Slavery

Slavery is the term used for the act of enslaving another against their will and forcing them to work for their "master".

One Piece Slavery


In One Piece, slavery has been abolished, due to extreme cruelty. However, it still survives in certain places in the world, Sabaody Archipelago included. The Tenryuubito/World Nobles practice slavery, using wanted pirates as "pets". To represent them as slaves, the Tenryuubito mark them with the symbol called "The Hoof of the Soaring Dragon", forever marking them as "less than human".

Slaves
Unfortunately, the fact that no one can harm a Tenryuubito or stand up to them means that no one can help a slave in need, or else they would risk certain death. They are also marked with the "Hoof of the Soaring Dragon", as stated above and also have a collar around their necks. If the prisoner attempts to escape from the Tenryuubito, the collar explodes, killing the slave.

Many slaves are famous, although not told by Oda in the storyline. Some have bounties of more than 50,000,000 and some are just wanted by buyers for the species. Some famous or important slaves to the storyline are:
 * Keimi, the mermaid, who is one of Luffy's friends.
 * Jean Bart, a famous pirate who was enslaved by the Tenryuubito
 * "Dark King" Silvers Rayleigh, former First Mate of Gol D. Roger's crew.
 * Nico Robin, Archeologist of the Straw Hat Pirates, in Tequila Wolf. Currently being freed by the revolutionaries.

Some are no longer slaves:
 * Boa Hancock, current Shichibukai and friend of Monkey D. Luffy
 * Boa Sandersonia and Boa Marigold, the sisters of Boa Hancock.

Selling Slaves
The Shichibukai, Donquixote Doflamingo, owned the Auction House, before handing it over to a subordinate, Disco. To hide the fact that slavery still exists, the door to the Auction house has been labeled "Public Employment Security Office".

There is also a list of how much a slave can sell for, depending on what kind of slave the person is. The list is as followed:
 * Humans: [[Image:Bsymbol.gif]]500,000+
 * Dwarves: [[Image:Bsymbol.gif]]700,000+
 * Minkmen: [[Image:Bsymbol.gif]]700,000+
 * Longarms: [[Image:Bsymbol.gif]]700,000+
 * Longlegs: [[Image:Bsymbol.gif]]700,000+
 * Snakenecks: [[Image:Bsymbol.gif]]700,000+
 * Fishmen: [[Image:Bsymbol.gif]]1,000,000+
 * Giants:
 * Male Giants: [[Image:Bsymbol.gif]]50,000,000+
 * Female Giants: [[Image:Bsymbol.gif]]10,000,000+
 * Merfolk:
 * Female: [[Image:Bsymbol.gif]]70,000,000+
 * Male: [[Image:Bsymbol.gif]]1,000,000+
 * Parted Female: [[Image:Bsymbol.gif]]10,000,000+
 * Devil Fruit Users: Market Price

Known Locations of Slavery
Sabody is a place where slavery is heavily enforced by sellers. Another known location is Tequila Wolf, where slaves are forced to build a bridge that connects the islands in the East Blue. It has been being built after 700 years, yet still incompleted. Also, Nico Robin is the newest slave there, after being sent there by Bartholomew Kuma.

History
It is unclear when history started, but it has been going on for more than 700 years beacause Tequila Wolf had been buidling the bridge for 700 years.

Robin said to Nami that slavery was a fearful pastime of humans, reminding people at present times how fearful and cruel people were in the old days. Also, Boa Hancock stated that her and her 2 sisters were once slaves.

Boa Hancock told Luffy the story of Fisher Tiger, who broke into Mariejois and freed hundreds of slaves from the Tenryuubito. He being a fishman, he took many fishmen and formed the Sunny Pirates, with Jinbei and Arlong included. Fisher then took the symbols of the Tenryuubito that was marked on the Fishmen and transformed them into a symbol of the Sunny Pirates, a sun.

Trivia

 * Slavery was a huge trade during the real world's own Pirate Age. Some pirate crews would even recruit slaves they had freed during raids on other ships into their crews.  The slaves themselves more often then not accepted the offer as life as a pirate was more often then not a much better lifestyle then life as a slave.