me_irl

You're a slave?

I'm a person and my name is Anakin!

I had a conversation about The Phantom Menace about how Anakin and Shmi live in a multi-room dwelling by themselves, are given time off, and have enough free time and resources for Anakin to build a protocol droid and multiple pod racers (remember: it's said that he's never finished a race, so either his earlier racers broke down mid-race and had to get towed or else were wrecked).

How does this lifestyle comport with them being slaves?

Sure, they have explosive neck bolts and can be bought and sold, but their lifestyle seems rather outside of what we think of today as slavery.

My conclusion is that the Galaxy Far Far Away has a broader definition of slavery.

There's a few types of employment in the GFFA. There's self-employment and business ownership, like bounty hunting, running your own diner, playing in a band, or operating a cargo business that avoids Imperial entanglements.

There's employment within a military or paramilitary organization, like Grand Army of the Republic, the Empire, or the Jedi.

And then there's being a slave. You need to work for someone else or you die. Maybe you can or can't be literally sold. But you don't have a choice about the fact that you need employment or you will flat out die in the streets. If you aren't defining the terms of your own employment or you aren't earning rank in a military organization, then you are a slave, by the terms of the Star Wars galaxy.