In nineteenth-century Qajar Iran, it was somewhat commonplace to give a slave as a gift. This was both a show of power and a way to garner favor – the act of giving a slave as a gift not wholly dissimilar to solidifying a political bond through marriage. Through this act of gift giving, the object becomes something other than what it was initially, by performing a particular role designated by the nature of the gift. I will place the concepts of gift-giving, performativity, and becoming in conversation with one another, be it through marriage or the giving of slaves and/or domestics as gifts, arguing that the affects surrounding the performances of the good wife, good mistress, and good and faithful servant/slave were quite similar across ethnic and racial boundaries. Yet, while the roles being performed across ethnic and racial boundaries were similar, the differences in affects surrounding the performances and processes of becoming are manifold – different reactions to races and ethnicities come to the fore when these similar performances are examined. While there has recently been more scholarship on slavery and domesticity in Iran, these questions of affect and performativity, which can give greater insight into the racial and ethnic dimensions of servitude, have yet to be addressed. Through examining memoirs from nineteenth century Iran, along with marriage contracts and wills, in which slaves and servants were often included, this paper will ultimately ask the question: how did performances of various domestic roles, and the responses to those performances, say about perceived ethnic and racial differences? Also, what language is used in the feelings and affects surrounding giving or buying and/or selling slaves, servants, or royal women, and their processes of becoming servants or wives? How do non-royal women “pass” as royal, or embody becoming royal? I will also explore how the language surrounding slavery and domesticity in regards to race changed over time, transforming, to an extent, the meaning of race itself in the context of who counted as a slave versus simply a domestic servant, in other words, racializing race. While processes of performing various roles were intimately tied to becoming more powerful in spaces of domesticity, regardless of race, race and ethnicity still figured heavily into perceptions of power and influence.