Recently I chatted online with a novice boy who said that a Master had told him that slaves eventually turn over all their assets (property, bank accounts, etc) to their Masters, and he wanted to know if that was true.
Modern kinksters often frame their notions of slavery around the idea that slaves have no property of their own because the slave is him- or herself property, and property, not being people, has no property rights. Logically, then, when a sub embraces slavery, they ought to turn over all their property to their Master. But is it true?
It’s not. First, as a historical note, it’s untrue that slavery always means total loss of property rights. Many cultures, including Ancient Greece and Rome, recognized the concept of debt slavery, in which a creditor took ownership of a debtor until the debtor could repay his debts. Repaying meant that that the debt slave had property rights and could earn money to put toward paying off the debt. Even in American race slavery, historically one of the most brutal forms of slavery ever devised, slaves were sometimes permitted to own property and earn money to purchase their freedom (this was most common in Georgia and the Carolinas).
Regardless of the historical precedents though, it’s still not true that kink slaves automatically turn over their property to their Masters. Master/slave power exchange is not, for most people, something to jumped into all the way at once. Instead, there is usually a slow yielding of control as the relationship gets deeper and deeper and as the pair develop greater and greater trust. Significant financial control (control of bank account, wages/salary, ownership of assets like a house or car, etc) are probably for most healthy M/s couples one of the very last forms of control, and many couples never get there at all.
In my opinion, this degree of power exchange should be put off for several years at least, until the slave is 100% certain he trusts the Master’s honesty and financial judgment and it’s clear that the relationship is likely to be a permanent one. Obviously there is no 100% guarantee that a Master/slave relationship will be permanent, no matter how much those in the relationship might wish it to be. Kinksters get divorced just the way vanilla people do.
Consequently, a slave who turns over all their assets to their Master is taking a huge risk. A Master might turn out to be careless with money or simply make poor financial choices. A Master might turn out to be a selfish asshole who just screws over his slave and squanders that money. Or the Master might tire of the slave and simply dump him without returning his property. Or the Master might suddenly die and leave the slave in a vulnerable position. If the slave has no legal relationship to the master, they may find themselves evicted from the house they’ve lived in and losing control of what should have been joint assets. This is particularly true if the master’s biological family is not aware of or accepting of the Master/slave relationship.
I’ve heard versions of all of these from boys (and in one case, girls) they happened to. I’ve heard about a slave giving all his legal assets to his master, only for the master to blow the money on extravagant purchases and then dismiss the slave. I’ve heard a story from a slave whose master was married to his other slave; when the master died suddenly, the wife-slave chose to throw the non-wife-slave out of the house. If heard of masters demanding assets and then simply ignoring the slave. While these are extreme and unusual stories, they illustrate the various ways that surrendering assets to a master can potentially go very wrong. So learn from those stories.
If a Master/slave couple does wish to establish this degree of power exchange, my advice is to try to replicate a 50s housewife arrangement. The couple’s assets (house, car, retirement account, etc) should be owned jointly, with the sub having clear rights of inheritance should the Master die first. The couple should be legally married; if the slave is the third person in a polyamorous relationship, they should consult a lawyer to draft a will and arrange other legal documents that ensure that in the event of the Master’s death or the collapse of the relationship, the slave will be left with the means to support himself. If the Master is taking the slave’s income, he should not be touching the slave’s retirement account or should be making regular deposits into some sort of account for retirement purposes.
Because relationships can blow up, the Master and slave should have a serious conversation about how assets will be divided if the relationship ends badly. I would suggest writing down something that outlines the couple’s agreement at the start of the relationship, so that if things end acrimoniously the couple has already figured out that issue and if need be the slave has legal evidence of what he agreed to (in case it is necessary to go to court).
A less risky way for a slave to surrender economic control is for the slave’s assets to remain in the slave’s name legally, but under the Master’s direction. The Master tells the slave how to spend the money the slave earns, giving the slave a budget to stick to, paying bills, purchasing food and other necessities, with the rest going into a retirement account or the like. The end result is the much the same as not owning property, but the slave is more protected should something bad happen.
So, for novice slaves, the short answer to the boy’s question is that the complete surrendering of financial assets is not standard. It’s often fantasized about, but is uncommon in practice, so far as I know, and generally represents one of the last steps taken by an experienced Master/slave couple. If a prospective Master presses for that quickly, it’s usually a bad sign. As best, such a Master is inexperienced and uninformed and mistakenly thinks this is what all kinksters do. At worst, it’s a sign of an irresponsible Master who does not have his slave’s best interests at heart.
DO NOT DO THIS until you feel certain that you are ready for this step and your Master has proven himself repeatedly to be a reliable steward of financial decisions. If you do feel ready to do it and you feel that he’s demonstrated his trustworthiness, you and he should have multiple conversations about all the possible contingencies and all the ways your future well-being needs to be protected. The fantasy of TPE is incredibly hot, but the reality is more complicated and needs a lot of discussion and preparation before you attempt anything like this.
Leather-Bound Press 