History Main / MadeASlave

** Several mutant heroes were subjected to this by [[ANaziByAnyOtherName the government of Genosia]] (a nation where mutants were a SlaveRace); victims have included ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, ComicBook/{{Rogue}}, and their ally Madelyne Pryor, who were simply kidnapped and later ComicBook/{{Storm}}, [[ComicBook/NewMutants Meltdown, Rictor, Wolfsbane and Boom Boom]],with Storm & Wolfsbane being the only ones to be transformed into [[YouAreNumberSix Mutates]], the resulting rescue mission toppling the original government, which as it turned out, was allied with anti-mutant hate group leader [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Cameron Hodge]]. Genosha was eventually destroyed shortly after the destruction of the Legacy Virus, and is now an uninhabited wasteland; it is doubtful the threat will arise again.

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': In one episode Batman, disguised as a civilian, is investigating a number of mostly homeless or jobless people have gone missing. He ends up captured by the villains and amnesiac, forced into mining gold for a FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit who throws dissenters into dumpsters to die of heat stroke if they so much as look at him the wrong way.

** "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E17APharaohToRemember A Pharaoh to Remember]]": Fry, Leela and Bender are made slaves in an AncientEgypt-like planet. The Pharaoh is about to free them when he dies, but Bender scams his way into being the next Pharaoh, leaving Fry and Leela as slaves until the end of the episode.
** "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E11HowHermesRequisitionedHisGrooveBack How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back]]": Hermes and [=LaBarbara=] are tricked into attending a "resort" where visitors are forced into hard labor. Hermes uses his powers of Bureaucracy to "efficiently" dump all the work on one Australian guy and free everyone else.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'': Before the series began, Blackfire gave her younger sister Starfire to the Gordonians as a peace offering to keep them from invading Tamaran, and also to get Starfire out of the way. In the origin episode "Go!", Starfire manages to escape and make it to Earth, where she meets the rest of the Teen Titans.

* Creator/AndreNorton:
** In ''Literature/JudgmentOnJanus'', Niall sells himself to buy enough drugs for his mother to have a peaceful death.
** In ''Literature/OrdealInOtherwhere'', Charis signs an indefinite term labor contract; she is being traded for slaves for agricultural labor.

* In ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'', Hrothgar's queen is described as queenly and wearing gold, but her name is "Wealhtheow", which means "foreign slave." This is a possible BackStory for her, especially since the name is unique to her in Anglo-Saxon literature.

* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' Jerin fears this fate - if he becomes unmarriageable by being DefiledForever, his sisters will have no other choice than to sell him as SexSlave. There is even an offer by some women they meet to rent Jerin for a night. His eldest sister is ''not'' amused. [[spoiler: He is kidnapped later on, which would eventually lead to some form of slavery, but he is rescued.]]

* ''Literature/{{Chalion}}'': ''Literature/TheCurseOfChalion'' being [[SlaveGalley sold to the galleys]] is part of the main character's backstory. The resulting scars are a minor plot point a few times, [[spoiler:and then a major plot point in the end (spoilered because once you know this the logic is obvious).]]
* Happens to James very briefly in ''[[Literature/OneHundredCupboards The Chestnut King]]'', when the slave galley he and the other hostages are being transported on suffers an accident which kills an odd number of oarsmen and requires rebalancing.[[spoiler: This state of affairs only lasts a few hours before Monmouth manages to escape his captivity and release all the rowers with an [[BigDamnHeroes exceptionally awesome]] wood-livening spell.]]

* ''Literature/ChroniclesOfChaos'': In ''The Orphans of Chaos'', [[spoiler:Miss Daw's]] {{backstory}}. She can't help the children because [[IGaveMyWord she would break her oath]]. This would mean the next time they would not have mercy on the defeated side but just kill them all.

* Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs:
** In ''Literature/AtTheEarthsCore'', David Innes fights for Dian. He does not realize that after it, he could take her hand to claim her as his wife, take her hand and let go to free her, or do nothing to make her his slave. He does nothing. She is ''[[CultureClash not pleased]].''
** ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'':
*** In ''Chessmen of Mars'', TheMole who saves Gahan and Tara was a childhood friend of Gahan's, enslaved.
*** ''A Fighting Man Of Mars'': Tavia's BackStory, though she was too young to remember. And also that of Tavan, a minor but significant character; John Carter frees him for his services and because he was obviously of [[BlueBlood noble birth]] gave him a place in the fleet. [[spoiler:Plus, he turns out to be Tavia's father.]]

* ''Literature/OnlyWalkSoFar'': This happening to Renn is the [[IncitingIncident Inciting Incident]].

** "Literature/ShadowsInTheMoonlight": Olivia's BackStory; of RoyalBlood, she refused an ArrangedMarriage. It begins to seem that attractive princesses are doomed to this trope, doesn’t it?

* ''VideoGame/Yakuza0'': Years before the events of the game, [[DamselInDistress Makoto Makimura]] was sold into slavery to the Korean mafia by a man who [[DistinguishingMark bore a bat tattoo on his left forearm]]. [[spoiler:Said man was Jun Oda, [[BigGood Tachibana]]'s [[TheLancer right-hand man]], who [[OhCrap realized far too late]] that [[ConnectedAllAlong Makoto was Tachibana's sister]].]]

* ''Art/MediciChapels'': The turban and band around "Dawn's" chest are evocative of slave garments, her sunken-in eyes, and forlorn face only cementing this.

* ''{{Franchise/Firefly}}'' writers like this. Besides the multiple examples of Kaylee, Inara and River being captured, Jayne and the guys sometimes get it too. Examples:

* In ''Fanfic/TheFledglingYear'', [[spoiler:Cor]] was kidnapped by slavers and spent several chapters MIA as a result until Aravis and Hana rescued him. The brutality of his experience is especially poignant not just because [[spoiler:he’s his country’s crown prince]], but also because [[spoiler:he was raised as a slave by an abusive adoptive father, who actually tried to sell him to someone else, until he ran away. Getting dragged back into that life would be a FateWorseThanDeath for him more so than for any other character in the fic.]]

* Creator/MarvelComics: The fandom has enough slave fics to make their own subgenres, most notably "Loki becomes the slave of one (or more) of the Avengers", generally as punishment for his crimes during their titular movie, and "Loki becomes slave to Thor" (or vice versa) in various [=AUs=] that take place entirely on Asgard and/or Jotunheim. Though there are a smattering of "one (or more) of the Avengers becomes slave to Loki" as well.

* ''Literature/RangersApprentice'': In the first book, Will is kidnapped by Skandians after they find him burning down a bridge.

** ''[[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/3790963/1/You-Can-t-Take-The-Sky-From-Me You Can’t Take The Sky From Me]]'' has the crew discover slaves in the crates they were paid to haul. They wonder how Jayne knew and accuse him of running with slavers, lashing out at him. River reveals that he was traded, not a trader. He and his mother were sold as slaves and he found an overseer raping her and stabbed him to death before escaping.
** Not a Jayne one but Wash, River,Kaylee and Simon in ''[[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/5502176/1 Freedom To The Free]]''. Poor Simon is hit the worst because he keeps submitting to protect the others. He ends up used for sex by one of the overseers after he’s told Kaylee and River will be raped,and rages over breaking his oath when ordered to castrate a man or Wash, who’s already been beaten in an escape attempt, will get the same treatment without anesthesia. Simon is not one to hold his tongue and he’s punished with a mask that essentially gags him. Fortunately a mad overseer gives Mal the location and BigDamnHeroes rescue ensues.

** Thousands of people in Persopos also it turns out also are enslaved through [[DemonicPossession shadow infection]]. Most are kept as mindless drones, doing menial labor unaware, or {{breeding slave}}s in a smaller number of cases.
* ''Literature/ChroniclesOfChaos'': In ''The Orphans of Chaos'', [[spoiler:Miss Daw's]] {{backstory}}. She can't help the children because [[IGaveMyWord she would break her oath]]. This would mean the next time they would not have mercy on the defeated side but just kill them all.

* ''Series/TheWheelOfTime2021'': The Seanchan enslave Egwene when they take her captive in Season 2, as they do all woman channelers, and seek to break her into serving them submissively.

