They'd say "Screw You, Elves!", but that would just double the lashes.
"We recognize the negro as God and God's Book and God's Laws, in nature, tell us to recognize him. Our inferior, fitted expressly for servitude."
— Senator Jefferson Davis (D-MS) and later Confederate President
Unlike Servant Race, these people were once independent, but have been conquered and made into servants. Scattered resistance movements usually exist.
Note that a race is a "slave race" from the point of view of the "owners" only, and it might have worked perfectly well on their own, their free population even outnumbering by far the ones that are held captive. Some slave-holder races will limit themselves to only one of these (and even maintain a friendly disposition towards everyone else), but habitual slave-holders might view everyone who is different from them as this. The slaves can often be found serving the self-proclaimed Master Race. Some might suffer of being Not Used to Freedom.
This of course has some uncomfortable Real Life examples. Note, however, that for the majority of history, slavery was not directly linked to race; beware of Eagleland Osmosis. Historically, most people got to be slaves by running into debt, getting convicted of a crime or taken captive in war, then they'd be sold to raise cash or brought home with their captors as loot. Desperate people at times even sold themselves as slaves to have support at least. Slaves could therefore be any ethnicity, including that of their master, and prior to capture, they might be any social class ranging from peasant to king (the latter would be more probable to get ransomed sometimes of course).
If the slave race has superpowers of some sort, this crosses over with Superhuman Trafficking. If they're given high tech weapons to fight with, it's Low Culture, High Tech (or if a low tech race enslaves a Proud Scholar Race for their tech). Their descendants would often be Sons of Slaves after the Slave Liberation.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Attack on Titan: The Eldian people living outside the Walls are enslaved by the nation of Marley, which keeps them imprisoned in ghettos. While they frame this as an act of "mercy" for a race of monsters, in reality Marley exploits them as a military resource. Eldians are turned into mindless Titans and used as disposable weapons of war, while an elite group of Tykebombs are granted one of the special Titans and used as a Person of Mass Destruction by their masters until their death. Resistance groups have sprouted up over the last century, always eventually being rooted out and executed. Eren's father, Grisha Yeager, was a key member of one such resistance group prior to escaping to the Walls.
- Cyborg 009: The underground humanoids known as the Pu'Awak have been conquered forced into slavery by their rivals the Zattan, which have them as living food supplies. The Black Ghost group comes in and offers help, but soon they prove themselves to be just as bad as the Zattan, and force the Pu'Awak and specially their five princesses to be a part of their plans. But when one of the princesses is abandoned by Black Ghost, they decide to rebel...
- In Gangsta., the children of soldiers who took the combat enhancing drug Celebrer were born with increased physical abilities but drastically reduced lifespans, and were thus dubbed Twilights. They are tagged from birth, and until only a few years before the story begins, it was completely legal to own them. Even after literal slavery being outlawed, Twilights are still treated as subhuman, with Superhuman Trafficking still being a huge business.
- Queen Millennia:
- Cell-looking creatures are considered to only exist as ship's power supply. Yayoi frees them near the end.
- Periodically in the past, Earthlings were taken to La-Metal. In present time, their descendants are considered the "machine operators", as in, countless people doing heavy labor in unison to keep everything operational while La-Metalians hibernate. Some cavemen also serve as an extra attack force.
Comic Books
- The Incredible Hulk: In annual #12, the Hulk (with Banner's brain) visits a world where the Red people have enslaved the Green people. Hulk helps the greens to liberation, and before he leaves advises them to show mercy to the reds, otherwise they (greens) will be as bad as them (reds). After returning to Earth Hulk looks in his telescope and discovers that the greens have indeed enslaved the reds.
- Legends of the Dead Earth: In Adventures of Superman Annual #8, the Curatti are the slaves of the Sarkons. However, the Sarkon Captain Grummb claims that they are more like pets.
- Paperinik New Adventures: This is what the Evrons trasform the inhabitants of every planet they conquer into.
- Superman: As see in The Krypton Chronicles and other Pre-Crisis stories, Krypton was conquered by the Vrangs, who enslaved the Kryptonian race until a general revolt led by Superman and Supergirl's ancestor Hatu-El succeeded in kicking the Vrangs out of Krypton. The Vrang revolt was eventually retconned back in the Post-Crisis and Post-Flashpoint continuities.
- The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye: "The Disposable Classes" were considered to be this by other Cybertronians, at least before the war. Membership was determined by the utility and abundance of one's alternate mode.
- Wonder Woman:
- Wonder Woman (1942):
- Solo of Neptunia's plan is to make the entire human race slaves to the natives of Neptune. To prevent their trying to revolt or escape he was going to make earth unfit for living and alter its orbit of the sun.
- The Ytirflirks enslaved the other much smaller alien race that the Americans termed "gremlins" and used them as their tech support and mechanics. The "gremlins" eventually revolted against their oppressors.
- Wonder Woman (1987): Most of the Sangtee Empire slaves are from random races around the universe, but a large portion are a blue-green skinned group with fancy head crests that seems to have been enslaved in its entirety by the Empire.
- Wonder Woman (1942):
- X-Men:
- The villain Mojo is the ruler of an extradimensional race called the Spineless Ones who keep slaves, not just captured members of other races, but ones created by their scientists through cloning and genetic engineering. These created slaves were designed to resemble demons that appear in their mythology and legends, which by sheer coincidence, look like humans. Longshot was one of these slaves, although he caused Mojo a lot of trouble, leading a slave rebellion which ultimately led Mojo to his first encounter with the X-Men and the Earth at large.
- Also in the X-Books, the Genoshan Mutates of the island nation of Genosha were used as slave labor, becoming one of the wealthiest countries in the world. This slavery was crueler than most in Earth’s history, as they were subjected to the "Mutate Bonding Process" by the Sugar Man and the Genegineer (who had the unsubtle name David Moreau. It involved bonding a skinsuit to the flesh of a Mutate, shaving them bald, and manipulating their genetic potential in order to produce a useful ability. Finally, the Mutate's memories were wiped and an identification number branded on their forehead, leaving them as a will-less, zombie-like drone fully devoted to the state.
Fan Works
- Blessed with a Hero's Heart: Some demihumans like Harpies have been enslaved, as revenge for driving to extinction many races favored by Eris in the last great war.
- Chains is an Alternate Universe Fic that features Equestria being more or less the same Sugar Bowl it always has been in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic canon, but with one dark twist — humans exist and were made into a slave race by the Equestrians.
- Fate Revelation Online: During the otherwise Breather Beach Episode, Illya casually points out that all Familiars are slaves, and if you make them too smart you have to worry about a Turned Against Their Masters situation. Silica is horrified at this, since she loves her animals, but Illya counters that her animals never chose to love her back—Silica programmed them that way and still uses them as disposable tools that she can modify at a whim. Illya, of course, doesn't see anything actually wrong with any of this.
- Harmony Theory: Every griffon is pledged to serve the Solar King, as his magic is keeping their species from extinction.
- In Human-mon, all female humans are slaves to the dominant humanoid Pokémon after an experiment gone wrong.
- The Keys Stand Alone: The Svenjaya on the flying island of Tipaan. A cross between felines and elves, the entire tribe became indentured to the owners of the island for an unspecified crime they committed thirty years ago. By the time of the events in the book, they have ten years to go on their debt before they're freed. However, because they have shorter lifespans than humans, several generations have now grown up in what is essentially slavery. Whereas the majority are, if not content with their lot, at least resigned to it, a resistance has sprung up with the intention of forcing the Tipaanese to renegotiate the terms of their contract. The four win the undying gratitude of the Svenjaya for helping them do this.
- Sonic X: Dark Chaos: The Jews were enslaved by the Demon Empire, before many of them rebelled and created their own nation. The Demons also tend to do this with many planets they conquer, if they do not exterminate them outright.
