Slavery in Zahava

Slavery in Zhava has existed since the first Iapetian peoples arrived on the Isles of Cretacia, and Deimos. Many of the ships used by the Iapetian peoples were powered by galley slaves. Additionally upon completion of their conquests over the Zokhian civilization saw many of the Zokhian peoples enslaved. Slaves and the Institution of slavery would remain important aspects of Zahavan society and the economy for centuries. Besides manual labor, slaves performed many domestic services, and might be employed at highly skilled jobs and professions. While unskilled uneducated slaves or those sentenced to slavery as a form of punishment would preform worked on farms, in mines, and at mills.

Under Zahavan law slaves were considered property, and thus had no rights normal citizens or even non citizens would have. Slaves could be subjected to corporal punishment by their masters, used for sexual exploitation, torture and summary execution. Over time Slaves would gradually gain legal protections and rights.

Throughout its history the main source of slaves in Zahava would come from the populations of conquered enemies, with other sources being lower class citizens and non citizens selling their children to wealthy individuals during times of hardship. A secondary source of slaves were those persons convicted of crimes, where at the time, it was considered an act of mercy for the offender to be condemned to slavery rather than be executed.

Slavery in Zahava did not rely on race, with slaves being bought and sold from all over the continent of Avalonia, and later abroad. Some races were especially prized for certain tasks due to their culture generally being more educated, or considered to be better physical specimens.

Origins
From the earliest known recorded evidence in Zahava to the Antiquity Avalonian cultures like the Zokhians, comprised a mixture of debt-slavery, slavery as a punishment for crime, and the enslavement of prisoners of war. There is also evidence the Iapetian sea peoples already had an established system of slavery themselves upon their arrival to Avalonia, some of the surviving Iapetian texts mention Natuik servitors, or naval slaves used to assist in powering their ships during times when the winds were insufficient.

Slavery and warfare
Many slaves for the Zahavan market were acquired through warfare. Many captives were either brought back as war booty or sold to traders, and ancient sources cite anywhere from hundreds to tens of thousands of such slaves captured in each conflict. Piracy, while outlawed was another common source of slaves for the Zahavan slave markets, with pirates paying off local officials to secure their sale on the mainland.

In later yeas, particularly when the demand for slaves was high among Artemia colonists Zahavan slavers again illegally would raid neighboring settlements and kidnap the inhabitants to then sell abroad, in other instances slavers would pay neighboring tribes to enslave their own people, paying them a fraction of the price their countrymen were worth and avoiding legal ramifications.

Trade and economy
As the borders of the Imperium expanded the wealth of the Zahavan elite increased rapidly, with agricultural production and land investment generating the most wealth in Zahava. The influx of wealth, and slaves had an effect similar to widespread and rapid technological innovations with crop yields and manufacturing output increasing dramatically. Slave markets could be found in almost every town across the Imperium, with traveling slaver companies taking slaves to rural areas, or abroad to sell in foreign markets.

The slave trade was a major boon for the Imperial Treasury as well, Primogenitor Reighden as part of his Imperial reforms, standardized the slave trade, setting limits on how many slaves could be freed a year, and how many per household and at what ages a slave could be freed. Additionally he implemented a 2% tax on the sale of all slaves, generating some 6.5 million Drachma per annum and equating to 275,000 sales yearly. This percentage was later increased to 4%, and then when trade with the arriving colonials from Artemia arrived this amount was increased to 7.5%.

Demography
Throughout all periods when Slavery was a legal practice in the Imperium slaves, on average, constituted thirty-five to forty percent of the entire population of the Empire. Almost fifty percent of all slaves were owned by the social elite, representing only one and a half percent of the population. About half of all slaves worked in the countryside where they were a small percentage of the population except on some large agricultural, especially imperial, estates. In towns and other more urban centers slaves accounted for roughly a quarter or more of the population as domestics and workers in commercial enterprises and manufacturers.

Zahavan slavery was not based on ideas of race and slaves came from all corners of the empire, and the continent of Avalonia. The slaves foreigners from outside the Imperium had higher mortality rates and lower birth rates than natives, and were sometimes even subjected to mass expulsions. In Arcanium the life expectancy of a slave was incredibly low, with an avg life expectancy of 17 years for males and 18 years for females. By comparison the life expectancy of the average citizen was in the mid thirties.

The overall impact of slave importation on Zahavan genetics has been demonstrated to be low, this is due to the fact that many slaves came from Avalonian continent itself, which Zahavans had been mixing with the indigenous peoples there for centuries already.

Auctions and sales
New slaves were primarily acquired by wholesale dealers who followed the Zahavan armies, or by commanders themselves who hired dealers to transport them. Many people who bought slaves wanted strong slaves, mostly men. Typically child slaves cost less than adults, while women were somewhere in between. Sometimes, especially in the case of rebellious populations or those who sided with the wrong side in a civil war entire populations or armies would be sold into slavery. Famously the Primarch Euramedes sold half the entire Zapidis Tetrarium into slavery following a period of five years of insurrection some 46,000 people were sold to slave dealers on the spot.

Typically Slaves were sold in specially designated markets, via public auction, or sometimes in shops, or by private sale in the case of more valuable slaves. Slave dealing was overseen by the Zahavan fiscal officials called Atrapoi

Sometimes slaves stood on revolving stands, and around each slave for sale hung a type of plaque describing his or her origin, health, character, intelligence, education, and other information pertinent to purchasers. Prices varied with age and quality, with the most valuable slaves fetching high prices. To ensure sellers were being honest and fair in their assessments and descriptions, slaves were presented naked. The dealer was required to take a slave back within six months if the slave had defects that were not manifest at the sale, or make good the buyer's loss. Slaves to be sold with no guarantee were made to wear a bright yellow or red cap at the auction.

