The word slavery (derived from the medieval Latin Slavicus) designates the human condition of people who work for a master without any remuneration and without having any rights over them self. Slavery must fulfill without disagreement or objection all the orders of the master, from birth or capture to death or release. From a historical point of view, slavery means, by definition, the denial of equality between people.

The first historical sources and documents attesting the presence of slavery in a great civilisation are those in Sumeria (Mesopotamia), but in a limited form. In ancient Egypt, especially during the New Kingdom (1550-1070 BC), a large number of slaves detained by someone in the middle class characterised a particular social importance. Most individuals became slaves after being captured during the wars, after the conquering of inhabited territories or kidnapping. Slavery as a social and economic practice has developed into Greco-Roman antiquity. Between the 5th centuries BC. and I e.n. Roman slavery has experienced a period of strong development and expansion. The victories and conquests of Rome led to a stable influx of slaves. It can be said, therefore, that “every great empire in the history of mankind was built on the work of slaves.”

Slavery has reappeared on a large scale, after the Roman model, in the Muslim world and in Byzantium. By the end of the fifteenth century, however, slavery itself was almost eradicated in Europe. Instead, after slavery experienced a very slow decline in the Middle Ages, it was gradually replaced by feudalism.

With the discovery (1492) and the conquest of America, European merchants and explorers needed cheap labor. Initially, the settlements of the American indigenous peoples and tribes were enslaved, but the Spanish, fundamentally Catholic, created legislation that soon banned this practice. This fact led to the importation of African slaves, who had a higher physical resistance, and who came from societies that, in addition, accepted, practiced and maintained their own slavery.

Until the seventeenth century there was a major increase in the number of slaves, due to their importance on large-scale agricultural plantations in North America, South America, and especially in the Caribbean, a region suited to slave trade. This development of black trade was in most cases accompanied by a predominantly racist sentiment: black slaves, and not only, were considered inferior beings without rights – legally they were simple objects or negligible goods, and were often compared to animals or cattle; it had become a common habit to be exploited to the fullest in severe conditions (physical, verbal, emotional or sexual abuses) to death. It is believed that more than 50,000 Africans were taken as slaves and transported per year, only in North America in the seventeenth century.

Despite the entry into force of countless conventions on slavery and official ban in almost all countries of the world, slavery continues to exist globally, on a large scale, both in its traditional form and in its modern form. According to a study published in 2016, there are still 45 million slaves around the world. This is a greater number than any other period of human history. There are around 3 million sex slaves, mostly women, but also men or children who are bound to have sexual intercourse without consent or refusal. These abominable practices and abuses are considered to be some of the most serious violations of human rights in the contemporary era.

Abolition of slavery in Romania

Slavery existed on the territory of today’s Romania before the foundations of Walachia and Moldavia in the 13th-14th centuries, until it was phased out during the 1840s and 1850s and also until 1783 in Transylvania and Bucovina. Most of the slaves were of Roma origin. Particularly in Moldova there were also tatary slaves, probably prisoners captured during the wars with Tartar from Nogai and Crimeea.

The exact origins of slavery in the Danubian Principalities (Moldova and Wallachia) are unknown. Historian Nicolae Iorga associated the arrival of the Roma with the Mongol invasion of Europe in 1241 and considered slavery to be the vestige of that era, the Romanians taking the Mongolian Roma as slaves and preserving their status. Other historians believe they were enslaved while captured during the Battle of the Tatars. The practices of enslaving prisoners could also be taken from the Mongols. The ethnic identity of the “tatar slaves” is unknown, as they may have been captured Tatars of the Golden Horde, or the slaves of the Tatars and the Cumans.

The slaves were owned by nobles, Christian Orthodox or state monasteries. Initially, they were only exploited as blacksmiths and agricultural workers, but when the principals became more and more urban, more and more slaves were used as housewives.

The slaves were considered to be the personal property of the master, who had the power to put them to work, to sell them or to change them for other goods, and possessions of slaves (usually cattle) were also at the disposal of the master.

Marriage between two slaves was allowed only with the consent of the two parties, namely the respective masters of each slave, usually through a financial agreement that led to the sale of a slave to the other owner or by an exchange.

Although in Muntenia, the Criminal Code of 1818 states that “All Roma are born slaves” and that “Stray Roma are the property of the state”, there are, however, a number of slaves who were not Roma and Roma who were not slaves coming from of wealthy families who have managed to redeem their slavery.

Roma slaves were not included in tax censuses and as such there is no reliable statistics about them except for slaves detained by the state. However, there have been many estimates since the 19th century. Estimates for the slave population tended to oscillate between 150,000 to 200,000 people, accounting for about 10 percent of the population of the two principalities. At the time of slavery, the two principalities were between 200,000 and 250,000 Roma, representing 7% of the total population.

Year	Source	Moldavia	Wallachia
1819	Dionisie Fotino	–	120.000
1837	Mihail Kogălniceanu	200.000
1838	Félix Colson	139.255	119.910
1844	Ferdinand Neigebaur	–	180.000
1849	Paul Bataillard	250.000
1857	Jean Alexandre Vaillant	137.000	125.000
1857	Jean Henri Abdolonyme Ubicini	100.000	150.000
1859	Sclavi emancipați	250.000

Source: Wikipedia

The abolition of slavery was carried out following a campaign of young revolutionaries who embraced the liberating ideas of the Enlightenment. A notable person among these young people was also Mihail Kogâlniceanu, who drafted legislation on the abolition of slavery in Moldova. In 1843 Wallachia released the detained slaves and until 1856 all slaves of all categories were released.

Roma emancipation was requested in the program of the Revolution of 1848. Taking part in this revolution, Iosafat Snagoveanul was elected member of the Committee for the liberation of Roma with Cezar Bolliac and Petrache Poenaru.

The 1848 Revolution was defeated, which meant the end of the liberation process of Roma slaves, but after 8 years on February 20, 1856, the “Legion for the Emancipation of All Roma in the Principality of the Romanian Country” was voted. Thus, the slavery of Roma was abolished, compensating each of them with 10 golden coins from the Indemnity Fund House. They were forced to settle down and nomads to sit wherever they wanted, with the obligation to have their own homes and households.

So, by voting these laws in Moldavia and Wallachia in 1855 and 1856, the last stage of Roma slavery eradication was practically constituted, being the first major social reform through which the citizens of the same country had the same rights without any discrimination. Shortly afterwards, in 1865, slavery was abolished on US territory as a result of the American Civil War.

Following the abolition, there were attempts (both on the part of the state and on private initiatives) to sit down nomads and to integrate the Roma into the Romanian society, but they had a rather limited success.

Authors: Augustin Adrian Cristea și Mihai Alin Tudorache – Volunteers of Asociația Necuvinte

Sources:

https://www.theroot.com/how-many-slaves-landed-in-the-us-1790873989

https://books.google.ro/books?id=nkVxNVvex-sC&pg=PA95&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://books.google.ro/books?id=8Cw6EsO59aYC&pg=PA4&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-bishops-of-Rome#toc276189

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/01/world/asia/global-slavery-index.html?_r=0