Chapter 21: The Politics of Bondage

The goal of all Capitallian laws is to create the economic and social conditions under which those who have not the talent or vision to contribute much to society will find it necessary to serve those who do have such talent and vision.

From the Capitallian Declaration of Independence, 2089.

The author wishes to thank corsair for his contributions to this chapter. This revision contains changes of style, not substance. Persons who read earlier version need not re-read the chapter to understand what follows.

The meeting of the "Reform Slavery Now" umbrella organization that had been discussed that day at Green's office had actually been delayed a week. During that week I spent a few days with Morgan Richmond and his wife and then got settled into my new apartment once the painting was complete and all my old furniture moved in. It was so refreshing to be living independently again and to be living among my own things in a place I could call home.

The very day I moved into my new place I had received an invitation from Bill to accompany him and Morgan Richmond two days hence to the meeting that we had discussed. The day before the meeting I got a call from the Chairman of the umbrella group. She had heard about the tragedy of my personal experience when I ran afoul of the ill-conceived slavery laws. She wanted to know if I would be willing to give a short presentation in front of this meeting recounting the highlights of my experience. While I am not a shy person, the idea of telling such an intimate personal story in front of a crowd was daunting to say the least. My resistance melted when she assured me that what happened to me would help to inspire and mobilize others to fix what was wrong.

The meeting was held in the ballroom of one of New York's most prestigious hotels. On the way to the meeting Bill gave me a crash course in Capitallian politics. I had known since grade school that there were two major parties — the Civil Rights Party (CRP) and the Economic Freedom Party (EFP). But I had not really understood the differences between them other than that the EFP was reputed to be a pro business party and the CRP stood more for the rights of the individual. Bill told me he had always voted EFP since he believed if our nation were to prosper we must have a robust and untrammeled business world. He did acknowledge that my own recent experiences had caused him to question some of his beliefs.

Before we could enter the ballroom we stopped at a table first where Bill and Morgan identified themselves as members and were given sealed ballots to fill out later. As a non-member I was not given a ballot. There were some very prominent signs cautioning that only persons comfortable with nudity should enter the hall.

As Bill, Morgan and I entered the room the buzz of many animated discussions filled our ears. Approximately five hundred people were there. There were perhaps a dozen or so naked young slaves, male and female, who were offering citizens drinks and, in some cases, apparently soliciting citizens for sex. I looked at Bill for some explanation.

"These people really are slavery enthusiasts", he responded. "They want to 'reform' slavery mainly as a way to make sure that slavery remains acceptable to the public, and to their own consciences. Naturally they are most comfortable when they can be waited upon by their inferiors."

I saw Paul Gregory in the crowd. He was the company psychologist at Masterson Automotive. He had listened to me when nobody else would. I knew he had helped to set in motion the chain of events that led to my freedom. There were also people here tonight from the Abolish Slavery Party (ASP), a minor party but well respected in this town. As we took our seats Bill saw someone he knew from years ago. He was sitting with a group of people who were carrying signs for the ASP. Bill asked me to come along with him and be introduced.

"Mr. Maxwell!" I heard him say with genuine warmth in his voice.

"Why Bill Steelforth! I am glad to see you at this meeting. Perhaps you are teachable after all!" the old man replied.

"Stephanie, this man was my high school civics teacher. He and I had quite some discussions on the slavery issue back in the day. Mr. Maxwell, this is Stephanie Glenn who has had some unfortunate experiences with our slavery laws of late. Perhaps you have heard something about that?"

"Indeed I have Bill. And I understand that you, young lady, are scheduled to address this meeting. While I express my sympathy for the injustice you endured, I also feel that your decision to address this meeting may indeed help to propel this discussion in the right direction."

I smiled warmly at this and after he and Bill shook hands we made our way back to our seats, as others also found their seats. I felt butterflies forming in my stomach. There were a lot of obviously wealthy and important people gathering here tonight and I felt somewhat out of my league. Edgar had also arrived and took a seat next to mine. He told me that he too had been invited to speak of his experience as a slave but had declined, feeling it would be too embarrassing to talk about anything that personal in front of a large crowd.

