Q: Did Gondor Ever Practice Slavery?
ANSWER: In November 2018 I received the following question:
A few years ago I was part of a LOTR roleplaying group. I got into a very bad argument with someone who began to write about her noble family owning slaves during the War of the Ring in Gondor. I was adamant that there was nothing hinting at slavery in Gondor, while she was adamant that the kingdom was once an empire and slavery was par for the course in running such empires and in dealing with the lands they conquered.
The argument ended in a draw and, while I haven’t spoken to the person in years, I still remain curious as to your thoughts regarding Gondor and slavery. Do you believe it was ever put into practice, and if so, how long it lasted – or if it was plausible that it even was still around during the WOTR. If not, how did Gondor expand throughout the years, and is there an old civilization you would compare it to in regards to expansion and, in general, being able to keep its growth? What did it do to all the soldiers and lands they conquered?
The short answer is that I can’t think of any passage where J.R.R. Tolkien specifically talks about Gondorians practicing slavery.
The later kings of Númenor practiced or allowed slavery when they began conquering lands in Middle-earth. But that tradition was associated with darkness and the fallen nature of the Kings Men. Every other reference I can find to slavery in The Lord of the Rings and Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth is about the slaves of Sauron or his allies.
Saruman kept slaves in Isengard. When he took Isengard for his own he was effectively in rebellion against the authority of the Steward of Gondor, which office had accepted him as keeper of Isengard. But though Isengard technically remained a part of Gondor Saruman’s slavery was probably in violation of Gondorian custom, if not law.
Even the worst rulers in Gondor’s history, including Beruthiel, are not said to have kept human slaves. Tolkien wrote that her cats were slaves.
I think that the idea of enslaving people would have been abhorrent to decent, law-abiding Gondorians. They would not have practiced it openly. Unless you invoke the Uzi Rule (assuming that something must exist in Middle-earth if Tolkien did not explicitly deny it existed) there is no support for the idea of Gondorians practicing slavery.
Although history shows us that slavery has been widely practiced around the world for thousands of years. J.R.R. Tolkien presents Gondor as a moral exception to many historical practices. Gondor is not perfect. In fact, Gondor’s moral failings led to the Kin-Strife and other difficulties. But I think the author’s intention was to imply that Gondor narrowly avoided falling into the darkness that consumed Númenor when Eldacar slew Castamir the Usurper and drove his followers into exile.
Slavery might have been an inevitable consequence of Castamir’s victory over Eldacar. But to make Eldacar’s victory a lasting moral achievement it would have to preserve what was good about Gondor.
I’m sorry you and your friend could not settle that disagreement amicably.
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The topic of slavery in general in Middle-earth is interesting, it seems that the practice of slavery is already known to Easterlings during their occupation of Hithlum (Turin has a conversation with Sador about it), it would seem then that for Edain tribes slavery would be against their customs and laws.
“If you wail, other things will find you first,” said Morwen. “But I know whither you are going, and if you come there, and if you remain there, there I will find you, if I can. For I am sending you to King Thingol in Doriath. Would you not rather be a king’s guest than a thrall?”
“I do not know,” said Túrin. “I do not know what a thrall is.”
….
“I have no hope of using it for worthy tasks,” Sador said. “There will be no work for Labadal in days to come but thrall-work.”
“What is a thrall?” said Túrin.”
“A man who was a man but is treated as a beast,” Sador answered. “Fed only to keep alive, kept alive only to toil, toiling only for fear of pain or death. And from these robbers he may get pain or death just for their sport. I hear that they pick some of the fleet-footed and hunt them with hounds. They have learned quicker from the Orcs than we learnt from the Fair Folk.”
We know also that Tuor lived for a while as a slave of Lorgan the Easterling chief.
“Now this Lorgan was held the chieftain of the Easterlings and claimed to rule all Dor-1ómin as a fief under Morgoth; and he took Tuor to be his slave. Hard and bitter then was his life; for it pleased Lorgan to treat Tuor the more evilly as he was of the kin of the former lords, and he sought to break, if he could, the pride of the House of Hador. But Tuor saw wisdom, and endured all pains and taunts with watchful patience; so that in time his lot was somewhat lightened, and at the least be was not starved, as were many of Lorgan’s unhappy thralls. For he was strong and skilful, and Lorgan fed his beasts of burden well, while they were young and could work.”
