Slavery

Slavery was a human socio-economical system under which certain people, called slaves, were treated as property and forced to work.

Slavery on Safehold was very different than it was practiced on Earth. It was very common in the Harchong, and Desnarian Empires, as well as Trellheim, but it was frowned upon by most other nations.

Comparison to Earth
On Earth, slavery was often directed at particular ethnic groups, or at prisoners of war, or those who had sold themselves into slavery, such as indentured servitude. On Safehold, slavery appeared in two forms, those who developed into slavery, such as the serfs of the Harchong Empire, who were often treated worse then the draft animals they used, and those in the Desnairian Empire and Trellheim, which were bought and sold and treated quite similarly to those on Old Earth. 

In both the Harchong and Desnairian Empires, they practiced for all intents and purposes slavery, especially in regards to picking the steel thistle. 

The Writ on slavery
King Haarahld VII of Charis said the following about what the Holy Writ states on slavery:


 * "The Writ teaches that God created every Adam and every Eve in the same instant, the same exercise of His will through the Archangel Langhorne. He didn't create kings first, or nobles, or wealthy merchants. He breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of all men and all women. Surely that means all men and all women are brothers and sisters. We may not be born to the same states, in this later, less perfect world. Some of us are born kings now, and some are born noble, or to wealth, or all three. Yet those born more humbly are still our brothers and sisters. If God sees men that way, then so must we, and if that's true, then men aren't cattle, or sheep, or horses, or dragons. Not something to be owned."

Church Opinion
Although the Writ was open to interpretation on slavery, the Temple Lands appeared to be quite indifferent to the issue, quite similarly to Earth prior to the 17th Century CE. The Church of Charis, however, shared the views as those of the Kingdom, and later Empire of Charis, where slavery was forbidden and considered both inhumane and economically unwise.