In both fantasy and science fiction, from books, movies, games and tv shows, slave armies are a concept that is used pretty often. A well known example of this is the Unsullied from *Game of Thrones*. Some works use slave armies in Roman settings. However I wonder, was this ever used in history?
The concept seems really weird to me. By creating a slave army you have just given the slaves all they need to kill their masters and break free. They have all the weapons they need, and they've gathered up a large number of slaves in the same place.
I don't see how anyone that owns slaves could ever allow slaves to hold weapons unless you have a much bigger force to keep them in check. So were slave armies ever used in history? And if so by who and when?
Yes, slave armies were used. The Janissaries and Mamluks are a couple of examples and they were used by the Ottoman Turks and Muslim Kingdoms from the middle ages into early modern history. These warrior slaves acquired a degree of status and special privileges that allowed them to control power inside the kingdoms and empires for which they fought. This eventually did cause a degree of instability inside these kingdoms.
