Thailand
The institution of slavery was firmly embedded into Siamese culture when Anna arrived, but Western and Eastern slave practices were different in many ways. In Siam, slavery was a complex system, an integral part of the political and social fabric.
In some ways, the institution was more comparable to feudalism or indentured servitude than Western notions of slavery. There were various levels of slavery, the top tiers of which included the possibility of buying or earning freedom. “Non-redeemable” slaves, those not kept under the condition of debt to their owner, were considered property. Although there were often ways for a non-redeemable slave to earn his freedom, many in this category remained so for their entire lives; their children were also considered slaves, although on a higher level.
Visitors to Siam claimed that slaves were treated relatively humanely, even “better than English servants.” There are too few firsthand accounts of slave conditions from that period, however, to gauge what the institution was truly like in practice. Regardless of how slavery compared to that in the West, it was still a systematized form of forced labor.
By the time King Chulalongkorn abolished slavery in 1905, historians estimate that more than one third of the population belonged to another.
United States
While Anna was learning about the political structure of slavery in Siam, the US was fighting a civil war over the practice. Compared to slavery in the East, America’s institution was unwavering, a system grounded in dehumanization and, often, cruelty.
The American Civil War spanned from 1861 through 1865. Like Siam, slavery was a deeply embedded element of the country’s politics, economy, and culture; the battle over its abolition proved to be the most bloody war in American history.
Although she had never set foot in America, Anna was a fervent abolitionist. The Civil War was a major topic of conversation among the missionary community in Siam—many of the English missionaries were morally opposed to slavery, and they discussed information about the war whenever it arrived—and Anna included the women of the Inner City in this conversation as well. Although slavery was too ingrained in Siamese culture for Anna to inspire any kind of political revolution, her abolitionism did influence many of the people with whom she came in contact. Sonklin, one of King Mongkut’s wives and a close friend of Anna’s, was particularly influenced by Anna’s antislavery stance, and even signed her letters as ‘Klin Harriett Beecher Stowe’ out of respect for Anna’s favorite author.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, not only inspired Anna and her pupils; it had a resounding, almost revolutionary impact on the US as well. The book was most directly influenced by the Compromise of 1850 and subsequent Fugitive Slave Law. The Compromise ended slave trade in Washington DC, but not the institution of slavery itself. With the Fugitive Slave Law, all Americans were required to assist in the capture of escaped slaves and eradicated any legal protection fugitives once had. Stowe presented her resentment of slavery in her novel, which was published in a series of installments in National Era beginning in 1851. The book humanized slavery for the Northerners who had never witnessed it firsthand, inspiring many to join the abolitionist movement.
The King and I 