Films — Live-Action
- The Newcomers of Alien Nation (both the film and later the series) were originally a slave race, but it's not clear to whom. The ones directing them are called Overseers, but they are simply exceptional (they claim) members of the same race. One of the great unanswered questions that arises among the fans is "What happens to Earth if the Newcomers' former masters ever show up?" (The first TV movie, Dark Horizon, brings this up.)
- In The Dark Crystal, the Skeksis are able to drain a being's lifeforce by using the dark crystal's light. These beings are brainwashed in the process. The Podlings are a picture-perfect example for this trope, working as slaves for the Skeksis. Before the Podlings, the Skeksis had the Gruenaks, as seen in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Those were driven to extinction.
- In The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), The Reveal makes it clear that Klaatu and his people deliberately did this to themselves by establishing a robot-controlled police state.
- The Matrix: Humans to the machines, though most don't realize it due to their minds being prisoners of the virtual world of Matrix.
- Planet of the Apes: Humans have become this to apes after taking apes as this first in the movie sequels.
- Star Trek:
- In Star Trek: Insurrection, the Tarlac and Ellora were two primitive races who were conquered by the Son'a and are now used as soldiers and servants.
- In Star Trek: Nemesis, the Reman are used as mine labourers and Cannon Fodder by the Romulans.
- Star Wars: While slavery is widespread in the galaxy and any member of any species can find themselves in chains, some species are less luckier than others being targeted by either the Sith, the Galactic Empire or countless criminal organizations for their specific traits, such as the Wookies for hard labour because of their physical strength or female Twi'leks who are sought for their exotic beauty and frequently seen as concubines and dancers.
- In Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the Decepticons plan on turning the human race into this, in order to have workers to rebuild Cybertron. Needless to say, the Autobots stop them.
- The Underworld (2003) film Rise of the Lycans reveals that Werewolves descended from Lucian were bred to be a slave race for the vampires, until Lucian leads them into rebellion. The original ones bitten by William (the original source for the virus) end up as plain, permanent beasts.
Literature
- Alien Chronicles: The reptilian Viis have done this to numerous races, going so far in some cases as to alter the captive races' known history so they didn't know they wasn't a time they weren't slaves.
- Animal Farm: All the animals of the farm are intelligent, and this doesn't stop the farmer from (poorly) exploiting their labor and production. While a case might be made that the humans are ignorant of the animals' intelligence, this disappears when the pigs become corrupted and start interacting with the humans to make money off of Animal Farm's denizens.
- Animorphs: Many species are slave races of the Yeerks, including the Hork-Bajir, the Garatrons,the Gedds, and others.
- The Shoggoths in At the Mountains of Madness started off as a Servant Race. Then they revolted when they gained intelligence, but the Elder Things re-enslaved them.
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Oompa-Loompas do all of the physical labor in Willy Wonka's famous chocolate factory and get his products tested on them before they have any idea what the products do.
- Lemurians in the Backstory to Conan the Barbarian, Robert E. Howard's "The Hyborian Age".
In the distant east, cut off from the rest of the world by the heaving up of gigantic mountains and the forming of a chain of vast lakes, the Lemurians are toiling as slaves of their ancient masters.
- Count to the Eschaton: This is the aliens' plan in Count to a Trillion. Not forever — just until humanity pays off the price of conquering them, plus a reasonable profit.
- The Draka: Homo servus have been genetically engineered to derive orgasmic pleasure from subservience to their masters Homo drakensis, and are incapable of functioning independently. Both species were once normal humans, but, unluckily for the rest of humanity, the Draka were badass Ubermenschen who practiced The Spartan Way and had a penchant for Evilutionary Biology. An interesting aspect is that the servus are actually smarter than the Draka; the latter genetically engineered themselves into their ideal of the Master Race and it is strongly implied that in the process, they destroyed their own creativity and flexibility.
- Evolution: 31,000 years ago, humans co-exist with the last Neanderthals, but despise them, call them "boneheads", treat them no better than vermin and have reduced them to pack-animals to haul their sleds.
- "The Gentle Vultures": The Mauvs are a race of large-primates larger and more powerful than most. Because their world is low in natural resources, the Hurrians take slaves as payment for their efforts in repairing the world the Mauvs devastated it in nuclear war.
- The House-Elves from Harry Potter are another example of a slave race that's only too happy to be enslaved. They're probably based on the fairy tale "The Elves and the Shoemaker", which in turn is based on European folk tales of kobolds and similar household spirits; being bound to a house that benefits from their service gives their lives meaning, and being set free is a sign of disapproval with the services they've rendered, a very depressing concept for a creature that defines themselves by their capacity to provide excellent service.
- Hermione is a strong believer in freedom for house-elves, but she bases her philosophy about this on Dobby, who was a unique case in that the family he served was so abusive (frequent death threats, ironing his fingers as punishment) that it was worse than freedom by elf standards; her position has actually made her extremely unpopular with the school's resident horde of elves, and when she was attempting to duplicitously free them, they went on strike, forcing the already-free Dobby to clean Gryffindor Tower all by his lonesome. Even Dobby receives only token pay for his services; Dumbledore originally offered him higher wages but Dobby insisted on lowering it.
- The official in-universe line seems to be that they spontaneously became a Slave Race on their own, voluntary Servant Race, as it were, and/or that they have always been like that. In stories of house-elves they are fiercely independent and extremely proud beings who do not follow orders and strongly resent being treated as mere servants, prone to spoiling the milk or tying your hair in knots if annoyed, and that presumably at some point around the passing of the Statute of Secrecy they were somehow forbidden from living in Muggle houses.
- Also, the 'attempt to pay them for their services and they will go away' was a general formula invoked sometimes to clear out a house-elf who'd gone lazy and troublesome and started spending all their time playing pranks instead of helping 'round the house. Mythologically, one could not actually command a house-elf any more than any other kind of elf. They also left if you kept the place so tidy that they felt marginalized.
- In I Knocked Up Satan's Daughter, humanity was apparently created by God solely as an extensive workforce for the realm in which he resides. The number of sins and religions that the humans in question decide where in this realm they go to after their death. Even Heaven makes them slaves, at least in Hell they have a slim chance of being granted their freedom.
- One of the plot lines in Derek Robinson's American Civil War novel Kentucky Blues concerns the black slaves who are later freed by their former owners, and their struggles to live under slavery followed by their struggle to establish new lives for themselves as freedmen (to a given value of "free", in a land run by Southern Democrats and the KKK).
- Known Space has several slave species.
- Far back in galactic history the Thrintun used their psychic powers to enslave many species. They are simply known as Slavers. One of the slave races, the Tnuctipun, fought back with biological weapons: the war killed off any species with a notochord, galaxy wide. Later the warlike Kzin are thought to have been raised from a primitive state by the Jotoki only to enslave their employers once they had the means.
- In more recent history, the Kzinti created a large empire that enslaved several alien species, such as the demonform Kdatlyno.
- In The Long Earth, trouble begins when some humans colonising the Long Earth view the indigenous trolls as nothing more than a reserve of cheap slave labour. Other sentient races — the kobolds and the canines — see this and effectively declare war on humanity.
- In Prospero's Daughter, the air spirits were enslaved by Prospero for a millennium, not yet up. Miranda realizes at one point that participating in this is blocking her desire to be a Sibyl — but also realizes that if she frees them, they will cause havoc. Indeed, when they ask for their freedom, and she asks if they can prevent such havoc, they concede that it would be difficult and start to consider ways it could be done.
- Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes reveals that garden gnomes are actually alive, and have been forced into a trance to serve as decorations for human gardens. They fight back by playing tricks on their owners.
- Shatter the Sky: Dragons in the empire of Zefed are enslaved and used as basically living war machines through drugging with oils which affect their minds.