The Chairman, a rather attractive African-American woman who appeared to be in her mid forties, called the meeting to order, encouraged the speakers to each keep their remarks very brief as their would be voting and possible amendments to propositions from the floor to follow. She then introduced the first speaker. He was from the EFP and launched right into a statement of what his party felt should be the guiding principles for this reform effort.

"Madame Chairman, friends, there has been a lot of talk about the need for radical reforms to the institution of bondage that has done so much to help Capitallia compete in world markets. There are those who say that a business that employs slaves must have constant monitoring by the slave advocates, that we must let indentured servants communicate freely with the outside world, and that we must not intrude into their thoughts too much nor wipe out too many of their memories just before we release them. But most slaves would be useless to industry if these things could not be done. We have trade secrets to protect."

"Come come man!" a heckler in the audience shouted. "Surely even you EFP types see that the present system is corrupt!"

The speaker did his best to pretend that no interruption had occurred and continued.

"We in EFP do recognize that some reforms are long overdue. But we ask that reforms be reasonable and that each proposed reform meet a cost-benefit test. We should all keep in mind too that slavery is supposed to be a punishment. It is important that society express its confidence in the business world by allowing our business people to have appropriate discretion in all of these areas. That is all I have to say."

The speaker took his seat. There was vigorous applause but it came mostly from one side of the room. I gathered that most of the EFP people were sitting on that side and were applauding one of their own.

The Chairman again took the podium.

"I think this might be an excellent time to introduce a very special person who has agreed to address us tonight. I think many of you may have heard of her story. She was recently set free by a court after having been unjustly sentenced to ten years of indentured servitude for debt, and actually serving the first year of that sentence. Her name is Stephanie Glenn. Please come up to the podium Stephanie."

At the mention of my name there were gasps of surprise, delighted smiles from some, and a murmur went through the crowd. My story had been reported in the news after the Court set me free. There had been editorials written about my case. Again I felt the butterflies. How could I discuss anything so personal in front of this huge crowd? Edgar smiled at me and squeezed my hand to give me courage. Somehow I kept putting one foot in front of the other until I was behind that podium looking out at those faces. I saw kindness in many, but some stern expressions and clenched jaws from others. Evidently some felt threatened by what they assumed I would say. Then there were some men who were smiling at me but not in a very polite or respectful way. I felt they were looking at me as a sex object.

"Good people", I began, "I appeal to your sense of justice. I know you are all gathered here because you recognize our system is not working as originally intended. I have been persuaded that if you all heard what I went through that it might make a difference."

There was some coughing and an audible intake of air from some of them. Others were looking very pleased indeed that I was speaking of my experience.

"As a citizen and as a professional, I went to work after graduation for a local firm and was sexually desired by my male supervisor. I have been asked not to name the firm or the supervisor. When I said no to him he falsified debts against me and used the indentured servitude law of our nation to make me his sex slave!"

I blinked back tears at this point and knew that my face had drained of color and I paused, as there were audible reactions all around the room. Some were sympathetic. Others were frankly disbelieving. Still others were smirking. I went through the whole sequence of events in detail from my job interview to the day the CEO informed me that I would be bearing a child for he and his wife and that I had nothing to say about it.

"Finally I was rescued by three brave men. They are all here tonight. One shall remain anonymous, as I would not want to jeopardize his present employment. The other two I will identify. They are Bill Steelforth of the Steelforth Agency, well known to most of you, and Morgan Richmond of Richmond Slendabond, also well known to this audience. With the help of these gentlemen the necessary evidence and lawsuit was formed to bring about my emancipation. I hope my experience may help to shed light on the issues I am sure you will soon be voting on. Thank you."

I stepped away from the podium. At first there was a stunned silence. Then gradually the audience began to clap rhythmically and the clapping went on for a very long time. I thought I saw new respect even from some of the men that I thought had leered at me on my way up to the podium. As I took my seat, Edgar squeezed my hand again and whispered to me.

"They respect your courage to tell that kind of story. I wish I had that kind of courage."

The Chairman again took the podium.

