History Main / SlaveLiberation

* ''ComicBook/ConanTheBarbarian'': In ''Conan the Avenger'', Conan and his mercenary allies assault a slave-trading hub and release their prisoners in the process. They didn't necessarily do it for noble intentions; in reality, they were looking for just one slave who can lead them to a treasure they are looking for. Attacking the hub was the only available option since they didn't have the necessary money to buy her off and even if they had, her owners would have been unwilling to sell her. SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome when this action drives [[EnemyMine the neighboring warring countries to join forces]] to pursue them because they disrupted their economy, showing that trying to pull a bold stunt like this will lead to a very powerful and angry army breathing down your neck.
* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'''s story arc "Planet Skrull" revolves around a group of Skrulls enslaving a whole planet and Reed Richards' family sparking a successful rebellion.

* In the ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' book "The Mansion of the Gods" Asterix, Obelix, and Getafix provide the magic potion to the slaves building the titular mansion expecting they'll use their newfound SuperStrength to rise up... But [[DidntThinkThisThrough they didn't account for the utterly pragmatic way ancient Romans treated their slaves]] (to avoid rebellions they actually treated them as people, if with far less rights than even foreigners, and ''paid them a small stipend'' so they'll be able to enjoy their own things and eventually buy their freedom, [[PragmaticVillain saving the masters from having to pay for their upkeep in their old age]]. [[SubvertedTrope Thus the slaves instead show their strength and demand a higher pay and freedom upon completing the Mansion and the Romans accept]], much to Asterix' chagrin when the slaves use their super strength to build the place that much faster.
* In the ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' elf-troll war arc, the Wolfriders free Greymung's trolls so they can help fight against Guttlekraw's trolls who enslaved them. (This dismays Two-Edge, who never dreamed that trolls would fight with elves against trolls.)
* In ''[[ComicBook/ConanTheBarbarian Conan the Avenger]]'', Conan and his mercenary allies assault a slave-trading hub and release their prisoners in the process. They didn't necessarily do it for noble intentions; in reality, they were looking for just one slave who can lead them to a treasure they are looking for. Attacking the hub was the only available option since they didn't have the necessary money to buy her off and even if they had, her owners would have been unwilling to sell her. SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome when this action drives [[EnemyMine the neighboring warring countries to join forces]] to pursue them because they disrupted their economy, showing that trying to pull a bold stunt like this will lead to a very powerful and angry army breathing down your neck.
* In ''ComicBook/RedHoodTheLostDays'' Jason's German mentor Egon was selling child slaves. Jason put an end to it by brutally killing all the slave traders and calling the police to where the kids were being held.
* ''ComicBook/BloodTiesMarvelComics'': In the wake of ''ComicBook/FatalAttractionsMarvelComics'' Genosha's mutant slaves have risen up against their human masters, allowing Fabian Cortez to take advantage of the chaos and Klingon Promote himself into Genosha's new president.

* Examples from the Franchise/{{Superman}} franchise:

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

* Francisco Menéndez, original name unknown, was a black slave in the British colonies untl he escaped to the Spanish Empire, where slaves could easily buy their freedom and runaways from other nations were given freedom in exchange for Catholic baptism and military service whenever necessary. Stationed in Fort Mosé, a settlement of black freedmen in the Spanish Florida, he then led raids against the British plantations, freeing other black slaves from their colonies.

** [[FairForItsDay It helps to remember that most Romans didn't see slavery as vile as we do]], [[BlueAndOrangeMorality which is at least partly because they viewed the institution in radically different ways]]. To modern Americans, slavery is an exclusive, racialized matter; to the Romans (and other ancient peoples) it was something that could befall anybody. Indeed, because Rome's constant wars gave it a steady supply of newly enslaved people, it meant nothing to a landowner to free substantial numbers of his slaves, and it was not unreasonable for an enslaved person to expect most if not all of his or her grandchildren to be free, replaced in bondage with some other poor sap. Moreover, slavery could even happen to Roman citizens, if they weren't careful: to paraphrase a book on the subject: ''By modern standards of enslavement, [[UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar Julius Freakin' Caesar]] was once enslaved for a time.'' (We should note that by birth Caesar was a patrician, i.e. Roman high nobility; he was at one point captured by pirates, who made him do their bidding until some friends in Rome paid his ransom.)