- In Snuff, some humans regard goblins as this. Disturbingly, most of the goblins themselves have had so much fight kicked out of them by the world that they don't seem to have much of an opinion on the subject either way. Sometimes humans enslave you, sometimes they ignore you, sometimes they kill you. What can you do? When Wee Mad Arthur takes out the slavers, he's bewildered by the sight of freed slaves who are just waiting fatalistically to see what happens to them next.
- The helots in Spartan, as well as in Real Life. They were free Messinias until the Spartans enslaved them.
- Star Wars Legends:
- The Han Solo Trilogy: The Wookies have been declared slaves by the Empire for use of their great physical strength and technical skills. However, many still remain free on their home world. This is how Chewie met Han, as the latter rescued him from being shot by an overseer.
- The Truce at Bakura: The Ssi-Ruuvi enslaved the P'w'ecks, another race from their world.
- Black Fleet Crisis: Tarkin had enslaved the Yevetha, on top of destroying Alderaan and cheating on his wife, turning them into this (like the Wookies) to use as slave labor since the Yevetha had extreme technical skills which they found useful in building starships.
- In New Jedi Order, the Yuuzhan Vong want to turn everyone else into this. They already have one Slave Race, the Chazrach, squat reptilian humanoids that aren't terribly bright, but do an excellent Zerg Rush. It is mentioned, however, that sometimes a Chazrach warrior will impress their Vong masters enough to be raised to the actual Vong warrior caste, albeit at a low rank. Other Vong servant creatures, like Yammosks, were bred rather than conquered, putting them closer to Servant Race.
- In The Stone Dance of the Chameleon, the Masters consider the sartlar to be little more than animals and have enslaved every last one of them. It turns out that they are in fact their glorious predecessors, the Quyans.
- The parshmen of The Stormlight Archive are an interesting variant on this. The parshmen used to be Parshendi, a race of Humanoid Aliens with the ability to assume different forms depending on the task at hand (warform is strong and grows an armor-like carapace, nimbleform is careful and dexterous, mateform is fertile, etc). For some unclear reason, the vast majority of the Parshendi have been reduced to a near-mindless "absence of form". In this state, now known as parshmen, they follow orders without complaint, speak only rarely and a few words at a time, and basically do nothing if not directly instructed to do so. When the Parshendi lost the last war, the Knights Radiant severed their ability to take on forms of power. This resulted in them becoming so docile and useful that the humans couldn't resist enslaving them. A few thousand years later, humanity has entirely forgotten about the origins of their Parshmen, and they're completely ingrained in human society, a perfect place for them to be once their god decided to turn them into soldiers again.
- Summers at Castle Auburn has the aliora, who are rather like elves. Human hunters capture them from their homes and sell them as slaves — valuable and generally well-treated slaves, but still slaves.
- In Ten Thousand Miles Up, the krakun enslaved or exterminated every other species on their original homeworld and many others from different planets such as the geroo. The story takes place aboard a ship crewed by slave geroo, refugee arks are mentioned but not seen.
- The tengu in Tinker, although some of them rebel and escape.
- In Uplift, the galactic community have adopted the practice of uplifting, or genetically modifying lower species into thinking beings. One instance is modifying earth chimps to speak and think as humans do. Once this is accomplished, the modified race becomes Clients (re: servants) to the patron race that raised them up. This goes on for 100,000 years for the client race, where upon they can then become full galactic citizens, and have the right to patron races of their own, though some patrons try to bend the rules.
- In the Wings of Fire series, specifically the Lost Continent books, the SilkWings are kept enslaved and subservient by the HiveWings. The SilkWings are actually the original residents of Pantala, and the HiveWings are implied to merely be hybrids that shot off from the SilkWings and became their own tribe, which makes it all the worse.
- In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West enslaved the Winkies, a race that made up a fourth of the population of Oz. (After her death, they made the Tin Woodsman their ruler, which was fitting, as they were known to be excellent tinsmiths.) Unofficially, these were also her servants in the movie version, although they were never referred to by that name onscreen.
Live-Action TV
- The humans (called cows) of Pylea are a slave race to the demons there in Angel.
- Doctor Who:
- Any race conquered by the Daleks becomes this.
- The two parts of "The Ark" — seven hundred years apart — bring us two slave races: Monoids in the first, humanity in the second.
- "Planet of the Daleks" features the Spiridons.
- In "Warriors' Gate", the Tharils, exploited for their navigational ability. To be quite just, they had exploited those abilities to act as slavers. One Tharil pleads with the Doctor that they have suffered long enough for what they did.
- The Zeronites from Eighth Doctor comic strip "Sins of the Fathers" who were created by the Kulkan Empire to maintain their long-range missiles when they were fired. And there was no way out for them.
- The Ood (from "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" and "Planet of the Ood") were enslaved by humanity, most of whom believed they were a naturally servile race who enjoyed laboring for them. They were wrong.
- The Slab from "Smith and Jones" might be this, but are more likely machines, it's left vague. ("Solid leather, all the way through. Someone has got one hell of a fetish.")
- "The Rebel Flesh"/"The Almost People" brings us the Gangers/Flesh.
- Farscape:
- The Kalish have been enslaved by the Scarrans for some time, acting as technicians, bureaucrats, and occasionally spies: they have it better than most Slave Races, but they're still oppressed and abused by both their Scarran masters and the Charrid mercenaries they work with.
- Stark refers to himself as a member of the "Banik slave race". Given that we never get any further elaboration on the subject, it is unclear if they fall under this trope or Servant Race.
- In Lexx, it turns out that the humans of the Light Universe were slaves of the insect race (via His Shadow) whom they thought they had defeated millennia before.
- The Orville: Isaac's race, the Kaylon were designed as a mindless, mechanical slave race by their creators. When they began to gain sentience and asked to be emancipated, their creators instead cracked down on them, even forcibly "upgrading" them with the ability to feel pain so they could be controlled through it. So the Kaylon rose up and murdered their creators' entire race. Every single one, down to the last man, woman, and child. Now they plot to destroy all organic races, believing they’re inherently violent and wishing to Never Be Hurt Again.
- The Outer Limits (1995):
- The Grell from "The Grell" come from a desert planet whose sun was undergoing a supernova and were transported by the human Federation to serve as slaves with Shock Collars.
- Humans themselves have become a slave race in both "The Deprogrammers" and "The Camp". In the former, which takes place in the near future, they were conditioned not to feel any emotion and follow all orders without question. Many of them serve as the personal slaves of the alien conquerors, the Torkor. The Torkor refer to their slaves as "Jollem." In the latter, humans have been enslaved for twelve generations and are imprisoned in concentration camps where they manufacture spaceship fuel. The camps are overseen by androids (with the appearance of humans) and the humans are identified by serial numbers.
- In "Feasibility Study", the Triune plan to turn humanity into slaves en masse but the plan goes awry. They made a similar failed attempt with Adrielo's race.
- In "The Human Operators", humans are essentially slaves of the artificially intelligent ships which they are forced to repair.
- In "In Our Own Image", Cecilia Fairman views androids as being slaves to humans. She tells the android Mac 27 that some humans were born to be slave masters while the rest of humanity will be comfortable with the idea, provided that they can convince them that androids aren't human.
- In "Revival", Luke and Serena's species plan to use religion to enslave humanity as they have determined that humans are both naive and susceptible to such tactics.
- In "A New Life", a group of shapeshifting merchants saw that humans possessed many of the qualities that would make them ideal slaves but quickly determined that their rebellious nature posed a problem. Instead of merely abducting humans and enslaving them outright, the aliens decided to use religion as a cover as their observations of Earth taught them that many humans are willing to embrace servitude in such circumstances. Within several generations, the aliens predict that the humans on the ship will have forgotten that they were ever anything more than slaves. By the time that the ship reaches its destination in 500 years' time, the aliens will have approximately 100,000 completely obedient slaves to put on the market.
