Slavery
Table of Contents

Overview

The Su'ndi practice of slavery is best viewed an extension of the justice system. An individual becomes a slave when his/her debts are great enough that the council or justice declares that they must repay that debt through the tradition of debt slavery. As debt slavery is part of the justice system it is a crime for any individual to be enslaved without the appropriate legal formalities.

Debt slaves are usually treated quite well as the institution is considered to be an honorable thing which provides the slave with access to a minimum living status and protection. In fact except for the restrictions to his/her freedoms a debt slave is usually in a better position than a house-less individual.

Slaves have a very specific legal status. They cannot own land, earn an income or use the legal system in their own right. They must have permission from their master to do any of the things that any normal Su'ndari would take for granted. They are required to live under the roof of their masters and to behave well. Should they fail either of these duties their master may have them beaten or fined. This may well increase the original debt. The master is responsible for ensuring the slave remains healthy and the master can be fined for failing to provide a reasonable standard or causing his/her slaves to suffer unreasonable hardship (rape would definitely be an unreasonable hardship). It is usual for the owning House to deduct the cost of support from the slaves labour and to only use the remaining time towards debt repayment. Anything a slave produces is considered the property of the owning family and the House. A Su'ndi slave belongs to the House that owns their debt until that debt is fully repaid and any crimes committed against slaves are dealt with by the family heads.

It is possible for a slave to buy their freedom back once they have accrued enough money to repay their debt. There are several ways for a slave to acquire this money. A slave can keep any money given to them as a gift and any child born to them during this period of slavery can be used as part of the repayment. In essence the childs future labour reduces the adults labour by the same amount (the child is also responsible for the training costs as well as his/her upkeep during childhood).

The children of slaves do not automatically become slaves but the mother will usually choose this option. The mother effectively has three choices when she has a child during a period of slavery; she can surrender the child into slavery reducing her own period of indentured slavery and enabling the child to remain with her until it is at least six, she can abandon the child to a life as a family-less orphan or she can attempt to get the child adopted by either one of the Houses as a full member (usually the owning family or a Flower House). Slave-born children are always illegitimate as only house members can marry.

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