"I want to introduce at this time our next speaker," she began. "He is a man who taught high school civics for many years before his retirement. Some of you may have been in his class. Now, in his senior years, he is pursuing a passion of his that is to work for the abolition of slavery in Capitallia. He has been a regular contributor to Abolition magazine. He is the spokesperson for the Abolish Slavery Party. I know his viewpoint is at odds with what most of you think but let us give him a respectful hearing."

There were actually a few boos, but mostly polite applause, as old Mr. Maxwell walked with some difficulty toward the stage. As he approached the steps a young naked male slave who had been sitting on the floor in the first row at the feet of his owner suddenly jumped up to assist him in mounting those steps. He graciously thanked the slave who returned to his former position.

"I come not to 'reform' the institutions of slavery and indentured servitude, but to urge you to abolish these practices. I would hope that the moving story you have just heard from the young lady would cause you to at least consider that option."

"Now I have a word for you, young man, who assisted me up these steps. I recognize you as having been, until two years ago, a prominent stockbroker in this town. Your name was well known as one of the up and coming generation. You were, for many years, on the list of the 100 most eligible bachelors. Now I dare you to join me here at the podium for a few minutes? I have a few questions I would like to put to you!"

There was a brief whispered conversation between the slave in question and his owner, a middle aged and somewhat paunchy male who Bill told me was a prominent banker in this city. Then the slave rose to his feet and walked up the steps to stand and face Mr. Maxwell and the audience. The older man was clearly surprised to see the young man had accepted his challenge, apparently with his owner's permission. There were some intakes of breath around the room, both at the beauty of this slave's naked physique, his generous masculine endowment, and his apparent audacity in going up on a public stage to respond to a citizen's challenge.

"What do you want of me sir?" the young slave asked.

"Many of my generation were saddened", old Mr. Maxwell continued, "when we learned on the news that you had been convicted of insider trading. Now you are both a slave and an involuntary prostitute. Your owner brings you to public meetings such as this one and has you walking around naked, strutting your stuff, and wagging your penis at any man or woman who shows the slightest interest in your body. Now I ask you, young man, is that a just punishment for the crime of which you were convicted?"

"My master has given me permission to respond to you sir. As I see it I have a debt to pay to society for the crime I committed and I am proud that I have been given a way to actually repay that debt by providing pleasure to my betters."

"Why do you say that these people are your 'betters' as you put it?"

"Because, sir, they are all productive members of society and citizens and have committed no crime."

"But are you not ashamed to be as you are before all these people? Do you not find it degrading, especially after the success you had achieved in life before your conviction?"

"I am not ashamed to be of use to others, even by 'wagging my penis' as you put it, at all who find me attractive! I can tell you sir, that I feel much happier serving my sentence by being useful to society and to my master than I would feel locked up in a 6' x 9' cell, with nothing to do for the next 15 years!"

"Young man", old Maxwell responded, "I admire your courage in coming up here to make your statement. I think we all catch your drift even if we all do not agree with you. But you have made your point. Please take your seat now."

With that this superb specimen of masculinity graciously bowed to Maxwell and climbed back down the steps to take up his place at the feet of his obviously pleased owner.

"You have made the same argument young man", the old man continued, "that most slavery advocates make when say that without slavery we are back to locking people up in cages for many years. I say that it is better to lock a man up in a cage for twenty years than to take away his dignity by making him the slave of another man.

We are a spin-off from the United States. The founding document of that nation asserted, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal..."

"For those who delight in inequalities, Jefferson's words must ring hollow. You are inspired instead by the rank inequality of one person being forced to serve the sexual desires of others, as this young man has been forced. You take comfort perhaps in the words of Aristotle who once endorsed slavery in ancient Greece. But I must remind one and all that we are not living in ancient Greece or ancient Rome. We are living in a modern industrial democracy and our culture is informed by thousands of years of progressive thought."

"I promised the Chairman to keep my remarks brief."

With that he slowly walked back to his seat to the sound of polite applause.

The Chairman again took the podium and introduced the final speaker of the evening, the spokesperson for the CRP. She stepped briskly up to the podium amid mild applause.

