The slave trade

The abolition of the slave trade is the foundational act of Daenerys Targaryen's rule in Slaver's Bay, a policy that simultaneously defines her as the Breaker of Shackles and generates the overwhelming opposition that threatens to destroy her. From the moment she conquers Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen, she decrees that the buying and selling of human beings is forbidden within her domains, a direct assault on the economic and social system that has sustained the Ghiscari cities for thousands of years. This is not a single event but a continuous, embattled state of affairs that structures the entire Meereenese narrative, forcing Daenerys into a series of escalating compromises that test the limits of her power and her principles.

The Economic and Social Cataclysm

The abolition of the slave trade instantly transforms the economy of Meereen from one of the wealthiest cities in the known world into a struggling, isolated state. Xaro Xhoan Daxos, the merchant prince of Qarth, bluntly explains the consequences to Daenerys: "Qarth will gladly give you gold… for slaves." When she refuses, he warns that without slaves, Meereen has little to offer traders. Copper is plentiful but not valuable, the ancient cedar forests have been felled, and the soil has baked into red dust. The city's storehouses, though initially ample, begin to dwindle, and the blockade imposed by the fleets of Qarth, Tolos, and New Ghis strangles all trade. The freedmen, who once formed the labor force as property, now work for wages so meager they can barely afford to eat, while the old, the young, and the infirm are cast into the streets. The Great Masters, stripped of their human capital, seethe with resentment, and the Sons of the Harpy begin their nightly campaign of murder against any freedman who becomes too prosperous or outspoken. The abolition does not create a free market; it creates a vacuum of poverty, violence, and starvation.

The Political Price of Principle

Daenerys's commitment to ending the slave trade forces her into a series of painful political compromises that erode the very freedom she sought to establish. To stem the nightly slaughter, she agrees to marry Hizdahr zo Loraq, a wealthy Meereenese nobleman whose family's fortune was built on slavery. The marriage is a political necessity, but it requires her to accept a peace that allows the Yunkai'i to continue trading in slaves unmolested, just outside her walls. The most bitter concession comes when she agrees to reopen the fighting pits, the very symbol of the mortal art she had outlawed. "After the wedding Hizdahr will be king," she tells the Green Grace. "Let him reopen the fighting pits if he wishes. I want no part of it." This decision, made to appease the Meereenese and secure the peace, represents a profound defeat, a tacit admission that she cannot remake the city's culture by decree alone. The abolition, in practice, becomes a negotiated, fragile state rather than an absolute transformation.

The Unyielding Hostility of the Slave Powers

The abolition of the slave trade makes Daenerys the sworn enemy of every major power in the region and beyond. The Yunkai'i, the Wise Masters, immediately begin raising armies and hiring sellsword companies—the Windblown, the Long Lances, the Company of the Cat—to crush her. They send envoys to Volantis, where the triarchs, whose wealth is tied to the slave trade, prepare a massive fleet to descend on Meereen. The Qartheen, the Tolosi, and the men of New Ghis all join the blockade, their ships strangling the city's access to the sea. Even the Dothraki khals are drawn into the conflict, their khalasars providing fresh captives for the slave markets that spring up just beyond Daenerys's reach. The abolition is not merely a local policy; it is a declaration of war against an entire civilization, and the forces arrayed against her are overwhelming. As Hizdahr tells her, "When you smashed the slave trade, the blow was felt from Westeros to Asshai."

The Pale Mare and the Collapse of the Dream

The final, devastating consequence of the abolition is the arrival of the pale mare, the bloody flux that sweeps through the refugee camps of Astapori who flee to Meereen for succor. The disease is a direct result of the war and chaos unleashed by the end of slavery; Astapor, the first city Daenerys freed, has collapsed into a nightmare of starvation, cannibalism, and civil war, its survivors pouring northward, carrying the plague with them. Daenerys is forced to keep them outside her walls, condemning them to die, because letting them in would doom her own city. "What kind of mother has no milk to feed her children?" she asks herself, as she watches them die. The abolition, which was meant to create a world of freedom and dignity, has instead produced a landscape of corpses, a city under siege, and a queen who must choose between her principles and the survival of her people. The slave trade is abolished, but the cost is measured in the bodies of the very people she sought to save.