Types of work
Slaves worked in a wide range of occupations that can be roughly divided into five categories: household or domestic, imperial or public, urban crafts and services, agriculture, and mining. A household slave might hold any number of jobs based on their physical condition and levels of education including barber, butler, cook, hairdresser, handmaid wash their master's clothes, wet nurse or nursery attendant, teacher, secretary, seamstress, accountant, and physician. The living conditions of slaves attached to a villa home in the countryside, while inferior to those of the free persons they lived with, were sometimes superior to that of many free urban poor in the cities. Household slaves likely enjoyed the highest standard of living among Zahavan slaves, next to publicly owned slaves, who were not subject to the whims of a single master. Imperial slaves were those attached to the emperor's household enjoyed many luxuries even most citizens would not have.

In urban workplaces, the occupations of slaves included fullers, engravers, shoemakers, bakers, mule drivers, and prostitutes. Farm slaves probably lived in more healthful conditions and in both instances slaves would be under the authority and direction of a Castigator, whom was often a slave themselves.

Slaves numbering in the tens of thousands were condemned to work in the mines or quarries, where conditions were notoriously brutal. Typically slaves condemned to work in the mines were were convicts who lost their freedom as citizens, forfeited their property to the state, and became slaves as a legal penalty, or were already slaves whom had committed crimes, or were deemed too undisciplined for other work. Slaves condemned to the mines had different status under the law; they could not buy their freedom, be sold, or be set free. They were expected to live and die in the mines

Imperialis Servitor
An Imperialis Servitor or Public Servant was a slave owned by the state, not an individual or private enterprise. Imperialis Servitors worked in the Temples and and other public buildings throughout the Imperium. Most performed general, basic tasks as servants to the temple priests or priestesses, magistrates, and other officials. Well educated and qualified Imperialis Servitors did skilled office work such as accounting and secretarial services. They were permitted to earn money for their personal use. Because they had an opportunity to prove their merit, they could acquire a reputation and influence, and were sometimes deemed eligible for. A public slave could be freed by a magistrate's declaration or have their liberty granted by the emperor or provincial government. In smaller municipalities, or in the case of those attached to a military retinue public slaves could be freed by the municipal council, magistrates, or by the commanding officer of a Legion.

Treatment and legal status
Early on in the Empire the slave was viewed merely as property. They had no personality, did not own their own body; had no ancestors, no name, no goods of their own. The testimony of a slave could not be accepted in a court of law unless the slave was tortured—a practice based on the belief that slaves in a position to be privy to their masters' affairs would be too virtuously loyal to reveal damaging evidence unless coerced.

As time passed slaves were granted more rights and protections, this was largely due in part to the Pantheonist faction among the elite, Pantheonists being those who held the egalitarian view that all men, even slaves were created by the gods and thus equal to a citizen in the eyes of the divine.

Zahavan slaves enjoyed some benefits slaves in other cultures did not. Once a slave was freed, he was permitted to vote in any elections a citizen would be eligible to vote in. Freedmen were however prohibited from holding public or religious offices, although many freedmen would go on to hold other influential bureaucratic posts, particularly in the frontier provinces. Additionally any children a freedmen had would also be considered free, as well as being eligible to vote and hold office.

Some slaves, such as those who were made Castigators, or other important positions could earn their own money, and even buy property. While legally the property would belong to the slaves master, they were free to manage their holdings as if it were their own. Additionally slaves may hope to accumulate enough money to buy their own freedom, or more commonly buy the freedom of another slave typically a spouse or child. Those slaves whom were educated, skillful and loyal enough may earn their freedom either by purchasing it outright, or as a stipulation of their masters will upon their death. Conversely masters had the option of ensuring slaves only made enough money to buy their freedom, and then would use the funds to buy a new younger more physically fit slave, while the older freedmen would now have to rely on charity to survive.

Those slaves whom committed a crime or other offense and were convicted would be branded with an x on the top of both their hands, these slaves would then typically be sent to the mines or quarries, or the navy for work on a galley. Runaways were typically branded with a single x upon one hand, or an r, on the second escape attempt they would recieve an x and be treated the same as a slave who had committed a crime. Any slave whom was twice branded for escapes, or bore two x's atop their hands and then escaped would face immediate execution via crucifixion or hanging upon capture.

Slaves would continue to gain further rights and protections, with Emperor Eteokles decreeing any slave abandoned by their master was to be considered free. Emperor Reighden gave slaves the right to file grievances against their masters in court, and Hikesias decreed that any master who killed a slave without just cause would be guilty of homicide.

As most slaves were Avalonian and would fairly easily fit into the general populace if they escaped it was common practice for slave owners to tattoo a message onto their slaves, either declaring the person was a run away, or simply stating the tax on a slave had been paid. When a slave was freed these messages would be covered over, or the word freedom on their arm. The tattoos were typically placed on the forehead and as a result many slaves, once made freedmen would wear headbands to cover up their disfiguring tattoos.

With slaves making up a large portion of the population, the threat of slave rebellions was real, and did occur multiple times throughout Zahavan history. In efforts to prevent this from happening several Imperial decrees limited the number of slaves a household could have on a single estate, the number of slaves one could free in a year, set minimum age limits for freeing slaves and the number of children a slave could have.