Slaves were either criminals who had been convicted for serious crimes, or prisoners taken in battle, or foreigners who subjected themselves willingly to slavery in Utopia because they were under the death penalty in their own country or because of a life of unendurable poverty and drudgery in their homeland. According to the Utopian system of servitude, allowance was provided for a slave to gain his freedom by good behavior and clear evidence of reformation of character. Furthermore, slavery was not hereditary; hence, the children of slaves were granted free citizen status.
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