A NEW AMENDMENT

The year was 1865, and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution finally brought slavery in the United States to an end. And the people rejoiced. Well, most people. The slave owner's, whether they were the fortunate ones to have received compensation for their loss or not, didn't. For they could see their profits plummeting and envisage the end of their way of life.

So slavery went 'underground'. Hidden and whispered of behind locked cellar doors or remote and barely accessible plantations where visitors were discouraged, or in the more urban areas, large plain buildings with few or no windows and only one small entrance.

And the majority of the people forgot.

Occasionally they would be reminded: every once in a while, one or two of the forgotten, because that's who the slaves now were, would escape, only to see their stories be shouted down as lies. Occasionally a few at once would be discovered in their enforced squalor and rescued, but general opinion was that had to be just the work of a sociopathic individual. It couldn't be something organised by many for the purposes of business, for slavery just didn't exist anymore. Not in this country. Because it had been abolished.

But as over the years more and more stories began to emerge, and as what could once have been dismissed as rumours began to resonate as knowledge and fact, backed up with proof of human beings living appallingly short lives in horrendous conditions and dealing with brutality on a daily basis, then slowly, finally, did the public began to mutter and mumble, and the mumble grew into a rumbling, and the rumbling turned into an outcry.

But this time the government could see that slavery would not be an easy thing to strike down. And the way of life of the country as a whole would not be an easy thing to forsake. The politicians recognised that the ease of the many rested on the bleeding and broken backs of the few. And that perhaps, if it would ensure prices being held down while maintaining a high profit, then perhaps allowances might be made, for the greater good of the majority.

And so finally in 1890 there was a repeal of the 13th Amendment. One that gave the States the power to regulate the transportation or importation of voluntary servitude. Nobody could be born into slavery. Or be forced into it against their will. But they could sell themselves into it.

But not just to anyone. It had to be done correctly. It had to be properly regulated.

With that consideration, a set amount of Auction Houses were set up and granted licenses to trade, and they were the only way to enter the system as a slave. It was the Houses that decided how much someone could sell their life for and authorised payment; they were responsible for creating and registering the required Deeds of Sale and other associated documents necessary for owning a slave; it was the Houses who filled in the forms to have the required tattoos put on, and later the microchips inserted into, the slaves; it was them who took responsibility for arranging and holding the auctions and making sure that all owners were registered with their new possessions; it was them who meticulously made the system run smoothly. The Houses were under tight regulation and they made sure their job was done professionally and responsibly, with all medical examinations of the property within the clearly defined limits of the Amendment done and recorded, all paperwork done and filed correctly in triplicate. Some remained small, localised and independent: others became vast and extremely wealthy institutions.

There were set rules for the new owners. They had to guarantee fair treatment for their slaves: there was to be no excessive punishment upon penance of vast fines and possible imprisonment for themselves; their slaves had to be fed regularly, at least once a day, with decent food fit for human consumption; they had to be housed somewhere safe, dry and warm; and at least once every five years the slave had to be brought for medical examination by a designated licensed official. Simply put: they were to be treated humanely.

There was some protection for the slaves should they be unlucky enough to get an owner who was overtly violent or abusive. If an owner could be proved to be using excessive, exceptional and unnecessary violence, force or cruelty towards a slave, then they could be tried in law with the possibility of imprisonment, and an up-to a lifetime ban of owning slaves. Or be handed a large fine.

There was protection for the owners as well of course. If a slave should kill or seriously injure his or her owner then the law would immediately be upon them with extreme prejudice and the consequence was an almost immediate death sentence as a deterrent for any others. Although if a slave gave themselves up without any form of resistance at once to a registered medical official in the service of the government, or alternatively to an officer of the law, and prove that they had been treated with disproportionate brutality then they might get leniency and instead of a death sentence, only get a life sentence in prison. This was a very rare occurrence, only recorded in a handful of cases, (and poured over by students of law).

No slave could marry. Period. If a slave had a child with a free man or woman then that child was the sole legal responsibility of the free parent: the slave parent had no rights. If two slaves had a child together, then it was considered advisable that they get the child legally adopted by a third party as neither would have any rights to the child. And neither would the child have any rights as officially they would not even exist. And never would if not adopted.

If a master/mistress died then their beneficiary had seven days to re-register their slave in their own name or call the nearest Auction House and have them returned into the system. If they weren't registered in the designated time, then an alert would be triggered, the authorities would get involved and the slave immediately brought in by force if necessary. This was either because the beneficiary didn't want the slave, or there was no beneficiary. It was advisable for the slave therefore to hand themselves in immediately or be treated as a runaway, which was a very serious crime punishable by up-to and including a death sentence. At the re-registration, all slaves had to have a full medical examination to prove that they had been treated well enough and they were also given the chance to ask to be taken back into the main system again, the rights of a beneficiary to claim a slave being nowhere near the importance of physically buying a slave in the eyes of the law. It was possibly the only situation where a slave could refuse to go with a new owner.

Once in the system a slave could buy themselves back out. But it was a long and complicated process set out in the Amendment that included compensating first their current owner for the price paid for them as well as out of pocket expenses that could stretch over years, then the original Auction House for all their administration as well as their original cost, and finally the government itself for all its administration. It was very rare for a slave to escape the system once he or she had agreed to enter it. Freedom could not be granted by anyone, it had to be bought.

Slaves could own items gifted to them by their masters, up-to and including property. What an owner gave a slave was his or hers own business. But it all had to be registered correctly against the slave's information in case the slave find him or herself accused of being a thief, a crime punishable by up-to and including a death sentence, and the items or property confiscated by the government.

So it was decreed.

And to just about everyone but the politicians' and those who had applied to run the Auction Houses' surprise, there was a steady stream of those willing to sell their lives away. Especially after the Panic of 1893. There were those who needed the money for their families and were willing to do anything to get it for them; those who had absolutely nothing so were grateful for a roof over their heads and a daily ration of something edible; some who had lost someone or everything and just wanted to forget; and those who had just given up. The old slave owners had a new supply of bodies to do the least pleasant and most necessary jobs. Everyone was satisfied.

Then as always in such things, loopholes began to be exploited and legal waters began to get murkied. Minors had no rights until they were twenty-one years old, (from 1971 eighteen years old), so a legally recognised relative could 'give' their consent for them to be sold for them. And unfortunately many did, selling one or more of their children to try and provide for the rest; selling an unwanted step-daughter or son out of the way; bargaining a child's freedom away often only for the price of a month's supply of whatever addiction the parent had. And this gave such a good supply of young and strong able bodies that nobody in the intervening years had felt the need to challenge it.

Of the owners, most were good and treated their slaves fairly. But there were the exceptions: those who enjoyed having the power of possession over another human being, those who sadistically enjoyed handing out punishments of extreme force or brutality and didn't care about the possible consequences; those who would use bribes or extortion to avoid the regulations; those who had enough power or influence that 'eyes were averted' from their, often open, mistreatment; a few who simply didn't care.

There was no such thing as a legal sex slave, it being seen as immoral and abhorrent from every point of view: slaves could only be sold to do a job of work, usually for a cheaper cost than a paid worker or one that most others would not want to do, or to be treated as a part, or pet, of a family. But tattoos could be removed, microchips cut out. And if a slave happened to be declared 'dead in an unfortunate circumstance', no proof or even a body required, then they could simply be slipped through the cracks in the system and never be seen in public again.

There were those who fought slavery of course, those who rallied and petitioned and protested. But most prided themselves on their innocence, counted their blessings, enjoyed the spoils from the new government sanctioned voluntary servitude, and managed to forget that such a thing actually existed.