House elves and some spoilers for Swordspoint WAS: realistic solutions

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 180890

> >>SSSusan:
> I think I see your point here.  It's the idea that, even if the     
> owner were 99.9% committed to letting Snorty go -- she really      
> *meant* that offer of freedom and only keeps Snorty around because 
> Snorty really, really did not want to leave -- just the fact that   
> she *could* change her mind and say, "Nope, sorry, you CAN'T go" at 
> the point where Snorty now wants to, makes a difference.  I see    
> that.  And you're right that, legally, it appears there's no reason 
> the owner couldn't make that reversal from what she offered        
> initially.  

Betsy Hp:
Not only that, if the owner had a psychotic break or something and 
said, "Snorty, cut off your foot," Snorty would have to do it.  
Doesn't matter what the law might say, Snorty, at that moment in time 
would have no choice but to cut off her foot.  The owner demanded it, 
and in that relationship, Snorty has no power to say no.  

At that point Snorty couldn't even run: the magic compulsion wouldn't 
allow her to.  So in many ways, Snorty has less power than a slave in 
the US circa 1800.

Sure, there might be legal ramifications (though honestly, Snorty 
couldn't report her owner if that owner told her not to).  But poor 
Snorty would still be missing a foot. 

> >>Magpie: 
> > But I'm glad there isn't an alternate word or concept because I 
> > think it would just be a euphamism for slave owning.
> > <snip>
 
> >>SSSusan:
> And here is where we continue to differ.  I know WHY you are saying 
> an alternative word/concept would just serve as a euphemism for 
> slavery, and I know that you believe that to be so.  In my book, 
> though, the "that power is different than with human slaves" part, 
> plus the different nature of House Elves compared to human slaves, 
> is what makes me wish there were a different term. 

Betsy Hp:
Wizards have *greater* power over their house-elves than human owners 
ever did with their human slaves.  If a slave owner in the deep South 
told his slave to cut of her foot, that slave could flee the room, 
flee the house, and attempt at least, to flee her owner's reach.  It 
would have been damn hard, and more than likely the owner would have 
her draggged back to cut off her foot himself.

With a house-elf, none of that fuss.  You tell a house-elf to do 
something, make sure it's a direct order with no wiggle room, the 
house-elf has no choice but to do it. Hell, even a dog can run if its 
owner starts beating on it.  The house-elf doesn't even have that 
level of freedom.

Would Harry ever ask Kreacher to do such a thing?  More than likely 
not. (Though, IIRC, per Fredrick Douglas, his most brutal owners were 
the ones initially most resistant to owning him.)   But he could.  
And there's nothing Kreacher could do to stop him.  *That's* what 
makes Kreacher a slave.  And *that's* what makes Harry a slave owner.

Betsy Hp