Of course further implication here is that Orcs (and so Morgoth) are the ones who practice slavery (of course confirmed later on in works such as The Hobbit were it is clearly told how Goblins of the mountains keep “prisoners and slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and light”), so slavery is closely associated with cultures corrupted by the Enemy, we know that Umbar and corsairs use slave force, which would mean that slavery is known also among Haradrim and other Third Age Easterlings. Slavery is of course the common practice in Mordor, not to mention that Dark Lords want to have slaves to their will by controlling directly minds and wills of the creatures they want to dominate. Gondor seems to have severed any ties to corrupt Numenorean practices, the Faithful who formed the bulk of Numenorean population that became the founders of Realms-in-Exile would certainly held to the more moral standards and slavery would be forbidden by law. In Gondor even the simple peasants do not seem to be like in feudal like societies of almost slave-like status, but free men with all the rights of their own that come with it, including freedom of movements.
Furthermore it is clearly said that Aragorn when he ascended the throne (and even earlier) liberated all slaves of the Enemy, he released slaves of the Corsairs of Umbar:
“That night we rested while others laboured. For there were many captives set free, and many slaves released who had been folk of Gondor taken in raids; and soon also there was a great gathering of men out of Lebennin and the Ethir, and Angbor of Lamedon came up with all the horsemen that he could muster. Now that the fear of the Dead was removed they came to aid us and to look on the Heir of Isildur; for the rumour of that name had run like fire in the dark.
And that is near the end of our tale. For during that evening and night many ships were made ready and manned; and in the morning the fleet set forth. Long past it now seems, yet it was but the morn of the day ere yesterday, the sixth since we rode from Dunharrow. But still Aragorn was driven by fear that time was too short
‘”It is forty leagues and two from Pelargir to the landings at the Harlond,” he said. “Yet to the Harlond we must come tomorrow or fail utterly.”
The oars were now wielded by free men, and manfully they laboured…”
(The Lord of the Rings, Book V, Chapter 9)
…
“And the King pardoned the Easterlings that had given themselves up, and sent them away free, and he made peace with the peoples of Harad; and the slaves of Mordor he released and gave to them all the lands about Lake Núrnen to be their own.’”
The Return of the King – Book 6 – Chapter 5 – The Steward and the King
A gondorian monarch is releasing slaves of defeated political enemy that is the clearest evidence there is no slavery in Gondor, of course Aragorn was a moral man and a ‘hero’ but it’s likely that other kings in the past of Gondor’s long history were acting in similar ways, even through conquest of other lands like Ciryaher Hyarmendacil who conquered wide lands in Harad (we know only of the royal hostages the sons of kings of Harad living in court of Gondor but they were clearly not slaves but insurance of political obedience of those kings who remained more or less tributary but not enslaved). Wainriders also made slaves of the Northmen who lived in Rhovanion in lands they conquered (and those slaves later rebelled against the Wainriders, Northmen were in alliance with Gondor, so they would clearly work for the liberation of Northmen, kind of hard to do that if they would in the same time accept slavery in their own territory, though political alliances could be quite exotic at times). In any case on whatever angle we may look at it, it seems unlikely that slavery was ever practiced in kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor.
People will always make of a story what they want. A compelling tale takes on a life of its own, so some RPGers will inevitably think, “This resembles Medieval Europe, and they had slaves in Medieval Europe, so for the sake of ‘historical accuracy…'” Essentially, they want to do SCA-with-Orcs-and-Elves.
I prefer to think in terms of the storyteller’s cultural context. “Good people” in Tolkien’s Britain would not keep slaves, so the good peoples of Middle-earth would not keep slaves. To the extent that slaves are mentioned at all, it’s always to underline the evilness of the evil characters. It’s all very white hat/black hat.
Tolkien’s free folk did have vices. They could be greedy, power-hungry, jealous, vindictive etc. But their vices were part of their make up. Riders of Rohan hunted the woses, the Sackville-Baggins were greedy and grasping, Gondorians feared death and decay. But in many ways they defined themselves in the ways they differed from the enemy, the Gondorians were of the free folk and would have seen slavery as abhorrent. They even referred to the evil queens pets as slaves.