On February 7, 1929, Iran’s parliament ratified a short bill manumitting all slaves and declaring slavery on Iranian soil illegal. Only a few lines long, the law represented the final step in Iran’s century long history with eroding the presence of slavery from within its borders. The law came as another one of Reza Shah’s initiatives to recreate Iran as a modern and progressive nation, encompassing social and political markers in an effort to emulate European standards. Wedged in between other measures, including Tehran’s municipal decree regulating restaurants in 1928 and laws enforcing Western dress in 1930, the end of slavery was another measure intended to present a visible yet superficial semblance of Iranian modernity. Although earlier political debates, especially during the Constitutional Revolution, had questioned the presence of slavery in Iran, its legitimacy as an institution was not legally challenged until Reza Shah’s rule. By 1929, the practice of slavery was isolated to certain regions in Iran, especially along the Persian Gulf coastline. The weakness of the Iran’s center-periphery relations, coupled with the lack of urgency surrounding the bill resulted in a fairly lukewarm response to the new law on behalf of government officials. This paper looks at manumission and its aftermath during the Reza Shah period, questioning the extent to which manumission and slaves were considered to be a priority during his administration. By examining government documents and newspapers, as well as British records from the Persian Gulf, this paper seeks to present both official and popular takes on abolition and the presence of slavery in Iran.