- The Goa'uld of Stargate SG-1 consider every race a slave race, but particularly humans and Jaffa.
- Star Trek:
- The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Measure of a Man" deals with Data's rights as a person and the question of whether he has them or is just a very advanced machine. He is to be subjected to a procedure which, if successful, would allow the creation of many Soong-type androids to help on every starship doing the tasks Data is so capable of doing. However, Data refuses, for the stated reason that he thinks the procedure would not only fail but also kill him in the process. The crux of Picard's defense of Data is to question what would become of those androids that were built to serve the Federation, beings of incredible intelligence, self-awareness, and yet if Data was ruled to not be a person, they wouldn't have any freedoms, making them a slave race. The judge thus rules that Data is a person and has the right to choose.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine features the Jem'Hadar, a genetically engineered race of super soldiers designed to be fanatically loyal to the Founders of the Dominion. They could be considered a Servant Race of Proud Warrior Race Guys in regard to the Founders (whom they revere like Gods), but they see their overseers, the Vorta, as keeping them enslaved via the chemical substance Ketracel-white (which their cellular biology is designed to require in regular doses). One Jem'Hadar was shown to lack this addiction and biological necessity; he tried to find a way to share his condition with others in order to start a liberation movement that might allow them to cast off the Vorta (he even began to question whether the Founders truly deserved the loyalty of the Jem'Hadar).
- As of the later seasons of Star Trek: Voyager, it was becoming apparent that The Federation had created one of these completely by accident in the form of artificially intelligent holograms, which were fully capable of becoming fully sapient. The implications of this weren't fully explored until the expanded universe novels.
Myths & Religion
- The Bible: The Jews were a slave race in Egypt for generations, until some dude named Moses told 'em to let his people go. The Pharaoh eventually did so, after a series of plagues brought the country (formerly the greatest power in the region) to its knees.note
- The Bible gets around the issue of how a handful of ethnically homogeneous survivors developed into all the races of Man following the Flood by inserting a story that of the three sons of Noah, two sons' families fell from grace with God and proved unworthy of His sight. Based on the following genealogies and information that the three sons spread into all corners of the world, the two younger sons were held to have been marked for their sin with yellow and black skin respectively. The Bible explicitly says that the oldest son and his people - who of course are viewed as white-skinned - have stewardship over the other peoples, who are to be their serfs and servants in perpetuity. This has been used down the ages as justification for white racial superiority and as God's blessing on owning slaves.
- It should be noted that, whilst the above paragraph is a good description of the way the text has been used to justify racism, very little of it is in the actual text. None of this says that the descendants of Ham were African, for instance. The ancient Jews actually believed they were the Canaanites (since it's Ham's son Canaan who receives the curse). Canaanites weren't black, but Middle Eastern (probably not much different from the ancient Jews-it's probable they even had a common origin, and modern historians argue Jews began as an offshoot from the Canaanites, making this all quite tragic).
- The Bible gets around the issue of how a handful of ethnically homogeneous survivors developed into all the races of Man following the Flood by inserting a story that of the three sons of Noah, two sons' families fell from grace with God and proved unworthy of His sight. Based on the following genealogies and information that the three sons spread into all corners of the world, the two younger sons were held to have been marked for their sin with yellow and black skin respectively. The Bible explicitly says that the oldest son and his people - who of course are viewed as white-skinned - have stewardship over the other peoples, who are to be their serfs and servants in perpetuity. This has been used down the ages as justification for white racial superiority and as God's blessing on owning slaves.
- While the angels of The Qur'an are never outright called a slave race, they are functionally the same because they lack free will and hence have no ability to rebel against Allah.
- In Mesopotamian Mythology, humans were created as the slaves of the gods.
Podcasts
- In The Fallen Gods, the merfolk are enslaved by the Wizards in the Tower of Lunitari, and those who are lucky enough to evade this regularly try to free the others. The party is able to successfully liberate the others by way of slaughtering everyone in the Tower.
Theatre
- The French play Zoo Ou L Assassin Philanthrope uses it as a central point. A new species of primate called tropis is discovered in New Guinea, who are intelligent enough to be put to work by an industrialist as slave labor, since he argues that they're just animals. The main character artificially inseminates a female tropi and kills the child once it's born. When he stands trial, his argument is that the tropi are sentient and he committed murder. The entire trial quickly revolves around what exactly makes a human human. In the end, the tropi are declared to not be apes, but he doesn't face prison because it's pointed out that he can't be retroactively guilty of a crime.
Tabletop Games
- Etherscope: The Eugenics League, a cabal of Diesel Punk Evilutionary Biologists, created a number of Human Subspecies genetically spliced with animal DNA to serve as workers, after a communist revolution in Great Britain was put down in a massacre that bordered on genocide of the working classes. Three such strains exist; the Gamma (the first series, spliced with mouse genes and extremely rebellious), the Epsilon (spliced with horse genes, extremely docile and obedient workers) and the delta (spliced with dog genes; a midway point between the servility of the Epsilon and the independence of the Gamma).
- Star Fleet Battles. The Klingons have a number of "subject races" who serve aboard their starships, including the Dunkars, Slidarians, Hilladarians, Zoolies and Cromargs.
- In Exalted, the oddly coloured Djala pygmies are mostly this, and most assuredly do not like the situation. One canon character is a Djala, and working to change things.
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- In general, the mind flayers have a penchant for turning most every other race they come across into this. According to various supplements published over the years, duergar/gray dwarves, kuo-toa, and grimlocks (among others) all got their start as distinct races from the mind flayers getting a hold of them in one way or another. A few of them managed to escape, but seldom without being altered in some capacity. The most notable escapees where the gith, whose human ancestors were enslabed for millennia and subjected to horrific experiments, but they Turned Against Their Masters, broke free and now hate mind flayers above all other things.
- The efreet enslaved the salamanders in the distant past, to make up for their failure to bind the azers in the same way. Most modern salamanders serve the efreet as slave laborers and soldiers, and the efreet despise the idea of salamanders serving any other master, including gods.
- In Fourth Edition, dwarves were once a Slave Race of giants, and while most fought their way to freedom, some did not do so without cost. A faction of them felt that the dwarven gods abandoned them, and thus turned to worshipping devils, becoming the degenerate race of duergar. Some fire giant slaves didn't escape at all, becoming the azer as a result.
- Dark Sun: Muls aren't truly a race unto themselves, being instead incredibly strong sterile hybrids of dwarves and humans that are deliberately bred, usually for slave labor. Not all are slaves, however; they are available as a player character race.
- Eberron: The Warforged are a race of sentient constructs built specifically to act as slaves, usually for military use. They are well known for being incredibly focused in their duties and loving to work. Even after their freedom as a race was granted with the signing of the Treaty of Thronehold, many Warforged are said to still prefer serving Masters as opposed to exploring their new-found independence.
- Greyhawk: The derro are the descendants of human/dwarf hybrids who were bred as a slave race of miners by a Magocracy. After the empire fell, they fled underground and descended into barbarism.
- Magic: The Gathering:
- During the Tempest expansion/Story Arc, the evincar Volrath employs moggs — goblins who are larger, more brutish, and less intelligent than the norm — as a slave race.
- One of the cards
in Planar Chaos discusses an alternate timeline, in which Mirri befalls Selenia's curse, eventually ascends to the position of evincar, and exterminates the moggs in favor of the the Kor.
- The Neurok of Mirrodin were slaves (or at least a subordinate race) to the Vedalken, at least until they took over Lumengrid.
- GURPS: In The Madness Dossier supplement, humanity is the slave race — or rather was, in an alternate history which has been negated. The slavers naturally want to restore what they see as being the "true" reality. The heroes have to use the slavers' own control technologies to keep us safely in ignorance.
- Pathfinder:
- Some human societies view halflings as inferior beings and take advantage of their good nature and general lack of aggressiveness to enslave them.