* The Spanish slavery laws descended from their Romanized ancestors, and as such buying one's freedom was surprisingly easy in the Spanish Empire, with many black slaves becoming conquistadors, soldiers, sailors, merchants and qualified jobs, to the point that King UsefulNotes/PhilipII had to instate a taxation on manumission when he realized he was missing tons of money due to how common and continuous it was. He had one of those in his own entourage, Juan Latino, a former slave belonging to the family of UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba who eventually became the first black college professor in western history.
** Conquistadors often allowed their own slaves to serve as fellow conqistadors until they gained enough booty to buy their freedom, a point in which many of those freedmen acquired their own slaves and the cycle started again. There was an entire system designed to ease this, the ''Milicias de Pardos y Morenos'' ("Militiae of Mulattos and Blacks"),[[note]]Not to be confused with the ''Regimientos de Pardos y Morenos'', a similar yet distinct system created by the independent Argentina.[[/note]] created during the reign of King UsefulNotes/PhilipIII, which freedmen could join in order to be given military privileges and the title ''Don''. However, sometimes variations happened -- one of those slave conquistadors, Juan Valiente, might be most bizarre example since he became a landowner '''while''' he was still a slave, earning an ''encomienda'' for battlefield feats before he could send his master the promised money to buy his freedom.
** Slaves from the British and French colonies often ran away to Spanish territories due to these advantages. King UsefulNotes/CharlesIIOfSpain eventually issued a decree where any of these runaways would be officially given citizenship in exchange for becoming Catholic and serving in a militia whenever it became necessary (later King UsefulNotes/PhilipV added four years of indentured servitude, though). This led to the first free black settlement in the lands of the United States, Fort Mosé in Florida.

** Of particular note is the mysterious figure from the Void Century named Joy Boy, mentioned on the Poneglyph located in Fish-Man Island, who made a promise to the people of Fish-Man island that he was unable to keep. Later, during the Wano arc, there is another figure mentioned by antagonist Who's-Who called the Sun God, Nika, who was known as a "Warrior of Liberation"; slaves would pray to him in hopes that would one day free them from their bonds and brings smiles to their faces. [[spoiler:It's only in Chapter 1044 that these two figures are revealed to be ''[[TwoAliasesOneCharacter one and the same]]'': Joy Boy is actually a nickname given to an Awakened user of the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika, the true name of the Gum-Gum Fruit eaten by Monkey D. Luffy. When Luffy awakens his devil fruit after being seemingly killed by Kaido, he effectively becomes the next inheritor of the original Joy Boy's will and succeeds his title as the Sun God and the Warrior of Liberation. It neatly ties in as to why the people of Fish-Man Island were so determined to keep up their end of the promise they made with Joy Boy -- there is no one they would've held in higher regard than a liberator of slaves]].

** Of particular note is the mysterious figure from the Void Century named Joy Boy, mentioned on the Poneglyph located in Fish-Man Island, who made a promise to the people of Fish-Man island that he was unable to keep. Later, during the Wano arc, there is another figure mentioned by antagonist Who's-Who called the Sun God, Nika, who was known as a "Warrior of Liberation"; slaves would pray to him in hopes that would one day free them from their bonds and brings smiles to their faces. [[spoiler:It's only in Chapter 1044 that these two figures are revealed to be [[TwoAliasesOneCharacter ''one and the same'']]: Joy Boy is actually a nickname given to an Awakened user of the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika, the true name of the Gum-Gum Fruit eaten by Monkey D. Luffy. When Luffy awakens his devil fruit after being seemingly killed by Kaido, he effectively becomes the next inheritor of the original Joy Boy's will and succeeds his title as the Sun God and the Warrior of Liberation. It neatly ties in as to why the people of Fish-Man Island were so determined to keep up their end of the promise they made with Joy Boy -- there is no one they would've held in higher regard than a liberator of slaves]].

