  The introduction of confined, ``slave'' fields is frequently useful as a
formal device in models of condensed matter physics; it becomes a conceptual
necessity for describing possible phases of matter where the slaves are
liberated. Here I discuss some aspects of the fractional quantum Hall effect
from this point of view, emphasizing analogies with phenomena in other areas of
physics, particularly to the Meissner and Higgs mechanisms, and to
confinement-deconfinement transitions. In this application, and in some recent
attempts to model the normal state of copper oxide superconductors, it is
important to employ slave anyon fields.