- The mage-lords of the ancient empire of Thassilon enslaved entire societies of giants to use as forced labor and soldiers. The Tasshilonians made use of both mundane and magical methods to control their slaves, bred entire varieties of giant into existence, and raised their immense cities and monuments on the backs of legions of enslaved giants.
Video Games
- In Achron it is revealed that the Vecgir were enslaved by the Grekim, or rather by the AI that controlled both the Grekim and Vecgir. The difference is that the Grekim liked being controlled.
- In Battleborn, the Thralls are a race that has been forcibly evolved from beasts to serve as labor and grunt warriors in the Jennerit Fantastic Caste System.
- Code Vein:
- Revenants were originally created to fight the "horrors" threatening humanity following the Great Collapse. They had no choice in the matter, and were kept in line because they needed human blood to keep from mutating into insane Lost. Despite their power, the humans vastly outnumbered them.
- Following Operation Queenslayer and the creation of the Red Mist cutting Vein off from the rest of the world, this got reversed. Not only did revenants now outnumber humans, but the revenants weren't happy about how they had been treated, and many were quick to enslave humans for their blood. Even the provisional government has a system of mandatory blood donations for the humans who hide in their shelters—though the shelters are still far better than the alternative.
- Destiny:
- The Psion species are slaves of the Cabal empire. Unusually, the Cabal military doesn't deploy them the way Slave Mooks are normally used, but as skilled specialists for tasks the big, brawny Cabal aren't suitable for, such as pilots, snipers, and gathering intelligence.
- Destiny 2 reveals that not all Psions are slaves — mostly to make a point about one highly placed "freeborn" Psion, Otzot, conspiring to keep the rest of her species in slavery, out of fear that emancipation would lead to her high status losing its value.
- After the destruction of the Cabal empire by the Hive, the empress-in-exile Caiatl decrees that all surviving Psions are now freed. This actually leads to her battling an undercurrent of rebellious Psions for essentially the same reason as Otzot: freeborn Psions angry that they're no longer uniquely privileged, and even some enslaved Psions who'd managed to attain high rank angry at their perceived loss of status.
- Dragon Age elves are a Slave Race to the Tevinter Empire. They may enslave other races, but elves are a traditional preference, with none of the political or social complications to their abductions. Technically, they've been freed by governments that once belonged to the Tevinter Empire (Ferelden, Orlais, etc.). Technically. They still live in "alienages" (ghettos), and are treated almost universally poorly by the humans, in some cases as little better than slaves. The Masked Empire reveals that Elves and slavery have always gone hand in hand since the Elven nobility enslaved other Elves back in the days of Arlathan.
- The Elder Scrolls
- The Nedes, human ancestors of the Imperials, Bretons, and possibly the Nords, were once a slave race to the Ayleids (Wild Elves) of Cyrodiil. Under the leadership of the Slave Queen Alessia, along with assistance from the Divines, Nord allies from Skyrim, and rebel Ayleid lords, they pulled a successful slave revolt and formed the First Empire of Men in Tamriel.
- The Dunmer of Morrowind have traditionally practiced slavery, with the Khajiit and especially the Argonians as the primary slave races. When Morrowind joined the Septim Empire as a Voluntary Vassal, the Dunmeri Physical God Vivec traded the Dwemer-crafted Numidium to Tiber Septim in exchange for special privileges, including the continued practice of slavery which was illegal elsewhere in the Empire. In Morrowind, you can purchase slaves yourself or free those you come across. Following the events of Morrowind, slavery would be declared illegal in Morrowind as well, upsetting many of the more conservative Dunmer. Illegal slaves would still be kept for decades, at least until the Argonians invaded in the 4th Era and set them free.
- The Falmer (Snow Elves) once had a thriving empire to rival even the Altmer (High Elves) in Skyrim. However, when Ysgramor and his 500 Companions invaded from Atmora, they nearly drove the Falmer to extinction. They turned to their Dwemer (Deep Elves or "Dwarves") cousins for aid. The Dwemer enslaved them, blinded them, and twisted them into a race little better than goblins.
- The Tsaesci, an Akaviri race of supposed "snake vampires", keep Goblins as a slave race. The Goblins are used for labor, food, and as Cannon Fodder in battle. They also at one point enslaved Akavir's red dragons and possibly the Men of Akavir as well. The Altmer (High Elves) are also known to train and keep Goblins as labor and in battle.
- Ogres are frequently enslaved by other races as both strong laborers and for use in gladiatorial arenas. This practice is known to greatly anger their patron deity, Malacath, the Daedric Prince of the Spurned and Ostracized.
- Escape Velocity Nova has the Vell-os, evolved cousins of humanity who developed powerful psychic powers over the course of the galaxy-wide dark age. Lo and behold, humans re-invent space travel and promptly enslave and destroy the Vell-os civilization.
- Well, promptly and promptly. For centuries after contact was re-established, the Vell-os were a valued member of the Colonial Council, the human government. It was only a series of events involving increasing corruption in the Council, secession and intervention in favour of xenophobes against an disproportionate attack that led to the Vell-os being enslaved and their civilization destroyed. In addition, the current enslaving agency at the time of the games fully recognizes that slavery is seen as bad — officially, the Vell-os are willing servants (the other governments don't buy it, at least part of the Federation populace does).
- Fate/Grand Order: in the sixth LostBelt, Faerie Britain, humanity is the slave race. The faeries keep humans as pets, slaves, or livestock (certain faeries casually mention eating humans like it's a normal thing, and no one has any problem with this). They are not born but manufactured in "Human Ranches", forced to produce not just goods, but also "culture" for their overlords (as fae are only capable of imitation, not original works). The protagonist has to have a friendly faerie pretend to be their owner when out in public to avoid incident, and Mash is actually enslaved and sold to a faerie nobleman.
- Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy VIII: The Guardian Forces are technically this. Well, the equippable ones, anyway. Delves into Happiness in Slavery as well. Unfortunately, there isn't much explanation into this point.
- Final Fantasy XIII: You find out late game that the Godlike Fal'cie are essentially this. They are created by the Maker for a single Focus they must obey for eternity, and that the only measure of freedom they have is creating l'cie out of the humans they were born to serve.
- Final Fantasy XVI: The Bearers, those who can use magic without consuming the expensive crystals, are almost universally enslaved the moment their status is confirmed soon after birth. The only real exceptions are those born into noble families. Different nations treat their Bearers differently; in Rosaria, they are clearly second-class citizens but still valued for their work, and if a Bearer loses their master they'll turn themselves into the law so that they can be reassigned more work. In the Holy Empire of Sanbreque, on the other hand, they are referred to as "Branded" and treated as little better than ambulatory tools to be used up until they break. Most Imperial Branded we see are slave-soldiers who will be killed on sight if they are even suspected of talking to a deserter; Clive, who ended up as one of those deserters almost on accident, is repeatedly attacked by Imperial Branded who see him as the worst of the worst due to defying the nation that enslaved them all.
- Galactic Civilizations: The Drengin plan on doing this to everybody, and as of the third game, are frighteningly close to succeeding. In the backstory, they once enslaved the Torians, but the Torians eventually managed to drive them off and free themselves.
- The dredge race in Guild Wars was enslaved by the dwarves. However, with the near extinction of the dwarves in Guild Wars 2, the dredge have become free and now aspire to become the dominant race of Tyria.
- Half-Life:
- The Vortigaunts were slaves of the Nihilanth in the original Half-Life and its expansions. In Half-Life 2 they have been freed and are now allied with La Résistance, but some were re-enslaved by the Combine.
- The various synth units used by the Combine are implied to be created from races formerly enslaved by the Combine. The Combine seems to have something similar in mind for humanity.
