slavery in the Borderlands

Whether they pretend otherwise or not, whatever title they choose, the various Border Barons are usually the absolute rulers of their little domains and they can can change any laws they want, including slavery.   Slavery is rare in the Border Baronies Region, not so much out of moral reasons, but because it is not economical here. If a slave escapes and flees into the hills, they are going to be hard to find. Escapees only need to reach another Border Barony to find sanctuary. The general culture of Borderlander humans is fiercely independent and this means they are generally resistant against being or having slaves.   As of the end of the year 1837, no Border Barony has legalized slavery. That said, Typically, if a Border Baron wants slaves, he will usually call them something else.   The petty Kingdom of Mateoreino has individuals who are slaves in all but name, including the "wives" of the Mateo and his lieutenants and more than a few male "servants".   The Dread Baron of Mallocaballo takes debts very seriously and has trapped more than a few people in the figurative chains of debt while still charging them for room and board, thuse keeping them in debt forever, aka debt slavery, but no one dares use the "s" word in Mallocaballo.   The petty Kingdom of Altudaredia has legal serfdom, making up about half the total population.   The Dragon Springs Barony has convict labor as a potential punishment for crimes, with a legal maximum sentence of five years. Six month, one year, and two year sentences are very common, but these sentences are often shortened for good behavior.   The Barony of Tollmore has the potential for convict labor in their charter, but the Baron rarely exercises this legality, ditto for the Merchant Principality of Centrum. The Barony of Crystal Fields also has laws for convict labor on the books, but the current Baroness hasn't exercised this even once.   The recently toppled and now defunct Uwcharedian government had a charter based on that of the Kingdom of Swynfaredia. This charter allowed goblin slavery, but no one actually owned any goblin slaves, it was just legally permissable.   The Barony of Demos, the Freistadt Republic, Barony of Bats and Platinum Consortium all have laws banning slavery and serfdom. The Platinum Cosortium is a special case, the previous ruler of the fiefdom did have goblins slaves and human serfs, the new laws were put in place to differentiate the new rulers as being more just.   Red Streams feudal government has outlawed slavery, in a charter such that the current rulers heirs are (at least in theory) not allowed to change this law. The charter has not outlawed serfdom. The realm doesn't have any serfs, but it could.   The rest of the realms have no slaves or serfs, but they don't have laws against slavery or serfdom either. Either the rulers want to keep these things in their backpocket as an option or they just haven't bothered to make laws against situations that are unlikely to happen.   No realm has an explicit ban on convict labor, and given that most Baronies have an absolute ruler, they can make up whatever punishments for crimes they want, including convict labor, whether or not it's written down. That said, practice is fairly rare outside of the Baronies where the practice of convict labor was mentioned.