Are house-elves _slaves,_ as such?

[Phil Boswell]

No: HPFGUIDX 102671

"Sherry Gomes" <sherriola at e...> wrote:
[attribution lost]
> 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._
[erudition snipped] 
> 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.

True enough, but what has been the effect of giving a house-elf
freedom that we have seen thus far?

Winky is totally distraught and has become a Butterbeerholic: I think
JKR said in a Q&A session that she might never recover.

Dobby wandered the length and breadth of the land looking for
employment and failed to find anywhere that would suit until he and
Winky thought to go to Dumbledore at Hogwarts. There he found a
"master" who was willing to negotiate a satisfactory arrangement
(including not *too* much in the way of payment :-).

Given the reaction of the other Hogwarts house-elves to W&D, and
recalling Hagrid's comment (something about finding a weirdo in any
breed?), one does not detect any particular likelihood that freeing a
house-elf would be gratefully received in all but the most strenuous
circumstances, like Dobby's for example.

HTH HAND
-- 
Phil