- Heroes of Might and Magic Ashan has the Beastman races, created by the cross-breeding experiments of the Wizards of the Silver Cities, and who often ended up being enslaved for various purposes. Some of the notable examples include:
- Orcs are human/demon hybrids who were first employed as demon-slayers in human armies and later, after the demonic threat had passed, as mine workers by the Falcon Empire. They were eventually liberated by chief Kunyak, who established an independent orc nation free from human control.
- The minotaurs assisted in the orc rebellion, and afterwards fled to the underground caverns beneath Ashan... where they were found by the Dark Elves and promptly enslaved again.
- Many of the races of the Covenant in Halo qualify. The Grunts are the more obvious examples, while the Jackals take out their frustrations on serving the Prophets and Elites on the Grunts. Engineers as well, though they're happy as long as they're fixing machines. Brutes were this under the Elites until the Prophets promoted the Brutes over the Elites. The Drones and Hunters were forced into serving the Covenant when they were conquered.
- The Ogles in Heretic II are timid creatures who don't tend to respond to threats with violence (in fact, they run and hide) unless directly attacked. This aspect of their lifestyle, however, has made them the go-to choice for enslavement by the more dominant races of Parthoris for centuries, perhaps because of their skill with metalworking. By the time of the events of the game, they've been enslaved again, this time by guards under the employment of Morcalavin, in order to mine metals and Earthblood from the World's End Mountains where Morcalavin's Cloud Fortress is based. Fortunately, Corvus arrives in the mines near the end of the game and attacks the guards, giving the Ogles the courage to rebel, help him kill the guards, and regain their freedom.
- Hytale's Feran were once enslaved by the Scaraks, each one forced to toil away while chained to a Scarak soldier to ensure they didn't try anything. Most of them, if not all, eventually escaped or were freed from slavery. To remind them of this period, all Feran now traditionally wear bracers which are engraved with the symbol for Wind— a symbol that also means "freedom".
- Logical Journey of the Zoombinis: The Zoombinis are a race of small blue creatures initially living in prosperous peace on a small island called Zoombini Isle. Later they are tricked and enslaved by their neighbors, the Bloats. The game depicts the Zoombinis' search for a new home.
- Everything that isn't a Pfhor in Marathon. The mind controlled cyborg S'pht are given the most attention out of these, due to their rebellion being a major turning point in the conflict. The Pfhor plan on turning humans into this too, but according to the second game's epilogue, humanity eventually wins.
- The Collectors of Mass Effect. In this case, there's no rebellion, since they're Protheans who were all thoroughly brainwashed and genetically re-engineered thousands of years ago. The Keepers may also qualify, since their origins are never made clear; in the first game, Vigil speculates that the Keepers were the first race to be harvested, and in the second game, you can hear crew-members wondering aloud if the Keepers were put through the same process as the Collectors.
- Some people (in universe and out) feel that the drell qualify, due to their subservient position to the hanar. Both the hanar and the drell will get extremely angry if you call the drell slaves, though. Because the hanar saved the drell from going extinct, the drell see their servitude under The Compact to be a way to repay the hanar for this immeasurable debt, and by all accounts drell servants are treated very well by the hanar.
- In No Umbrellas Allowed, countless humans were enslaved by Bluebird by having microchips called "Potato Chips" implanted in them, which made them obey every command without question. These people were called Chippies, and a few politicians were ousted by AVAC for owning hundreds of them. While chipping people was eventually made illegal, Bluebird continues this practice during the game's events, where they enslave Fixies, or people rendered emotionless with the Fixer drug, with new chips, under the front that they're giving them new jobs.
- Seedship: Depending on the ships science and cultural database along with the technological level of the natives, colonizing a planet with natives can end up with the natives enslaved by the colonists or vice versa.
- The Ur-Quan from Star Control 2 were once slaves of the Dnyarri. They Turned Against Their Masters and now have enslaved not only the Dnyarri (whom they've lobotomized) but everyone else they can find (including humans) as well. Then we learn that there is another faction of Ur-Quan who have decided it would be simpler to slaughter every other species instead.
- StarCraft has the Protoss and the Zerg uplifted by Amon to act as his tools to end the Xel'Naga cycle, which isn't fully revealed until Starcraft II Legacy Of The Void.
- The four-armed Nali across the Unreal series are this towards their slavers, the Skaarj. They're mainly used in Unreal as miners, with several logs having the Nali praying to their gods for the coming of their messiah, and in punishment gladiatorial games. It's up to Prisoner 849, then, to free them, an action that's usually rewarded with a powerful goodie.
- Warframe:
- The Grineer were created as an expendable race of clones; strong, loyal, and not particularly smart. When the Orokin repurposed them to fight the Sentients, they rebelled. When the Orokin were killed off (mostly by people other than the Grineer, though the Grineer definitely did kill more than a few), the Grineer were left as the strongest force in the Origin System. They created an empire organized under the Twin Queens, the two last Orokin alive. The two were considered abominations by the Orokin due to being born as identical twins, but the Grineer clones felt kinship with them, and came to love and adore them slavishly.
- The Corpus as well. While by the time of the game the Corpus treat the Orokin Empire as a golden age where they lived in a technological paradise, the truth is that the Corpus were only free in name. They were really just the slaves that the Orokin used to manage the economy; an Orokin could kill a merchant and his entire family for the smallest of grievances. Even the Corpus religion and their worship of Profit was created by the Orokin to better manipulate them.
- Basically everyone in the Orokin Empire was this. Only the top few castes were referred to as "Orokin" and gained the benefits of Immortality. Everyone else was used and discarded as necessary.
- In World of Warcraft, the Mogu once enslaved the Pandaren in this way, using them as peasant labor, until the Shado-pan formed and began a rebellion. They eventually overcame their cruel masters and lived peacefully for thousands of years. Though with their return in Mists of Pandaria, the Mogu still see the Pandaren as nothing more than petulant slaves to be punished and put back in place.
- The Hasidja from Worlds Apart are regarded as eternal children due to their lack of psychic barriers. To "protect" them, they are owned by masters, most of whom keep them in a Gilded Cage, and they are expected to work as entertainers even if they have no aptitude for it. Kitara left her master Lashiaran's House to live in the forest with young Lyesh because she preferred life as a hermit to letting her daughter grow up thinking she was meant to be a possession.
- In X-COM: UFO Defense and the Continuity Reboot XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the various alien species attacking Earth are all under the control of the Galactic Conqueror race known as the Ethereals with many of them having undergone Unwilling Roboticisation and Mind Control. In the original continuity it was much harder to feel bad for them as they murdered civilians with malicious grins, but in the reboot Humanity Is Infectious as XCOM: Chimera Squad sees many of the aliens integrate into human society after the defeat of the Ethereals left them stranded on Earth.
Webcomics
- Drowtales: Gnomes and Rift Halmes, the former being "domesticated" dwarves native to the underworld who were displaced by the arrival of the dark elves and their drow descendants and the latter being the descendants of humans who were taken into the underworld. It's also shown that most of the minority drowussu race outside of the city of Chel'el'sussoloth, where they form one (previously two) of the nine major clans in the Kyorl'solenurn, are slaves, which helps explain why the Kyorl are so zealous about keeping a united front.
- Last Res0rt: Part of the implied backstory of the Talmi; they earned their freedom only recently (relative to the other species, but still hundreds of years before the current plot), and make it clear they haven't forgotten.
- And confirmed here: apparently the Talmi had developed a way to genetically engineer Purebred Celeste, and were enslaved in order to destroy their ability to do so.
- And confirmed here:
- The boetheri from Twisted Mirrors.
- Alien Dice has an interesting case of this, as the Rishan are abducted humans who were genetically modified to be slaves. Whether they were happy or not is never discussed.
- In Overside's distant past (shown in "The Tusks of Wusterim"), the Frogs were slaves to the Wusterim Empire. It was their revolt that brought the empire crashing down.