"Fellow progressives ... and future progressives..." There was good natured laughter at this. "I find I must defend our platform from both sides. We have just heard a moving speech from a much revered civics teacher and student of history — telling us to abolish what has become the signature institution of our society. On the other hand we have heard from the EFP that they have a hard time admitting the institution even needs fixing."

Some boos and hissing were heard.

"I like to think my organization is somewhere in the moderate middle. One of the areas we think is most in need of reform is that of forced sex — of indentured servants being forced to have sex with their masters or being prostituted to the general public."

The problem arises when the distinction becomes blurred between penal slavery and indentured servitude for debt. In the case of our last speaker, Stephanie Glenn, her sentence was for a ten-year indenture, not slavery, and the judge specified that the sentence was non-punitive. I think it is clear from her story that she was treated much as any penal slave would be treated."

"A person who has been sentenced to indentured servitude is said to have an obligation to labor for a particular master for certain stipulated hours and to be generally obedient to that master during the stipulated working hours. Outside of working hours that person is entitled to have a private life."

"In Stephanie's case arrangements had been made through the court that she would perform professional services as an accountant during her indenture. Her professional services alone would have provided restitution for the relatively small debt she was convicted of. Yet she was also prostituted against her will, in spite of the fact that sexual services were not part of the labor specified in her indenture."

"What happened to Stephanie illustrates the need for better and more comprehensive monitoring by slave advocates. We are arguing also that all advocates have had the personal experience of having been an indentured person or slave."

"Another major concern of the CRP is that bio-implants and mind control technology not be abused. The potential is certainly there that an indentured person could have his or her mental and emotional privacy violated or could have memories deleted for possibly illegal or immoral reasons — even to wipe a slave's memory of knowledge that his or her employer had committed a crime."

"We in the CRP love and respect the institution of indentured servitude for debt as much as anyone here, but we maintain that if we are to preserve this valuable institution and maintain the public's trust, we must fix what is wrong. That is all."

The Chairman walked back to the podium and made the final announcement of the evening.

"Gentlemen, Ladies, if those of you who were given ballots will now open those ballots, I will proceed to read the various propositions we are to vote on tonight. The list of propositions and the results of your voting on them will be delivered to the Select Senate Sub Committee when they go into session next week on the bill to reform indentured servitude."

She proceeded to plod through the various proposals and then the voting began. We did not learn the results of the voting that night.

Bill turned to me and asked if I would join him for a drink in the hotel's bar. I accepted. As he made conversation I began to sense that he was interested in a serious relationship with me. Then he invited me to accompany him back to his apartment so that he could show me his "art collection".

"Bill", I replied, "I do value your friendship and am grateful for the help you have given me, but I sense that you have an interest in me that I cannot reciprocate".

He looked crestfallen.

"You are a very attractive man Bill, and you surely have many qualities that I admire. But I have been raped during my year of slavery. Not raped once, but raped repeatedly by my boss, by the General Manager, and by the customers. I don't know if I can ever feel intimate toward any man after what I have been through."

"Steph", he responded, "I think I understand what you have been through — at least as well as any male could. I am a patient man and I can wait until you have had a chance to heal. Please give us a chance."

"Bill, to be perfectly honest there is another problem. I cannot feel intimate toward a man who is so enthusiastic about this slavery business when I no longer believe in it. I once did believe in it — until I was victimized by the system myself. I can never feel quite the same about it again. I found myself agreeing more with your old high school civics teacher than with any other speaker tonight."

"Will you not give me a chance to defend my profession?"

"I am not sure that we will ever see eye to eye on that, Bill. And there may not be any point given my other problem. Let us just agree to be friends and let it go at that. I am tired now so, if you don't mind, I would like to call it a night."

He walked me out and hailed a cab for me.

My new apartment was off of 42nd Street in a low-rent neighborhood. It was only supposed to be temporary, only until I found something better. The subway stop was over a block away, but the rent was affordable. I had an option to rent for another year if I had to. I got into the cab and my thoughts turned to what the young male slave had said about preferring slavery to being locked up in a cage. He actually had said that he found his punishment as an involuntary prostitute to be a just way for him to atone for his crime. Perhaps he had a point. I would have to think more on this. I was tired and soon fell asleep to the monotonous sounds of traffic.