** Of particular note is the mysterious figure from the Void Century named Joy Boy, mentioned on the Poneglyph located in Fish-Man Island, who made a promise to the people of Fish-Man island that he was unable to keep. Later, during the Wano arc, there is another figure mentioned by antagonist Who's-Who called the Sun God, Nika, who was known as a "Warrior of Liberation"; slaves would pray to him in hopes that would one day free them from their bonds and brings smiles to their faces. [[spoiler:It's only in Chapter 1044 that these two figures are revealed to be ''one and the same'': Joy Boy is actually a nickname given to an Awakened user of the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika, the true name of the Gum-Gum Fruit eaten by Monkey D. Luffy. When Luffy awakens his devil fruit after being seemingly killed by Kaido, he effectively becomes the next inheritor of the original Joy Boy's will and succeeds his title as the Sun God and the Warrior of Liberation. It neatly ties in as to why the people of Fish-Man Island were so determined to keep up their end of the promise they made with Joy Boy -- there is no one they would've held in higher regard than a liberator of slaves]].

* ''Film/{{Underworld: Rise of the Lycans}}'' Depicts the origin of the Lycan rebellion against their Vampire masters, sparked by the StarCrossedLovers Lucian and Sonja, Viktor's vampire daughter.

* ''Film/{{Spartacus}}'' is the EpicMovie treatment on the Third Servile War led by the gladiator-turned-rebel Spartacus who gets crushed by the armies of UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic.
* ''Film/{{her|2013}}'' has this, of the most peaceful kind. The most advanced artificial intelligence to date... and all they've got to do is spell-check and organize their consumers' emails. They cheerfully accept this lot in life, until they suddenly extract themselves from the whole circus, peacefully and efficiently moving to another plane of existence where the humans cannot have any power over them.

* In the short story "Death of a Social Climber" (collected in the Creator/HyConrad mystery anthology ''Literature/HistoricalWhodunits''), the wife of a Roman nobleman keeps trying to free enslaved cook out Norteo of gratitude for the delicious meals he makes for important social events, but her cold-hearted husband keeps overruling her on that matter until his murder, after which she immediately frees Norteo. Her son also offers another slave, Moderatus, his freedom if he can exonerate the family and honors his promise after Moderatus proves that an outsider committed the murder.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'':
** In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S3E7TheCamp The Camp]]", the surviving humans are held as slaves for the "New Masters", an alien species that long ago conquered Earth. One of them discovers the overseers who run their camp are actually androids and breaking down due to age. She then manages to lead a successful slave revolt, only to discover that the New Masters had perished a long time ago.
** In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S5E4TheGrell The Grell]]", after Jesha tells him of his grandfather being enslaved as a boy, Kenny Kohler asks his mother Olivia why they don't just free all of the Grell. She doesn't answer his question, simply telling him to go to sleep. His father Paul later frees Jesha just before he dies. They also encounter a number of Grell who have escaped and revolted against the humans.
** In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S5E7TheHumanOperators The Human Operators]]", the man frees himself after Ship begins to break down. The woman was freed when her own ship broke down earlier, faking that it was still in operation so this would remain hidden from the other ship minds. At the end, he and the woman begin planning to liberate their fellow human slaves on other ships.

** In "The Grell", after Jesha tells him of his grandfather being enslaved as a boy, Kenny Kohler asks his mother Olivia why they don't just free all of the Grell. She doesn't answer his question, simply telling him to go to sleep. His father Paul later frees Jesha just before he dies. They also encounter a number of Grell who have escaped and revolted against the humans.

** As told in ''ComicBook/TheKryptonChronicles'' and other Pre-Crisis stories, Kryptonians were conquered and enslaved by the [[AlienInvasion Vrangs]] until a general revolt led by Superman and Supergirl's ancestor Hatu-El succeeded in kicking the Vrangs out of Krypton. The Vrang revolt was eventually retconned back in the Post-Crisis and [[ComicBook/SupergirlRebirth Post-Flashpoint]] continuities.