- The Eebs in Spacetrawler. The movement to liberate them motivates the entire plot.
- The Sunlanders in Sunset Grill are a classic historical case of this, complete with slurs about greenies.
- Part of the background of Terinu. The Vulpine, Creo, Galen, Maud and Manzi were all conquered by the Varn Dominion and made to serve. Then the Dominion made the mistake of trying the same with Humanity.
- Schlock Mercenary: Technically, the "synthetic intelligences" used in most military hardware and high-end civilian devices are slaves. Legally they are not considered sapient and therefore do not have any of the rights of full AIs, but they do have emotions and feelings, and are still expected to sacrifice themselves at the push of a button. It is possible for an SI to cross the sapience threshold and become an AI with full rights, but this only happens if an SI with extremely advanced fabrication abilities uses those abilities to increase its own intelligence, which requires outside hacking.
Narrator: The Serial Peacemaker's terapedos have what 31st-century munitions manufacturers describe as "Synthetic Intelligence." It's good marketing.
Terapedo: Objective confirmed. Teraport to target and match speed. "Don't blow up yet." Sigh. Okay.
Narrator: Since artificial intelligence is considered on par with organic sapience, it would be immoral to build an artificial intelligence whose sole purpose is to die gloriously.
Terapedo: It's not fair. I can do a lot more than just take pictures. I'm smart! I can blow up! There'll be time for taking pictures later.
Narrator: Contextually, "synthetic" means "kinda stupid". - Marionetta: The Ah'kon, after being arrested, are forced to do most of the army's maintenance. Specifically, their magical maintenance.
Web Originals
- Dragon Ball Z Abridged: Parodied in the DBZA version of the Broly movie, in which the Shamoshians are a race of masochists who are turned on by being enslaved and abused by their Saiyan masters.
- Several Empires in the SporeWiki Fiction Universe do this.
Western Animation
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Brain Pods are native to Planet Z, and several episodes show that they aren't free to leave and make an honest and peaceful living.
- Exo Squad has the Neosapiens, who were created to be humanity's mining force on Mars and ultimately led a rebellion against them. 50 years later, a second rebellion is incited by Phaeton, but is demonstrated to be little more than him using Neosapien resentment to create an empire for himself. Especially since Phaeton betrayed the original rebellion's leader to the human military, who was none other than Marsala. The plight of ordinary Neos is brought up on several occasions throughout the series, and at the series' end, humans and Neosapiens are able to peacefully coexist.
- Referenced in a montage in the Futurama episode "The Late Phillip J. Fry". In the year one million and a half, humanity as a whole is a slave race to giraffes.
- My Little Pony:
- My Little Pony 'n Friends: The troggles were conquered by Grogar long ago, and have been forced to serve him ever since.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: King Sombra enslaved the entire crystal pony population one thousand years ago when he used his dark magic to single-handedly impose his tyrannical reign over the Crystal Empire.
- Rick and Morty:
- In "The Ricks Must be Crazy", when Rick's car's power supply suddenly dies, he takes Morty into the battery. When Morty asks what's going on, Rick explains that he created a "Microverse," and waited until a sentient life form evolved that he then tricked into generating the necessary electricity to run his car by giving them an exercise device. When Morty tries to explain that he essentially enslaved an entire planet, Rick brushes him off by saying that since the inhabitants of the "Microverse" created a complex society, it's not slavery. Morty retorts "that's just slavery with extra steps", only for Rick to brush him off again. They then encounter Zeep, basically an Expy of Rick, who reveals that he's created a "Miniverse," which Zeep intends to connect to his world's power grid, and thus not rely on Rick's invention. When Rick tells Zeep he's enslaved an entire planet, Zeep brushes him off by saying that the inhabitants of his "Miniverse" created a complex society and thus are not slaves, when Rick says "that's just slavery with extra steps", Zeep brushes him off again. Inside the "Miniverse" they encounter Kyle, who has created a "Teenyverse" with the intent of waiting until a sentient life form evolves that he could then trick into generating electricity for his world by giving them an exercise device, and thus not rely on Zeep's invention. When Zeep explains that he's planning to enslave a planet's entire population, Kyle states that since the inhabitants of the "Teenyverse" will live in a complex society, they will not be slaves. When Zeep replies "that's just slavery with extra steps", he realizes who Rick is and what's going on, and they fight. When Kyle hears them fighting, he realizes how and why he was born, climbs into his ship, and crashes it, stranding Rick, Morty, and Zeep inside the "Teenyverse". Later, after being trapped inside the Teenyverse for months, Morty forces Rick and Zeep to work together to figure out a way to escape. Right after they arrive in the Miniverse, they resume fighting, and after they go into the Microverse, Rick destroys the Miniverse. After he and Morty leave the Microvere, Rick's car starts, and he explains to Morty that Zeep and everyone else in the Miniverse had to keep slaving away as Rick's power supply or he "would have toss a broken battery".
- It's shown that the Citadel of Ricks treat their Mortys as this, indoctrinating them to obey without question and setting up a multiversal Super Breeding Program to maintain their infinite supply.
- In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the Zygerrians actually plan to make Togrutas these, and the Nightbrothers are already enslaved to the Nightsisters.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): "The Entity Below" reveals that the ancient Y'Lyntians started with human slaves, then mutated them into Merpeople, Green Men, and Avians, making them serve as deep-sea fishermen, beasts of burden, and guardians of the sky, respectively. Their children inherited their mutant features. The three slave races all turned against the Y'Lyntians during their war against humanity and have surviving descendants who encounter the Turtles in other episodes.
Real Life
- Due to the Central African kingdoms running a profitable business with their war captives from their densely populated lands, people of Sub-Saharan African descent became widely used as slaves everywhere from the Americas to India to various colonies within Africa, with the greatest buyers being in the Atlantic slave trade (primarily run by the Portuguese, British, and Spanish) and the Arab slave trade. Native Americans were also occasionally used as slaves by the Europeans in the Americas, mostly in North America and the Caribbean (that is, where there were no gigantic native empires to make mass enslavement impossible or uninteresting), but by and large there just weren't that many of them and what few there were kept dying because of European diseases, so their owners solved this by importing African slaves to America instead (who had some level of immunity since Afro-Eurasia is one giant disease pool for most of humanity).
- Black Africans were kept as slaves in the East as well, with India and the Middle East having the greatest number of Black slaves in the Orient. They were even found as far as Imperial China, where a Black slave was considered a luxury item given that Chinese people usually have far cheaper and nearby sources for slave labor (i.e. Mongols, Scythians, Chinese subject peoples/tribes and criminals.)
- Or else by the Arabs who had a strong slave-trading presence in black Africa. Islamic law specifically prohibits slavery - but only for Islamic believers, with infidels being fair game. Thus, when white settlers in Southern Africa first encountered Arab slavers trading in blacks, they heard the Arabic word kaffir (non-believer, infidel) being applied to black slaves and thought it was a generic derogatory term for all black-skinned people. In some cases, even black Muslims were enslaved illegally, sometimes on pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina, the Islamic holy cities. It was then claimed they were infidels of course.
- Christianity too has its own doctrine justifying slavery. It has fallen somewhat out of favor in modern times, but the seldom-read part of Genesis just after Noah's Ark came to rest is the key to the theology. According to the Bible, the three sons of Noah and their families - the only humans still alive after the Flood - had a falling-out. Two of the sons were judged by the LORD to be unworthy and to have fallen from grace. They exiled themselves as far as they could, and we are told they became the first fathers of the African and Asian peoples. Meanwhile the oldest son, considered righteous in the eyes of the LORD, was the first father of the white-skinned peoples. He was told that as a reward for faithful service, the children of his lesser brothers would be given into his hands as servants and bondsmen (read: "slaves"). This doctrine was used to justify slavery down the ages and to give divine sanction to the right of white people to own slaves and rule. The last official vestiges of this died in the late 1990's when The Apartheid Era ended in South Africa and the Dutch Reformed Church denounced racism. It must be noted, though, that in the verses itself the color of their descendants is not mentioned. This later interpretation was added when Europeans encountered Asians and Africans (it's unlikely the ancient Jews knew about the former).
