Originally posted by: CO
Anakin was a slave in TPM? It didn't seem like that bad of a life, considering he had his own house, lived with his mother, had time to build a podracer and C3PO, and even got to sit down to a nice home cook meal with the family & friends. And he even yelled, 'Yipee' twice. Doesn't sound like a slave to me, sounds a normal middle class kid! Maybe I have to watch Roots again to understand the plight of slaves.
Anakin was a slave in TPM? It didn't seem like that bad of a life, considering he had his own house, lived with his mother, had time to build a podracer and C3PO, and even got to sit down to a nice home cook meal with the family & friends. And he even yelled, 'Yipee' twice. Doesn't sound like a slave to me, sounds a normal middle class kid! Maybe I have to watch Roots again to understand the plight of slaves.
Yes, slaves can even own property in TPM. Anakin gave Shmi the money from selling the pod racer, and also elicited a promise from her not to sell 3PO. It's obviously a much more liberal form of slavery than was practiced in the U.S. or has been practiced elsewhere on Earth. Still slavery, though.
Here's another interesting note: the wager Watto makes with Qui-Gonn gives the impression that a pod racer is roughly comparable in worth to one slave. Anakin and Qui-Gonn sell what, from the race, appears to be the fastest pod around and presumably worth a lot of money, and they give that money to Shmi. Why didn't she buy her own freedom?
Maybe she decided slavery wasn't so bad. Say, Watto sold her to Cliegg Lars, and she had the hots for him, so she decided to stick around. Just an idea. Or maybe Cliegg freed her right away so she never had to buy her freedom.