Depends. If there is so much opposition to abolition that it might threaten me or my family, then no. At best I might try to make things a bit difficult for those in the trade. On the other hand, if there is a strong and extremely influential pro-abolition lobby, I might reconsider my earlier stance.
Hell nah, I'd get rekt by everyone else from jeopardising their trade. Even if that's not it, I'd get rekt either way.
Modern people like to dunk on tradition, acting like whatever tradition there is, is barbaric and irrational. I don't think so. Different civilizations have their ways of continuing their existence with whatever resources they may have, and traditions can be a powerful tool. On the other hand, some traditions are plainly outdated, but it becomes quickly obvious which are which, just by looking at the reactions of the people. In other words, if the aristocracy (and I imagine there would be aristocracy of some kind), especially the young aristocracy, opposes slavery, then I'd work on abolishing it, or at least set a foundation. If not, then I'd have to swallow my conscience and act like we're Ancient Greece and people will think we were awesome despite having slaves
Slavery is a system that must slowly be stopped. Without going into specifics, the first thing to do is establish the legal rights of slaves. (Anyone who denies such rights will be under legal fine and punishment). And when or not someone can become a slave. So it will eliminate or mitigate the amount to people that become slaves through kidnapping. This will not stop stop illegal human trafficking, it still thrives today after all, but it will deal with the legal boom of slaves. Also encourage and promote the legal freedom of slavery. For example, someone can stop being a slave after x. Meaning make a environment where it should be easier to escape slavery than become a slave. btw, slaves with rights is… do you know? Not too different than modern day job system.
Yes, If possible. I would probably work it around behind the scenes. I don't want to show off something that is quite the norm at that time. It would be troublesome if my loved ones get caught up with it. At most, it's beneficial to hide than openly show disapproval to slavery, or else I get killed. If I fail, then I'll let my generations know who cruel it is to be enslaved for a lifetime, hoping that my abolishing statement will get through them and follow my will. If I win, I'll proudly show my achievement when I knew that no one will try to stop me from abolishing slavery after everything has ended. It will probably become employees and co-workers at the end of the day like our modern world. Where people go and employ jobs they want to work or are forced to work with. I guess.. Though, I probably need to study the whole system at that period to actually initiate such plans, that would either take decades to do so. Edit: If I take the shit route, then my slaves will all be forced to take care of me, my animals, and my house. I'll give them small money like 5 dollars each week/month or something. I'll make them entertain me till I had enough. I want to play dress up and be like a spoiled princess for once.
I'll be a tyrant for 5 years, find a successor to throw under the bus and clean all my shit throughout my 5 year of reign.
Use slaves however i can until i can implement changes in the slavery system, since it needs to be a gradual change from slavery to whatever comes next. But would slowly choke traders that deal in slaves, input more taxes and prohibit harsh treatment of slaves, changing them from the treatment of slavez, to serfs to freeman gradually.
There's so much what's if's and is's in this scenario like What the world overall have to say about slavery Is my country the only one with slaves What the religion have to say about slaves How strong is the religion Who are the slave Who are the slavers What my power in the country What's the power of my country compared to other countries What the technology of the world Can the country survive without slave What my age Can my cat body groom itself without slaves
I will abolish slavery but not as fast as possible. Oppression through slavery is one thing but you can easily liberate slaves when you don't even know the consequences of such actions. Most people abolish slavery because it is a 'Moral' thing to do but when you live in such a place which might have been run by slaves, it isn'y easy to let them go if you can't even handle the problems that may arise once you do so. Thinking inside the box, slaves run towns and you can't just liberate them without observing the situation at hand. Thinking outside the box, you will find out how your kingdom is run and slowly cut off the troublesome strings that may corrupt your kingdom as freeing slaves is the least of your problems. Food situation, financial trouble and even the political reign would cause so many problems just by freeing slaves and as such, it is mainly the priority of a ruler to address such situation before thinking of the people and the citizens of the kingdom. Establish proper trade routes, organize the finance of the kingdom, stabilize the military and political power of the kingdom and finally the citizen's concerns and public relations of the matter. Only then one such ruler would think about the slavery situation.