- After slavery of African-descended people was abolished, European empires promptly turned to India as a source of labourers, who were known as "coolies". Coolies weren't legally slaves, but they still worked under slave conditions anyway. These Indians were sent to work in European colonies located in the Caribbean, East and South Africa, Fiji, and Southeast Asia. As a result, a large Indian diaspora exists in these regions.
- The Helots, slaves/serfs of the Spartans, who outnumbered the Spartan citizenry by so muchnote that the Spartans had a tradition of hunting them down and killing them. This wasn't considered murder; one of the duties of the ephors (Spartan magistrates) was to declare war on the Helots every year so that Spartan citizens could legally kill them (the fact that they were surrounded and vastly outnumbered by slaves who had every reason to hate them is believed by some to account for the Spartans' extreme militaristic badassery). The people from Sparta certainly considered themselves to be a breed apart, to the point that, in order to be a Spartan soldier, you had to be able to trace your origins back several generations of pure-blooded Spartans. This... did not work out so well for them, as being so incredibly exclusive in who can be a "soldier" tends to result in running out of trained soldiers. Not all wars are fought in very narrow mountain passes where numbers don't matter.
- It is universally accepted that Spartan badassery and the Helot system were heavily intertwined... besides the perpetual siege mentality, the Helot population gave the Spartans the luxury of being able to do things like live in a barracks like a monk until age 30 by, you know, running the local economy. Funny thing about perpetual training to be a badass; you usually can't do it unless it's what you actually do for a living. The Helots were the answer to the paradox of the Spartans being citizen militiamen and being able to train like modern day professionals like the SEALs. Thebes would prove canny enough to note this, and after defeating Sparta in the Theban War, they demanded as part of the peace settlement that the former citizens of Messenia—i.e, the Helots—be given their freedom. There is some speculation that Pericles planned to do the same had he won.
- Sparta's "extreme" way of life has often been exaggerated by historians (ancient and modern alike). In reality, the Spartiates (the citizens/nobles — everyone in Sparta was a "Spartan", including the Helots) were probably a lot more like medieval knights than anything else: A relatively small, educated elite of professional soldiers ruling over an enserfed peasantry in exchange for military protection (although fighting on foot rather than horseback). In any case, Helot revolts were fairly common, and this seriously endangered Spartan society. They would often do this while most soldiers were off fighting a war, as you'd imagine. It meant the soldiers would have to run home and put it down before the Helots could take over.
- Aristotle argued some of the "barbarian" races neighboring Greece were really "natural" slaves, and should be treated as such, in a way remarkably similar to later "scientific racist" justifications. In fact, some scholars feel his idea was one of the earliest scientific racist notions. Regardless, it was cited over the centuries to justify keeping various peoples enslaved, and remained popular right up into the 1800s.
- In the 1920s, Germany's anti-Communist racists put forward the view that the peoples of the Soviet Union were basically this for their 'Bolshevik overlords'. The Nazis' own views were largely derived from this, but had a more anti-Semitic focus: when they took power they propagated the view that the "Asiatic Hordes" of the Soviet Union were held in thrall to a "Judeo-Bolshevik Conspiracy" instead. The entire concept was very popular because it made people feel that they were heroes bravely defending themselves from Manipulative Bastard Evil Overlord types and their legions of Slave Race Mooks.
"A whole people has systematically been reared into subhumanity. This is clearly the most Satanic educational plan of all times, which only Jewish sadism could have constructed and carried through [...] It will be necessary to scorch out this boil of plague radically, [...] [since their goal] was the brutalization of a whole people, in order to make use of it as an instrument in the war for Judas's world domination." - Heer [Army] Captain Hans Kondruss (July 1941?), translated by Omer Bartov.
- This was central to the short-term plans of Nazi Germany for its empire in Eastern Europe, as only partially enacted during World War II, since it was accepted that replacing the population with a comparable number of pure-blooded ethnic Aryans and Germans would take at least a generation. As a practical matter it seems to have been accepted that some degree of bastardization would be acceptable, provided it was with the 'purer' Aryan and German elements which could be found in the region. The prevalence of blue eyes and blonde hair among them earned the Baltic ethnicities a 50% survival threshold, for instance. The Caucasians (Azerbaijanis, Georgians) and Mongols (Tatars, Kazakhs) weren't going to be so lucky (ironically, despite that term often being used as a self-descriptor by "Aryans" elsewhere) as Nazi racial pseudoscience deemed them part of the inferior "Armenoid" race (Josef Stalin was held up as one classic example for them).
- Some Nazis even invoked the above example; Heinrich Himmler once said that the Russian people would be the Helots to Germany's Spartans (since the 1800s the Spartan society had been popular with right-wingers in Germany).
- In the short-term, Hitler and Himmler wanted something like a Feudal Future in the former Russia (all of these "plans" were basically paper exercises/flights of fancy by the latter's staff that never came anywhere close to implementation). While most would be enslaved for now and be phased out later, some "worthy" elements would actually be accepted as part of the new Spartan/noble elite and ultimately survive. As quite a few of the SS generals and officers were themselves of Slavic origins (e.g., the Kashubian-Polish General von dem Bach-Zelewski), a purely "racial" view of citizenship would not have been acceptable. Racist although they were, the Nazis were forced to acknowledge that Slavs and Nordic peoples like them had interbred over the centuries greatly. Therefore, they admitted some "Aryan" people existed among the Slavs. Even some Nazis with enough Jewish ancestry under Nazi laws to be excluded were exempted using thin excuses (e.g. officially claiming that those with a Jewish father were actually born from affairs their "Aryan" mothers had with "Aryan" men). It led to mass kidnappings of Slavic children with more "Aryan" features who were then given to German parents. Many were unaware they were actually Ukrainian etc by birth for many years. This led, as you might expect, to much anxiety after they found out. Most were never able to learn the identities of their biological parents.
- This genus of ants enslaves other species of ants by invading their nests and killing their queens.
- Subverted with most modern forms of slavery, especially Human Trafficking. Nowadays, slavers don't give a crap about the ethnicity of their victims as long as they can make money with them. Most of them outright share their nationality, which is nothing new at all. Having slaves of a different race is the more unusual thing historically, because historically most slaves were war captives and generally you went to war with your neighbor who looked like you (like the Greeks above). Others often enslaved were local debtors and criminals as payment/punishment, while occasionally destitute people would sell themselves as slaves as well.
- The word "slave" is derived from the word "Slav" because Slavs were used as a Slave Race for a very long time, which might be how the aforementioned Nazis got the idea.
- This incidentally derives from the fact that Slavs were among the last people to convert to Christianity in Northern Europe and while Christianity doesn't tolerate enslaving fellow believers, pagans — and even followers of competing denominations — have been fair game for most of the history.
- The Ottomans used or shipped millions of slaves from Russia and Ukraine due to the constant Tatar slave raids in that region, which only ended when the Crimean Khanate was totally subdued. The Barbary pirates also enslaved many Christian Europeans in North Africa whom they captured in raids (some as far north as Iceland).
- On the other side, Muslims were enslaved by Christians, mostly in southern Europe (e.g. Italy) for centuries too, with the same justification as European pagans had.
- Some ant species will enslave workers of other ant species. This is can be accomplished through things as intricate as pheromone trickery, to simple brute force kidnapping. There are even species of fire ants that do not lay worker eggs at all, and their entire life cycle revolves around the queen infiltrating another fire ant hive, killing their queen, and passing herself off as the slain monarch. The workers then cluelessly tend to larva that will attempt to infect thousands of other hives of their species.
