Commonly enslaved races and slaver races in the galaxy

[Majin Gojira]

Slavery exists to a common degree in the Galaxy (primarily in Hutt space). I am curious about which groups/races sterotypically are enslaved or slavers.

(Mostly because I have a plot bunny involving a crashed slave ship on a backwater planet unnconnected to the rest of the galaxy).

I can only think of the Hutts as the slavers (or overseers of slaving) and Twi'lek's and Wookies as possible Slaves, so I know I'm missing a bunch.

[Aaron]

I believe Trandoshan's are commonly seen as enslaving Wookies.

[Shroom Man 777]

Humans get slaved too. Anakin and his mom?

[Molyneux]

I would say that the primary slaver race in the Galaxy is...humanity, in the form of the GE. Remember where Chewbacca was before he was rescued?

[Lord Pounder]

Twi'lek women seem to end up slaves a lot, usually sold into slavery by Twi'lek males.

[Noble Ire]

Many of the species native to Hutt Space were enslaved by some sort form of ancient contract. Entire populations of certain races, like the Twi'lek, t'landa Til, Weequay, Nikto, and Klatoonians from their homeworlds were endentured to the Hutt Cartels by tradition, even if the slavery was not always implicit.

In addition to the Wookiees, the Talz and Mon Calamari were also widely enslaved in the Outer Rim during the Imperial period. Admiral Ackbar was a slave to none other than Grand Moff Tarkin for a period of time, after all. Indeed, I would imagine that any number of speices that either were widely unknown to the Galaxy at large, like the Talz, or openly opposed Palpatine during or immediately after the Clone Wars, like the Wookiees, were exploited in one way or another by the nastier Imperial executives in fringe areas of the Empire (although wide-spread discrimination did exist, there is little evidence to indicate that slavery existed in any significant or public capacity in the interior regions).

[Publius]

Technically, Wookiees and Mon Calamari were not enslaved. Slavery was legal under the Galactic Empire, but only under certain circumstances (similarly, genocide was legal under the terms of the Dangerous Species Act, but only after investigation 'scientifically' demonstrated the undesirability of the species to be exterminated). According to Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races, the Wookiees and Mon Calamari were not enslaved because they were not classified under law as sapient species; they were domesticated.

[Dark Flame]

Lurrians, Trianii, and many other species were 'indentured' to the Corporate Sector Authority. The CSA would promise lots of opportunities and profits to lure workers, then enslave them.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Technically, Wookiees and Mon Calamari were not enslaved. Slavery was legal under the Galactic Empire, but only under certain circumstances (similarly, genocide was legal under the terms of the Dangerous Species Act, but only after investigation 'scientifically' demonstrated the undesirability of the species to be exterminated). According to Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races, the Wookiees and Mon Calamari were not enslaved because they were not classified under law as sapient species; they were domesticated.

You mean "2nd Class Citizens made to work for the benefit of the Empire with no reward"?

[Ritterin Sophia]

Technically, Wookiees and Mon Calamari were not enslaved. Slavery was legal under the Galactic Empire, but only under certain circumstances (similarly, genocide was legal under the terms of the Dangerous Species Act, but only after investigation 'scientifically' demonstrated the undesirability of the species to be exterminated). According to Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races, the Wookiees and Mon Calamari were not enslaved because they were not classified under law as sapient species; they were domesticated.

You mean "2nd Class Citizens made to work for the benefit of the Empire with no reward"?

No, he means work animals, like horses, mules, elephants.

[The Original Nex]

Indeed they weren't denegrated to "2nd-class citizen," they were reclassified by the Empire as animals to be domesticated. As far as the law was concerned, turning them into "slaves" was no worse than working a pack animal, rediculous as it may seem.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

No, he means work animals, like horses, mules, elephants.

How is that better than a slave's life?

[Ritterin Sophia]

No, he means work animals, like horses, mules, elephants.

How is that better than a slave's life?

Slaves are worth more because of their ability to learn more complex commands, this way the Empire didn't have to pay as much to buy them from the Trandos.

[Publius]

You mean "2nd Class Citizens made to work for the benefit of the Empire with no reward"?