No reason to do so. There are plenty of better things to do than to free all slaves. Freeing the slaves would not solve problems, only make bigger problems for Ai-chan's rule. Higher moral does not come into the equation, only morale of the populace that matters. If the populace is comfortable with slavery and has made an entire economy around slavery, then Ai-chan abolishing slavery will not only make everyone unhappy, but also has the effect of destroying the economy of the kingdom. Instead of one huge authoritarian move, it's best to make one or a few smaller moves for the duration of Ai-chan's rule. Then let Ai-chan's descendants decide if they should do more or less, depending on the situation during their rule. Ai-chan would issue an ordinance that protects the safety of slaves and regulates slavery in Ai-chan's kingdom so that slave abuse and capture can be controlled and in the case the law was broken (such as when free people are forced into slavery willy-nilly or slaves are tortured to death), the offenders can be arrested and punished. It is up to Ai-chan's heir to decide whether to expand on this or weaken the regulation. Single huge moves are almost always a horrible idea. Smaller moves throughout a certain length of time is better and lasts longer. When ruling a nation, you do not need an arbitrary sense of justice. What you need, is stability.
yes, this. I'd also try to leverage ties with the nobility to formalize the trade and either bring it under govt control or (more likely) govt oversight whereby slave traders will be formal businesses, subject to licensing, taxes and regulations on the treatment of slaves. Once the endorsed traders are up and running, and with support from moderate nobles, i'd then slowly move to eliminate newly unsanctioned slave traders (i.e those who refuse to follow the new regulations and/or acquire their slaves through illegal means)
Nope Usually, slave is criminal, war prisoner/enemy of kingdom or maybe scapegoat of corrupt noble. Especially for the criminal is a waste of money to put them into prison and feed them everyday, better let them work for free and it same with the war prisoner, you cannot show mercy here And pity the scapegoats, life is truly not fair (except the one willing to become one for money) If slavery still exist, it must be for a good reason. You wouldn't want suddenly have incurable disease or fall from high place without reason. Who say become a king or heir guarantee absolute control of kingdom. If the King suddenly got dementia it shall soon usurped replaced by the next in line and replacing the rebellious heir is easier, the illegitimate princes/princesses will pop up here, there and everywhere.... and surely will make people wonder (including the king himself) how the (stud) king invest the seeds
It depends on what kind of slaves. If it's a fantasy world with elves or beastmen slaves, I'd stop it and get help from the elven and beastmen kingdoms for it. If it's enslaving clans/people you defeated, it's still better than killing them off, so I would keep slavery but try to make the conditions better. Do something like after 2 generations they become citizens. If slavery is serfs like in middle-age France, I wouldn't be able to stop it. If it's like ancient China, with a letter of life debt, I guess I could change the law to some degree to make it better.
That depends on the settings. Does this slavery system come with magic collars or similar magic that make them completely obedient to the owner? If so, then I definitely would NOT abolish it. I'll improve it instead. "Did you rape her?" "No... ARGHHHHHHH... I DID, I DID!" Easy interrogation/investigation method. "Why are you a slave?" "I was a free elf until I was caught by this slave trader" Easy way to find out if someone was unfairly turned into a slave. Then, I can easily return them as a free man and the foreign slave trader mentioned, along with his workers, will be turned into a lifetime slave instead. "Why did you leave country XXX?" "There's war so I escaped with my family" "Have any of you done any crime?" "No... ARGHHH... Yes" "State your crimes" "I steal food while we're on the run because we are hungry but we have no money to buy anything" "Is that all?" "Yes" "Okay, we will accept you as temporary slaves for a minimum of 2 years. If there is no problem, you will be given permanent status as our citizen. Do you accept this?" "Yes" Easy way to filter mass immigration. Easy way to accept mass immigration without annoying current residents too much. Easy way to force immigrants to study the local language, culture, and law to reduce disharmony among the inhabitants. Part of the improvement that can be made to the system: There will be no local slave trader as all the slaves will be put under the ownership of the ruler. Everyone else can only rent them. This is to protect them from unacceptable levels of abuse. Since slaves cannot lie to their owners and must execute instructions given by the owner exactly to a T, they also make the perfect tool/person to collect rent, tax, do audits, etc. No one can bribe them nor force them to do something against the owner's instruction.
Yes I would, but not right away. I would first find a legitimate way to do it. While it could be a war or just because it’s the best choice out of all the rest. Something like that and convince everyone this is best for everyone. Lol