So I hope to get others' thoughts on an aspect of my book. Without going into too much detail, one of the countries in my fantasy novel has a large slave trade and several scenes in my first book occur in a city where the main buying and selling of slaves is done. One of my main secondary characters that will be present throughout, and to a greater degree in later books, is herself an ex-slave so I do intend to touch on the subject with regards to her feelings and opinions on the matter. However, the nature of slavery and its horrors is not related to the over-arching plot and so I do not think it is should be a major focus outside of that character's personal arc. I have not yet come to the parts of my story that deal with the secondary character's thoughts and feelings on the matter, but when I do I intend to do as much research as possible to ensure that I can portray, as accurately as possible, a character with that kind of backstory. My aim in posting this is to ask if any others have written such characters and who may have some advice in doing so in as sensitive and considerate a way as possible. Also in general, to see what are others' thoughts on writing fiction in which the subject of slavery is present? I hope I managed to convey myself well here, apologies if I did not, my intent is only to seek advice on how not to offend or appear frivolous in my inclusion of slavery within my book.
What kind of government do they have? Obviously not a modern Liberal one. A monarchy maybe? The hard thing for us to wrap our heads around is that pre 200 years ago or so, slavery was just a common fact of life everywhere. I think the way to relate to it as a witer would be to think of it as somewhat analogous to prison in today's world. The difference of course being that most prisoners are supposedly guilty of terrible crimes, whereas slaves were spoils of war or conquest. The other best analogue I can think of that we're familiar with in modern times would be the draft.
Two books that I have read that will give you a good insight into the subject: The Classic Slave Narratives, edited and with an introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (now $0.72 on Kindle) Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution, by Simon Schama
Everything is sensitive. Everything is offensive. Everything will trigger something in somebody. Stay away from the arts if this is a concern. Hell, I came up with a guitar riff this morning that will probably trigger somebody. I for one love offending people in the artistic sense. The reader can take a walk if they can't handle it.
The flat fifth? Shit, use the sweet sixth like in Brown Eyed Girl and it'll trigger somebody who got dumped by a girl with brown eyes.
I dunno. Every time someone brings up the word "slavery" in today's world, it somehow always comes back to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but that is far from the only slave trade that ever existed. The HBO/BBC series Rome depicted slavery, which was prevalent in the Roman world - after Caesar conquered Gaul, he carted off a large number of Gauls to become slaves. The Spartans held a large number of slaves, the helots, whom they would sometimes hunt for sport. Various Chinese dynasties castrated and enslaved prisoners of war, and some of those eunuchs gained enormous power in court (including Admiral Zheng He, who sailed as far as the African coast). Heck, even Star Trek often depicts slavery by alien races. There was that time Kirk got sent as a slave to the penal mines at Rura Penthe. Not every depiction has to come back to the Atlantic slave trade (unless you are consciously basing it on that), and not evey issue need be a hot-button topic. I regularly watch anime where one or more minority characters (cat-girls, elves, the occasional dragon) actually want to become slaves bound to a master, and no one bats an eyelid because it's fantasy.
Making safe art results in compositions that can be hung over the bed in a Ramada Inn and the literary requivalent. You could, of course, include a sidebar to explain that you dig that some people will be offended by the content they are about to read, but really, you wouldn't do it if the plot didn't absolutely demand it and part of your advance will go to support A Worthy Cause, so you hope offended readers will understand you don't actually support cat girl slavery, domestic violence, or pineapple on pizza, and so will not hold a literary device against you.
The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. Slavery does, indeed, go back a VERY long way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_ancient_Egypt https://ancientegyptianfacts.com/ancient-egyptian-slavery.html https://www.thetorah.com/article/what-we-know-about-slavery-in-egypt My question to the original poster (ThatScottishGuy) is: If "the nature of slavery and its horrors is not related to the over-arching plot," then why include it at all? You said she is a secondary character. It would be easy enough to mention as part of her backstory that she was a slave (how did she become a free woman -- or is she still a slave?) without including explicit scenes of slave trading and slave auctions.
Slavery is such a human thing (you don't have to look hard to see it's been a part of humanity for a long time, and in which almost all cultures have unfortunately participated) that a question is begged here: should murder be any less sensitive a subject? How about war? Abuse? This is a question you might want to ask yourself, as in, is there really a justification for one horror to be elevated more than the others in your mind? For one to be more offensive than the other? Well anyway, I think you should write slavery as what it means to you. That's one valuable input you have as a writer at its most basic: what the world is through your eyes. I have full confidence in your ability to imagine what it feels like to be enslaved, just as I have full confidence in your ability to see through the eyes of a lieutenant as he cleaves goblins in two, or perhaps a duchess whose favoured political leverage is poison.
Nothing wrong with writing about slavery. There are many novels set in, say, Ancient Rome. In particular, John Maddox Roberts in his SPQR series conveys perfectly the prevailing mindset of a society where slavery was considered normal and the slaves didn't think about killing their masters and escaping day and night, as some modern-day Americans would insist they had to. When great many unspeakable cruelties are considered acceptable in works of fiction, then why not slavery?
What kind of slavery are we talking about? There are different forms of it. There's hard phyiscal labor, such as field and farm slavery, of the kind that's since been replaced by machinery, then there's household slavery, harem slavery, and of course the harem was guarded by eunuchs, who were also slaves. Rome took some of the greatest Greek sculptors and poets as slaves and had them teach Roman children the fine arts. There were the Gladiators, and there were dignitaries and politicians. Some countries enslaved politicians and statesmen so they could have a better government. Hebrew slaves helped build the pyramids in ancient Egypt. Slavery has a vast and extremely varied history: History of slavery@ Wikipedia As someone already stated, every country participated in slavery, both as slavers and as slaves. This in fact is how the Slavic people got their name, they were extremely unfortunate and were enslaved many times over. Probably the biggest slave trade, running over the longest period of time, was that of the Ottoman Empire, now known as the Muslim countries. At the same time as the Trans-Atlantic slave trade was happening, far more African slaves were being marched across the desert into the Middle East than were being sailed in ships across the Atlantic. It was a horrific journey, many didn't survive. The desert is littered with the bones of thousands.
You are correct, except for this: "This in fact is how the Slavic people got their name." Actually, no. They called themselves Slavs long before the Mediterranean doulos (Greek)/servus (Latin) traders began raiding them. Ironically, it means "glorious" (as in "Slava Ukraini"). But so many of them were taken their name became synonymous with the institution.
There are also different kinds of slavery. Watch the episode of Netflix' documentary Rotten which examines the chocolate industry. Chocolate buyers contract with growers and then simply refuse to pay them after the beans are processed and shipped. The growers have no recourse or options.
I know my post doesn't bring anything to the thread, so I'll just point out this contextually lovely type-o and move on. Edit: Changed it so it no longer implies @Xoic 's post brings nothing to the thread. My bad.
No, no, no! Just a joke! In a thread about slavery I find missing the first R in writer amusing. It's thin ice, I know.
Consider this for a moment. In a muscle powered society slavery is not an uncommon practice, especially for those taken as captives during a war. It was the rise of machines that was the death of the institution. How the slaves where treated is more a reflection on the societies values. Are they simple cattle, to be cared for, and do work, or since they were captured in war do they need to be punished. There were even cultures that imposed a time limit on the keeping of a slave, there was one group I read about that freed the slaves after 7 years, I forgot who. Or the native Americans who kept those captured in war as slaves, and over time adopted them into the tribe. As for your ex slave character, that sounds like a great internal conflict for her.
