Slavery in the Soravian New World colonies
This article is incomplete because it is pending further input from participants, or it is a work-in-progress by one author. Please comment on this article's talk page to share your input, comments and questions. Note: To contribute to this article, you may need to seek help from the author(s) of this page. |
Throughout the Narozalic colonies in Asteria Superior, institutionalised slavery was present on both an economic and social level. While a fairly minor importer of Bahian slaves, slavery in the Narozalic New World was maintained mainly through an extensive system of indentured servitude intertwined with the traditional hierarchy of serfdom.
Unlike its other colonial counterparts, Narozalica relied heavily on the Native Asterian populations of both Chistovodia and Vinalia to form the bulk of its labour force. At first natives who attempted to rebel against early settlements in littoral Chistovodia were incorporated into slavery, which mainly included resource-gathering for town building, however following expansions inland after the Ten Years' War, this system and the native labour force was greatly expanded. Narozalica de facto abolished the forced enslavement of Native Asterians in the 1636 Lyubarskaya Declaration, following international pressure, but maintained its network of native labour forces through the use of indentured servitude.
Laws passed by Grigori Kosh, who discovered Chistovodia and served as its first governor, refused to recognise natives as citizens or inhabitants of the colonies, and what is now known as the Kosene Laws set the precedent for the system of indentured servitude that succeeded the abolition of native slavery in the Narozalic colonies. As natives were not nominally inhabitants or legal residents of the colonies, they were offered labour contracts in exchange for their "right of passage" into the colonies – in this case, it was to remain in the colonies – instead of monetary pay. Natives who rejected these contracts were sometimes killed outright, but more often they would be sent to large-scale native camps known as Provbudyn (from the Narodyn проведення будинків, provedennya budynkiv – "holding houses"), where many would die from widespread disease as a result of their unhygienic and inhumane conditions. In most cases, indentured servitude was the greatest chance of survival for the native populace. Many native servants died as a result of diseases introduced to the Asterias by Eucleans, which sparked a rise in the import of Bahian slaves into the colonies (mainly in Vinalia), however the native population was large enough to partially recover.
Narozalica banned the import of Bahian slaves in 1800, and a greater increase of white serfs from Narozalica, particularly central Eucleans, entered the colonies under indentured servitude in the early 19th century. Bahian slaves were freed outright and their owners compensated in 1812, but the natives remained the colonies' biggest labour source. As Chistovodia moved away from mass production in the west and towards settler colonialism, many natives were transported to Vinalian plantations, especially in coastal Vinalia which had been acquired from Poliania after the Ten Years' War. The system of indentured servitude is the main reason for Vinalia's modern-day native population, around 15% of the country.
Indentured servitude under Narozalic merchants and plantation owners resulted in many natives converting to Episemialist Sotirianity, most of whom attended church service on the command of their owners. Narozalica's swift exit from the colonies following Chistovodia's declaration of independence in 1863 resulted in the emancipation of many of these natives from the contractual obligations by the 1870s, although their social caste under colonialism still led to mass discrimination and inequality amongst the native population compared to the Euclean settlers. The system of indentured servitude in the Narozalic New World is often referred to as one of the most extensive and brutal forced labour systems in the new world, and is estimated to have directly contributed to the deaths of millions of natives during its almost 300-year-period of application.