Slavery in Sjealand

Slavery in Sjealand was the legal institution of human chattel enthrallment from the founding of the first petty kingdoms of Sjealand until its abolishment in 1763. The keeping of thralls had been a part of Sjealandic culture since its inception, but took off significantly in the 1200's with its golden period in the 1500-1600's. Millions of people, primarily from Karazawa and Teutonic nations were either bought or abducted from their homes to serve a variety of roles in Sjealand as well as in the wider Nordanian thrall trade.

By the 1200's Sjealandic merchants were increasingly buying Nahuan captives from Karazawa in the markets of the southern Tynic Sea for use as enthralled workers in the mines of the sydfjeldene and Fjorddalene regions mountains of Sjealand, work that was dangerous and often lethal for the Nahuas, who barely survived a decade before succumbing to exposure or exhaustion. Meanwhile prvivate Sjealandic companies and merchant groups formed to either raid for or buy Nordanian thralls in the waters around Sjealand, ranging from Ambrose to Aurega. These thralls were primarily used as domestic servants and other types of urban labour, aswell as for the pleasure-houses and brothels of several major Sjealandic cities, which also sold them to the Borean markets as luxury items. In reality the two systems of thrallery were widely different, as the thralls used for hard labour were treated horribly and were often mutilated or tortured to showcase examples to rebellious thralls, which caused 9 greater and several lesser Nahuan thrall wars in which the thralls rose up and were brutally put down by the Sjealandic authorities.

At its height in the 1600's more than a fourth of the Sjealandic population was constituted by thralls, with growing calls to eliminate the system, both out of humanitarian concerns but also because of the fear of the thralls outnumbering the the native Sjealandic ethnic groups and supplanting them. The last great thrall revolt in 1730 only cemented these fears as the army of liberated thralls pushed through southern Sjealand, burning villages and killing the local population in revenge for the centuries of mistreatment and atrocities. In a royal proclamation from Frederik II the Magnificent in 1733 it was declared that the practice of thrallery would be ended 30 years from said declaration so that the remaining thralls would work off their value to their owners and that the thrall trade would end 20 years after the proclamation. On the 1st of January 1763 Thralls across Sjealand were declared free, though still scarred by facial tattoos denoting their former status. In an effort to be rid of many of the thralls, whom the Sjealandic government considered not welcome, a great number, around 80% of the Thralls were forcibly marched out of Sjealand either by the coast or across the Sydfjeldene mountains in winter, which killed large swathes of the Thralls and left many others visibly disabled or wounded in what has been labeled a genocide by many.

Today 7,9% of Sjealands population, accounting for 4,5 million people, is still made up of descendants of former thralls, primarily Nahuan in origin. They exist heavily divided from regular Sjealandic society, both out of prejudice from the native Sjealandic ethnic groups, but also from mutual distrust between the two groups.

Ethnic composition

Nahua thralls

The conquest of the Tlahtoloyan Tezcocah by Pierre de Lamarque, an Aininian officer and adventurer, had many unforseen consequences, influencing places barely related to the Erechecua Peninsula and Conitia. But one of the most direct effect was the upset of the local political balance. There was no longer any entity capable of opposing either the Caconzicua Karazawi or the Viceroyalty of Ultramer agressive expansions through the Peninsula, as they were now allied with each other through their oath of loyalty to the Kingdom of Ainin.

Notably, this alliance wasn't meant to be at first, Pierre de Lamarque both as a Cihuacoatl and then as a Viceroy wanted to continue the war between the Tlahtoloyan and the Caconzicua. But because of how sudden his takeover had been, he was still in a precarious position even years after the death of the last Huetlatoani, and busy quelling rebellions and trying to convince old tributaries of the Tezcocans to continue to send annual gifts to him. So, he struck a deal with the Caconzi, in the hope that he could deal with most of the removed western city-states that refused to recognize Lamarque's demands for tributes, and to secure his western border even at the cost of most of the contested borderlands between the Viceroyalty and the Caconzicua.

As such, the Western Nahuas states were integrated to the Caconzicua. Many of these cities revolted against the invading Karazawi, the Third Ilcahua Confederation being the most famous attempt by the western Nahuas to unite against the Caconzicua. These revolts were met with harsh repressions, with the political classes of entire cities being replaced, rebels executed with their families, and sometime even the population of entire settlements being deported to the North, to colonize the harsh and dangerous borderlands, while Karazawi settlers replaced them in their old houses.

These policies led to a growth in the number of slaves in the possession of the Karazawa. And while many were sent to work in the farms, fields, and mines, the Caconzicua still found itself with the never-seen-before case of having a surplus of slaves. A situation worsened with their wars against the Chichimecas around 1550. And it is to get rid of these slaves that the Karazawi started to sell war prisoners and convicted rebels to caravaneers and traders, re-invegorating the old Nordano-Conitian slave trade, as many of them ended up in one of the last booming states of Nordania to still practice slavery on a nationwide scale : Sjealand.