Decree A-SL-4557.607.232 permitted slavery under certain conditions (Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim), but all matters of government involvement, this wasn't a blanket legalization. The Empire still put down slaving rings and allowed bounties to be placed on unlicensed slavers (Dark Empire Sourcebook, "Return of the Hunter"). The record will show that the Empire was relatively equal-opportunity with its abuse of sapient rights; humans were also enslaved under Imperial law ("The Search Begins," "Death in the City of Bone!"), and the Empire even funded "pleasure-houses" for its soldiers, where humans and humanoids were kept as 'comfort-women' (The Paradise Snare). Imperial citizens could very easily be compelled to work for the Imperial State without reward; they could be enslaved or simply sentenced to a term in a labor camp for failure to prove having met their obligations under the Imperial Revenue Code (Imperial Sourcebook).

Imperial law, however, only recognizes sapient species as being citizens of the Empire (Imperial Sourcebook). If a species is not defined as being sapient -- i.e., if it is not considered to be an intelligent species -- , it is not entitled to the full protections of Imperial law (e.g., an Imperial governor deliberately classified Ranats as being "semi-intelligent" in order to dodge the terms of the Dangerous Species Act, and Planetary Safaris Inc. actively concealed evidence that Barabels were sapient in order to continue hunting them). Thus, the decision to reclassify Wookiees and Mon Calamaris as non-sapient is actually worse than reduction to 'second-class citizenship.' Even second-class citizens, condemned to slavery or hard labor, had rights (the Imperial Charter prohibited the use of energy weapons on primitive natives, for example, in Splinter of the MInd's Eye). Animals, however, have no rights; they are not entitled to the protections under law afforded even to slaves.

[Publius]

No, he means work animals, like horses, mules, elephants.

How is that better than a slave's life?

It isn't. The decision to reclassify them as domesticated animals instead of slaves was a legal trick designed to dodge giving them the superior conditions of a slave's life.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

You mean "2nd Class Citizens made to work for the benefit of the Empire with no reward"?

Decree A-SL-4557.607.232 permitted slavery under certain conditions (Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim), but all matters of government involvement, this wasn't a blanket legalization. The Empire still put down slaving rings and allowed bounties to be placed on unlicensed slavers (Dark Empire Sourcebook, "Return of the Hunter"). The record will show that the Empire was relatively equal-opportunity with its abuse of sapient rights; humans were also enslaved under Imperial law ("The Search Begins," "Death in the City of Bone!"), and the Empire even funded "pleasure-houses" for its soldiers, where humans and humanoids were kept as 'comfort-women' (The Paradise Snare). Imperial citizens could very easily be compelled to work for the Imperial State without reward; they could be enslaved or simply sentenced to a term in a labor camp for failure to prove having met their obligations under the Imperial Revenue Code (Imperial Sourcebook).

Imperial law, however, only recognizes sapient species as being citizens of the Empire (Imperial Sourcebook). If a species is not defined as being sapient -- i.e., if it is not considered to be an intelligent species -- , it is not entitled to the full protections of Imperial law (e.g., an Imperial governor deliberately classified Ranats as being "semi-intelligent" in order to dodge the terms of the Dangerous Species Act, and Planetary Safaris Inc. actively concealed evidence that Barabels were sapient in order to continue hunting them). Thus, the decision to reclassify Wookiees and Mon Calamaris as non-sapient is actually worse than reduction to 'second-class citizenship.' Even second-class citizens, condemned to slavery or hard labor, had rights (the Imperial Charter prohibited the use of energy weapons on primitive natives, for example, in Splinter of the MInd's Eye). Animals, however, have no rights; they are not entitled to the protections under law afforded even to slaves.

Ok. That much clarifies that technicality. Thank you.

I guess that's how the empire managed to get free skilled labour huh.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

No, he means work animals, like horses, mules, elephants.

How is that better than a slave's life?

Slaves are worth more because of their ability to learn more complex commands, this way the Empire didn't have to pay as much to buy them from the Trandos.

Well, Wookiees were prided for their strength and aptitude in skilled labour so...

As much as Mon Cals were retained for their use in servicing their own shipyards.

[Cykeisme]

Never mind Wookie tree-cities, craftsmanship and catamarans, the freaking Dacs could build goddamn warships in their fucking shipyards for the poxy Separatists!

Animals? Does the Empire really have to lie so blatantly to itself so it can circumvent its own laws?

