How would an Essosi person likely protect themselves against being pressed into slavery the way that Tyrion is enslaved by Jorah? In antebellum America the social privilege of being white could have protected a person, but with Essosi slavery not being based on race or any other visible characteristic, what’s stopping someone from kidnapping and putting tattoos on one of the old blood of Volantis?

Essentially, your personal status and power and how you can marshall that to protect yourself – how many people know you and would put up a fight if someone grabbed you or might recognize you on the auction block, how many bodyguards and what kind of home security you could afford, what kind of neighorborhood you could afford, how much trouble a kidnapper would get into if they got caught, etc.

But there weren’t any guarantees – look at what happened to Plato when he was enslaved as punishment by the tyrant of Syracuse. If it hadn’t been for a friend who happened to visit the auction block that day who bought him and then manumitted him…