mightyisobel:

If you’re here for ASOIAF meta, you may have already read Steven Attewell’s essay on slavery and Reconstruction in Old Ghis.

Attewell finds convincing parallels from the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction in the violent factions of Meereen, where a political crusader rains down…

I think Mighty Isobel has some interesting points to make about the way in which Dany’s POV limits what kind of stories you can tell about Meereen. However, I think some of the criticism goes a bit far. 

For example, Mighty Isobel argues that “To the extent that unnamed artisans do appear, they mainly complain about their loss of status,” and that Martin doesn’t address “redistribution of real property to compensate the freedmen for their years of unpaid labor.” I don’t think this is accurate – in fact, I think Martin specifically mentions Grazdan’s weavers to show the conflict between former slaves and their masters over economic power. Hence Grazdan demanding a share of their wages, and Dany sentencing him to buy them new looms, and the Sons of the Harpy targeting those upwardly-mobile freedwomen as “a statement to the ex-slaves of Meereen about what happens to those who try to rise above their station and a statement about Dany’s interference with the rights of the Great Masters.”

Likewise, I do think we see a number of examples of freedmen exercising agency to construct new lives – the Unsullied choosing new names, the freedmen forming the Mother’s Men, Free Brothers, Stalwart Shields, and Brazen Beasts for self-defense, Rylona Rhee’s political activism, and while it’s outside Dany’s POV the structure and symbolism of the ruling council Barristan establishes. 

In terms of the “costs borne by enslaved people themselves,” I think we’re given a number of examples. Stalwart Shield’s poignant desire to be held, to show that he has a man’s heart if not a man’s part. The freedman demanding compensation for his wife’s sexual abuse at the hands of his former master of the House of Zhak. Missandei’s grief when her brother is murdered by the Sons of the Harpy. 

So as I said, while I agree with the larger point, I think the case can be taken too far.