[HPforGrownups] Are house-elves _slaves,_ as such?

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 102597

I was thinking about house-elves (WAAAY too much time on my hands---not
enough to read!  Write, JKR, write!) and it occurred to me that house-elves'
servitude is not really slavery _eo nomine._

Apparently they are bound to a particular place, or house, instead of being
_owned_ by a master.  While a master can free them by presenting them with
clothes, they don't seem to be able to be bought and sold, as they would be
were they true slaves.  I would say that their condition more resembles
serfdom, as practiced until the 1860s in Russia.  Russian serfs could not,
at least in theory, be forced to leave their land---to force them out
required that they be first freed.

Sherry now:

The point still goes back to the fact that the elf cannot be free, unless
the master gives them clothes.  The choice is not the elf's, it is the
wizard's.  To me, that seems like a form of slavery.  Your message gave me
something to think about, though.

Sherry G