Why Jedi Never Stopped Slavery In the Galaxy (The Evil of the Republic)

Why did the Jedi allow for slavery to still be widely practiced in the galaxy despite being heavily morally opposed to it? In today's holocron video we explore the complex politics of slavery in Star Wars.

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Composer: Whitesand (Martynas Lau)
Year: 2017
Title: Eternity

Additional Music Terminus by: Scott Buckley
Released under CC-BY 4.0.

[untitled]

Master Lin-Koln tried to end it, but he got shot with a blaster in an opera house on Coruscant

[TheKad]

People underestimate Hutt Space. Jabba the Hutt and his ancestors were way more powerful than the movies give him credit for.

[ElevenTruther]

At the end of the day, the republic never had enough influence in the outer rim to enforce the full extent of it's laws there, especially during the 1000 years where they had no central military to threaten anyone with.

[kdmmorrison]

It was a case of the Jedi ignoring injustice when it suited them. Hats off to Qui-Gon tho.

[SirWhig-esq.]

Hutt, Transdoshan, Zygerrian Black Sun all the same darkness. All the same pain.

[ZoeMalDoran]

Small correction. The part arrived before Cliegg Lars bought Shmi's freedom. Shmi, Owen, and Cliegg used it to actually buy her freedom from Watto (as seen via Leia reading Shmi's holo-journal in the novel Tatooine Ghost).

There's a passage in the Power of the Jedi Sourcebook (written for the d20 WotC Star Wars RPG between 2002 and 2005) that describes a pair of Jedi (Master and Padawan) on a mission in Hutt Space, where they witness the brutality that Hutts subject their slaves to and the Master does nothing. On the next phase of their mission, now inside the Republic on Ord Mantel, the Master intervenes to prevent a shopkeeper beating his servant.

The Padawan is confused, pointing out that they witnessed much greater acts of barbarism and brutality on Nar Shaddaa yet the Master did not intervene.
The Master explains that slavery is legal in Hutt Space, and for him to attempt to rescue slaves on Nar Shaddaa he would by "passing judgement on Hutt Culture on behalf of the Republic". He continues by saying that "slavery is not legal on Ord Mantel. For that shopkeeper to beat his servant it was an unlawful display of dominance and cruelty; one that the Republic would immediately condemn if it knew about it". He expresses regret that the disparity exists, and assures his padawan that were it up to him, he would liberate every slave in Hutt Space, but without the Republic's permission he is not in a position to correct matters.

[ghostninja]

Long story short, Jedi are the Republic's lap dogs and can not defy their master's wishes.

[daniels]

I always think back to the early Tales of the Jedi comics, which had a storyline set circa 4, 000BBY. Back then, the Jedi Order was depicted as being allied to the Republic, but not actually working for it. They were an autonomous organization unto themselves and their main base of operations was Ossus, not Coruscant. This always made more sense to me than what Lucas showed us in the prequels. The Jedi were *not* (as Obi-Wan nostalgically claimed) "guardians of peace and justice". They were tools for enforcing Republic policy, within Republic boundaries. If that meant ignoring crises even within the Republic, like the Trade Federation annexing Naboo then they would do so.

[paularrowsmith]

I love videos like these. They fill in information you barely knew anything about. The information go's to show you that Gorge Lucas really added real world issues in his space opera.

[raijyn]

Imagine if the clone army was used to fight slavery instead

[Trapper-Heart]

Yes this aspect of Star Wars always did bother me but now I know the complexities of the issue of Jedi and slaver. I'll be sure to note this in my fan-fiction.

[kaidorade]

“The Republic doesn’t exist out here. We must survive on our own “ say what you will about the prequel scripts…lines like this hit hard

[asterjaden]

The Hutt's are pretty powerful in their own right, would be good to see the Hutt's vs The Republic.

[Nedzilla]

Money and influence, essentially. The Republic wouldn't say no to either. Nor would they stop slavery if it was ingrained within a culture.

[Acoto]

Even the Empire didnt go lightly into Hutt Space.

[TheEnclave--]

I’m fighting slavery as a Jedi right now in Star Wars the old Republic mmorpg 😂😂😂.

[jacksonyon]

Again, the biggest mistake of the Jedi was serving the republic completely.

[randomobserver]

Historically the Republic had never covered all the galaxy. Sometimes more, sometimes less, maxing out at something over half, and thinly held at the frontiers [say, Tatooine and similar places], and wherever large alien civilizations with interstellar capability existed inside it, with or without being members of the republic [were the Hutts even in the republic?]. Practicality is not a trivial consideration.
Neither is the question of who has sovereignty at all. Is a place part of the Republic at all? If not, what business of the Republic to police it?
At some times, especially in its final millennium, it was more like the UN than a single polity. TO what degree did it exercise legal sovereignty over its members? Or did it just serve them? Did it have the authority to dictate the terms of their society and politics? Did it have the means enforce that by arms against them?
What about Diversity? Not trifling ethnic and cultural diversity among the humans either. This was a multispecies civilization. Reptilian or insectoid species, or what have you, might assume bipedal forms for whatever in-universe reason, but it would be absurd to think they would develop anything resembling the psychological, social, moral and political assumptions that primates might do. And even the primates might range widely. An insectoid species is certainly not going to develop anything resembling personal liberty. Or equality. It might develop a kind of democracy, insofar as a hive mind to which all contribute, unequally, and then ruthlessly conform to the decision can be so named. By what authority would the Republic enforce Primate, Human, and even selective human morality at that, on these species?
Maybe the enslavement of human Republic citizens by aliens, if the Republic is prepared to go to war over it.
It's also a huge galaxy. With, in Legends, 25ky of history. How many Jedi are there at any one time, and are they busy?

[EngineTruck]

This is a good example of why the Jedi joining the Republic was the worst decision they could’ve made.

[KepaniGrayson]

Jedi unimaginable power but they can't end slavery. All because the Republic rather turn a blind eye.