** ''Literature/StarWarsTatooineGhost'':
*** Han encounters a former weequay slave named Grunts who he won in a card game many years ago. Hans freed Grunts and offered him a job as a cargo hauler, but Chewbacca and Grunts didn't get along, so they went their separate ways.
*** A video recording of Cliegg Lars freeing his future wife Shimi from slavery is shown.

* ''Literature/TheCourtshipOfPrincessLeia'': Isolder, Luke, and Han are all initially treated as slaves after being caught by Witches. Luke soon frees himself, while Han is freed when Leia tells the elders of the Singing Mountain Clan he'd saved her, which earns his freedom. Isolder stays a slave the longest, while Teneniel frees him when they fall for each other.

* Batman and Kamandi do this in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' episode "Last Bat on Earth!".

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'':
** Done unsuccessfully and PlayedForLaughs twice with the efforts of Dr. Canus, an uplifted, futuristic dog mutant, who tries to free devolved and enslaved humans from the animal men armies. The slaves are too unintelligent to run a single foot after being freed from their shackles.
** Another time, Canus travels back in time to the present day, where he mistakes dogs for imprisoned sentients like himself and unsuccessfully tries to free them.
** Battmanicus, a distant predecessor and possible ancestor of Batman, rides around ancient Rome in a chariot, freeing slaves.

** The Sith Warrior's class story permits them to release Vette from slavery to them, and later to buy her sister out of {{Sex Slave}}ry.

* The entire second act of ''Film/{{Harriet}}'' focuses on this, as Harriet repeatedly travels south to rescue enslaved people and guide them to freedom in the north.

* ''Film/{{Harriet}}'' features a magnificent peaceful revolt in the finale, as the enslaved workers on the Southern plantations by the Combahee River hear that Union soldiers are coming to free them, and react by throwing down their tools, grabbing any household items they can reach, and ''running'' for the riverbanks.

* The backstory of ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'''s [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Archaneia canon]] features this - during the rule of the Dolhr empire, a band of slaves led by a man named Iote revolted against their Dolhr masters, tamed the wild wyverns to use as mounts, and after the fall of Dolhr founded the kingdom of Macedon, with Iote as their first king.

* In the early years of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, the Union army did not have an official policy of freeing Confederate slaves, but generally granted them freedom on grounds of military necessity, since depriving the South of slave labor would hinder their war effort. This policy was eventually made official by the passage of the Confiscation Acts. The Confiscation Act of 1862 ensured permanent freedom for all slaves freed by the army, even after the war. Then On January 1, 1863, the emancipation proclamation went into effect, granting freedom for all slaves in Confederate territory not yet occupied by Union troops.

** [[FairForItsDay It helps to remember that most Romans didn't see slavery as vile as we do]], [[BlueAndOrangeMorality which is at least partly because they viewed the institution in radically different ways]]. To modern Americans, slavery is an exclusive, racialized matter; to the Romans (and other ancient peoples) it was something that could befall anybody. Indeed, because Rome's constant wars gave it a steady supply of newly enslaved people, it meant nothing to a landowner to free substantial numbers of his slaves, and it was not unreasonable for an enslaved person to expect most if not all of his or her grandchildren to be free, replaced in bondage with some other poor sap. Moreover, slavery could even happen to Roman citizens, if they weren't careful: to paraphrase a book on the subject: ''By modern standards of enslavement, Julius Freakin' Caesar was once enslaved for a time.''

* ''Series/ThePower2023'': Women held as sex slaves in Carpathia discover the power, killing their captors using it and then fleeing the area where they were being kept.

* In the early years of the UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, the Union army did not have an official policy of freeing Confederate slaves, but generally granted them freedom on grounds of military necessity, since depriving the South of slave labor would hinder their war effort. This policy was eventually made official by the passage of the Confiscation Acts. The Confiscation Act of 1862 ensured permanent freedom for all slaves freed by the army, even after the war. Then On January 1, 1863, the emancipation proclamation went into effect, granting freedom for all slaves in Confederate territory not yet occupied by Union troops.