/diatribe on
It's easy to write around slavery in a story, it's easy to pretend that it simply didn't/doesn't exist. However my story tries to follow actual history as close as possible and Deus Ex Machina is simply another way of saying "Lazy writer".
Slavery was legal and heavily practiced in the State of Missouri in 1822 America. It was also legal and heavily practiced in the nearby Indian Territories where our intrepid band has set up homestead. The Natives practiced slavery and slave trading just as happily as the Vikings, Romans and Egyptians did.
The price for failing to defend your home and family was your death and your family being enslaved and that has been the rule for tens of thousands of years across every society and civilization. Literally every single human alive today is the descendant of both slaver and slave at some point in their family tree. Yes, if descendancy is culpability we are all guilty.
However in the late 1700's a great change started to sweep across much of the greater human society and slavery became frowned upon and even outlawed step by step. Sadly this process hasn't finished yet and we still have slavery happening today.
To ignore these facts and try to deny them out of existence is simply another way to ignore the slavery that is still occurring. To deny the reality that helps bring full understanding of all the different types of slavery and push for the elimination of the remains of this stain upon the earth.
I embrace the reality of slavery in my story, it's used in different ways as a method to save those stuck in slavery. You can't just ride in with guns a blazing and end slavery in Missouri in 1822, at least not in my story. Instead you work with what you have, acquire slaves and release them into your homestead/township. But you have to be wise.
"If some asshole comes around act all slavish again, got it?"
"Yup"
"See you at dinner tonight? Cards after?"
"Yup, I'll bring the beer."
So when my hero visits a slave auction I'll reference actual slave auctions from that period and our hero will do what he can; he'll even kill a few bad guys once in a while. But it is 1822.
We could go on about skin color and such but I'll just say one thing: "My son has polka dots and he rapidly changes color if exposed to direct sunlight." Beat that for being different.
-Emmeran
/diatribe off