(Hated Trope) "Kind" slave owners

[u/KusanagiGundam]

Speaking as an American who has studied the civil war all throughout my school years, this trope infuriates me to no end. There is no such thing as a kind slave master because slavery itself is cruel and inhumane. PEOPLE ARE NOT PROPERTY!

Naofumi (Shield Hero): Prime example of this trope. He enslaves multiple (underage) girls and an whole village and the fans still say he's a hero.

Rudeus (Jobless Reincarnation): As if being a pedo wasn't bad enough he had to buy a slave in season 2. Worse is that people still defend his actions.

Song of The South (Disney): Possibly the OG example of this trope. And the reason why Disney will never release it again.

[u/rllrdr]

So if a slave master doesn't stop the slave from leaving, everything prior to that would be okay? Most of those isekai protags are too limp-wristed to do anything, it would be okay for them to own slaves? No, if you want to argue the inherent evilness of slavery, you have to portray it as wrong even if everything about is "good".

I forget where this is from, but there's this novel where two slaves escape from a kind slave owner, who treats his slaves so well that most don't want to leave. The slave owner catches up to them, not to punish, but to ask them to come back because they'd likely starve to death on their own. The slaves respond that they rather die in a ditch than live good lives as slaves. That's how you portray slavery as inherently evil, by portraying freedom as a fundamental core of being human that can't be overridden by kindness, not having the slave master be Evil McBadguy.

[u/BrainBlowX → u/rllrdr]

> So if a slave master doesn't stop the slave from leaving, everything prior to that would be okay?

"if he emancipates the slaves immediately, is he a bad guy?"

The only "good guy slaver" scenario is a schindler's list situation where it is a cover to save lives in a temporary circumstance.

In your good guy slaver story the obvious point would be that the slave master can officially free and employ the slaves, and arrange for them to reach free lands under safer circumstances. Exploiting them being trapped by their material circumstance is not "kindness".

[u/Whole-Economics5215 → u/[deleted]]

Shields hero (the one in the first image) does exactly that

[u/Vermilion_Laufer → u/Whole-Economics5215]

Well to be precise female lead gets freed by the antagonists (just to spite mc), and volunteer to get the brand reaplied because the mc was at a point where he didn't trust anyone who could betray him. He just asks if she is sure anout it.