[Publius]

This is the same Empire that claimed it only had a million or so soldiers per Sector and that the Executor class was only eight kilometers long. The Imperial State routinely told shamelessly outrageous lies that would make Joseph Goebbels blush.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Animals? Does the Empire really have to lie so blatantly to itself so it can circumvent its own laws?

The lie is really only apparent to those who get off planet, many people remain in the same place their whole lives, the fact that Wookies can't speak basic and it's impossible for humans to speak Wooshyr (I think, need to get my UAA) pretty much helps keep the masses ignorant.

As for the Dacs, I'm pretty sure it was only the Quarrens building ships for the Seps, as the Clone Wars miniseries showed Mon Calamari Knights on some kind of Eel creature called Keelkana fighting the Quarren Seperationist League alongside Kit Fisto and the SCUBA Troopers.

[Noble Ire]

The lie is really only apparent to those who get off planet, many people remain in the same place their whole lives, the fact that Wookies can't speak basic and it's impossible for humans to speak Wooshyr (I think, need to get my UAA) pretty much helps keep the masses ignorant.

Of course, there was a Wookiee delegation in the Senate during the latter century of the Old Republic, and the species was fairly active in interstellar mapping, at least in their own sector; they even had a least one major colony world before the rise of the New Order, Krant. The efforts of Imperial propogandists to erase these facts must have been vigorous indeed to so fully change the public perception of them (of course, any world with a Wookiee population of reasonable size, like numerous planets on the Outer Rim, would have seen through the decption, but they generally didn't matter as much as core worlds in the grand scheme of things).

The Mon Calamari also had a senate representative around the time of the Republic's fall, but they as a species were largely overshadowed by the Quarren, who in turn would have garnered little sympathy from the survivors of the Clone Wars.

[Ritterin Sophia]

The lie is really only apparent to those who get off planet, many people remain in the same place their whole lives, the fact that Wookies can't speak basic and it's impossible for humans to speak Wooshyr (I think, need to get my UAA) pretty much helps keep the masses ignorant.

Of course, there was a Wookiee delegation in the Senate during the latter century of the Old Republic, and the species was fairly active in interstellar mapping, at least in their own sector; they even had a least one major colony world before the rise of the New Order, Krant. The efforts of Imperial propogandists to erase these facts must have been vigorous indeed to so fully change the public perception of them (of course, any world with a Wookiee population of reasonable size, like numerous planets on the Outer Rim, would have seen through the decption, but they generally didn't matter as much as core worlds in the grand scheme of things).

The Mon Calamari also had a senate representative around the time of the Republic's fall, but they as a species were largely overshadowed by the Quarren, who in turn would have garnered little sympathy from the survivors of the Clone Wars.

The GCW is twenty years after the Clone Wars and the establishment of the Empire, ask how many people remember the USS Stark getting hit by two Iraqi Exocet Missiles. Then how many remember about our retaliation.

[Noble Ire]

The GCW is twenty years after the Clone Wars and the establishment of the Empire, ask how many people remember the USS Stark getting hit by two Iraqi Exocet Missiles. Then how many remember about our retaliation.

Although I think you're example misses the point to a certain degree, you are correct; it is easy to make the common public, especially those without a direct link to past events, forget them, or at least corrupt their understanding of them. Nevertheless, the Empire couldn't have fully erased all historical evidence of the sapience of the Mon Calamari and Wookiees, and even if they had, a quick survey of the Outer Rim would have yielded many mentally-competent representatives of both species.

I doubt that Imperial propaganda of this nature ever fooled anyone beyond the most sheltered and gullible coreward citizens, and probably wasn't really meant to. Of course, considering the undeniable power of the various Imperial authorities during the height of the New Order, few would be inclined to object to the misinformation, at least not publicly; the decree Publius noted seems to indicate that Palpatine or one of his subordinates simply felt compelled to reinforce this power with the rule of law, as phony as it may have been. Perhaps, in the long run, he hoped to rewrite history, but the immediate nature of such an act was simply another sort of control.

[The Original Nex]

Also we have to remember that many galactic citizens had probably never even heard of Wookiees and Mon Cals. Niether species was common away from their homeworlds. Likewise, many of these same people wouldn't even know that the empire engaged in such slavery (or "domestication" as it were). The GFFA is a big place.