Essos. It's seems as though any free man can become a slave at any time, if he so happens to have the misfortune of being captured by slavers. Tyrion and Jorah were both free men travelling from Volantis on a ship destined for Qarth. The ship was captured by slavers, and both of them were enslaved without controversy. I mean, can this literally happen to anyone? Can freed men be enslaved randomly within individual free cities, or is that against the law? All Jorah had to do in Volantis was put chains on Tyrion then, as far as anyone was concerned, he was a slave. Isn't that kind of ridiculous? Let's say for the sake of argument a Westerosi lord was travelling from Oldtown to Lys. Along the way the ship gets caught be slavers, he gets enslaved, and taken to Myr and sold to some merchant. Could this hypothetically happen? Or would there be some kind of rule/repercussions against it? Say he's a petty lord who can't raise an army? Is he fucked? If I live in Volantis, can I wait down an alley for some poor soul to walk by, club them over the head, then carry them home and put them in chains? Is that person now my slave? What if his family comes looking for him? Can I say "tough shit I enslaved him fair and square?"The whole concept just baffles me to be honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julia Martell Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Yeah. It's not called a Crapsack World for nothing. People seem to have insurance for this though. Remember Tyrion talking about how the sailors on the Perfumed Seneschal had "binders" saying that some one back in Volantis would pay their random. Ditto for the slaves of R'hllor. There isn't any central authority to stop this from happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonardo Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 As to your hypothetical, most certainly. However they would likely be travelling with the largest ships in existence to protect them and their crews for this very reason. The slavers may have a lot of ships, but they're only going to get the really nice ones by stealing them from Westerosi. Westerosi battleships are waaaay more formidable than what most other people are going to have, and only Braavos probably has ships that can equal these huge warships. Yes, you can do that, and it happened all the time in real life as well. As sick as it is to talk about this, there's a reason slaves were kept dumb and 'bred' in captivity: because a freedman will always know the taste of freedom and will always be looking for ways to escape. So there's not really a huge point in going and enslaving randos when most slaves are born slaves and won't give you as hard a time. Yes, they could withhold someone from their families unless they had sufficient gold or power in order to get him back. Otherwise... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggy Targdust Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 I think thats how it goes down yeh. In american south during slavery,Sometimes slaves were legally freed by the plantation owners then kidnapped back into slavery. In asoiaf, Probably if you are a somebody your friends or family could buy your freedom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonCon's Red Beard Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 I'm a little confused about how slavery works in Essos. It's seems as though any free man can become a slave at any time, if he so happens to have the misfortune of being captured by slavers. Tyrion and Jorah were both free men travelling from Volantis on a ship destined for Qarth. The ship was captured by slavers, and both of them were enslaved without controversy. I mean, can this literally happen to anyone? Can freed men be enslaved randomly within individual free cities, or is that against the law? All Jorah had to do in Volantis was put chains on Tyrion then, as far as anyone was concerned, he was a slave. Isn't that kind of ridiculous? Let's say for the sake of argument a Westerosi lord was travelling from Oldtown to Lys. Along the way the ship gets caught be slavers, he gets enslaved, and taken to Myr and sold to some merchant. Could this hypothetically happen? Or would there be some kind of rule/repercussions against it? Say he's a petty lord who can't raise an army? Is he fucked? If I live in Volantis, can I wait down an alley for some poor soul to walk by, club them over the head, then carry them home and put them in chains? Is that person now my slave? What if his family comes looking for him? Can I say "tough shit I enslaved him fair and square?" The whole concept just baffles me to be honest. Tyrion was a dwarf, so, mostly they would considered nothing more but entertainment. Jorah could have said something like "I'm Jorah Mormont of House Mormont in Westeros", etc, etc. But he was too much depressed to even try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
complexphoenix Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 That's pretty much how it worked in antiquity. Plato was once enslaved when the boat he was cruising on in the Aegean was taken by slavers, and he was freed when someone recognized him at the market and bought his freedom. Usually rich people would be ransomed by their families; poor people were SOL. The best way to avoid being enslaved was to stay close to home where people knew you. Generally speaking, you couldn't lawfully make a slave of someone in your own community unless they owed you money and couldn't repay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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