** This will ''definitely'' happening to ''anyone'' (PlayerCharacters or otherwise) who are taken alive by the neogi, an evil race of bug-like creatures who first appeared in the ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' setting but now appear elsewhere. Turning other races into slaves [[PlanetOfHats is their hat]], so to speak, and powerful neogi even do it to weaker neogi. (They view the whole universe in terms of ownership; in their culture, the strong possess and dominate the weak.)

* Myth/NorseMythology: While on a journey with Loki, Thor rests at the home of a farmer and his family, and offers the goats that pull his chariots as a meal, telling them simply not to break the bones. The son, Thjalfi, disobeys, and when Thor revives the goats, he notices one has a limp. Depending on which version of the myth you read, Thor either flies into a murderous rage and is only pacified by the father offering Thjalfi and his sister as slaves, or Thjalfi pre-emptively confesses the moment he notices Thor's change in demeanor, and Thor simply requires him to become his slave in compensation. Either way, Thjalfi becomes Thor's slave alongside his sister.

** Orks enslave humans on planets they fight on.
** Dark Eldar enslave with {{Pirate}} raids to capture.
** Chaos forces enslave the population when they take a planet.
** The Imperium enslaves convicts.
** Even Imperial Space Marines have slaves to do work that a Space Marine is not needed for. Though the Marines' slaves are generally failed Marine candidates who somehow survived washing out who are often [[HappinessInSlavery more than happy to help]], since they're still in a better position than the vast majority of Imperial citizens. Most such slaves who appear in the fluff are immensely valued personal assistance who even receive longevity treatments that only the rich normally get. Space Marine serfs are also, in some cases, even better trained than the Imperial Guard in combat, being expected to join the defence of their masters' fortress-monasteries if an enemy ever manages to get close enough to be a threat to them. In some fluff it is revealed that some Chapters have serfs who are born, raised, live their lives and die in the Chapter's service.

* ''Literature/ConanTheBarbarian'':

* ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'': Oreg in ''Literature/DragonBones'' has this as his backstory. When he was about seventeen, his father gave him some (apparently drugged) soup, and when Oreg woke up he ''[[GeniusLoci was the castle]]'' in which his father lived. And magically bound slave to the respective owner of the castle, a state lasting [[WhoWantsToLiveForever over a thousand years]].

* ''Literature/{{Earthsea}}'': In ''Literature/TheFarthestShore'', Prince Arren is briefly sold as a galley slave, until [[TheArchmage Ged]] turns up, lays a smackdown on the slavers, and frees Arren and the other slaves.

* ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'': Oreg in ''Literature/DragonBones'' has this as his backstory. When he was about seventeen, his father gave him some (apparently drugged) soup, and when Oreg woke up he ''was the castle'' in which his father lived. And magically bound slave to the respective owner of the castle.

** Several mutant heroes were subjected to this by [[ANaziByAnyOtherName the government of Genosia]] (a nation where mutants were a SlaveRace); victims have included ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, ComicBook/{{Rogue}}, and their ally Madelyne Pryor (who were simply kidnapped) and later ComicBook/{{Storm}}, [[ComicBook/NewMutants Meltdown, Rictor and Wolfsbane]] who were kidnapped and brainwashed, the resulting rescue mission toppling the original government, which as it turned out, was allied with anti-mutant hate group leader [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Cameron Hodge]]. Genosha was eventually destroyed shortly after the destruction of the Legacy Virus, and is now an uninhabited wasteland; it is doubtful the threat will arise again.

* Unfortunately it still happens everywhere, yes even in first world countries. As many as ''[[http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/354486/20120620/slavery-trafficking-clinton-burma-iran-syria-congo.htm 27,000,000 of them]]''.

This is a common plot element in {{hentai}} and doujinshi, where the female victims are usually either blackmailed, drugged, or brainwashed into becoming {{Sex Slave}}s to their tormentors. This usually results in [[DespairEventHorizon breaking the victims]] until they [[DullEyesOfUnhappiness resign themselves to their fate]] or they snap and [[HappinessInSlavery learn to love it]].