Ancillae (plural) (singular, ancilla) were female house slaves in ancient Rome, as well as in Europe during the Middle Ages. [1]
In Medieval Europe, slavery was gradually replaced by serfdom, but a small number of female slaves were imported as household servants for the wealthy, most commonly in Italy, Spain and France. [1]
Ancilla was the common word for a female house slave in ancient Rome. The more general word for a female slave was serva. An ancilla in an upper class household might serve like a lady's maid. [2] Ancillae in this setting might be specialized in attending to the upkeep, storage, and readiness of the mistress's wardrobe or jewelry. [3] For example, one inscription records an ancilla named Phoebe assigned ad speculum, "to the mirror". [4]
The Roman law of slavery pertained to both male and female slaves, and was specific to ancillae primarily in regard to socially gendered issues arising from motherhood and marriage. Since the status of slaves was defined by the lack of legal personhood, ancillae could not enter into forms of marriage recognized in Roman law; however, ancillae like other household slaves might form a heterosexual union (contubernium) [5] that expressed an intention to marry if both partners were manumitted and obtained citizen rights. [6] A master who wanted to marry an ancilla could free her for this purpose. A man of senatorial rank could not legally marry a freed woman but might enter into monogamous concubinage (concubinatus) with her. [7]
In general, children of ancillae were born into slavery as vernae .
As the Roman Empire became Christianized, enslaving Christians was banned but still permitted for non-Christians. Similarly, it was banned to make Muslims slaves in the Muslim world, but permitted to take non-Muslims as slaves. This created a slave trade in which slaves from the Muslim world were sold to Christian Europe, and slaves from Europe were sold to the Muslim Middle East. [1]
The biggest source of ancillae for Italy and Spain was the Balkan slave trade and the Black Sea slave trade. The merchants of this slave trade were often Venetian: the Balkan slave trade was a part of the Venetian slave trade, and the Black Sea slave trade was particularly Venetian, partially Genoese.
The slaves normally converted to the Christianity or Islam of their respective masters after they had been bought, but were still kept in slavery. While it was legal for an ancilla to marry, she as well as her children were still slaves. Because this status caused legal confusion between the legal guardianship of a husband towards his wife and children, marrying an ancilla was not encouraged, which created a need for continuing slave import to uphold the recruitment of new ancillae, since there were few born into slavery.
Most medieval ancillae came from the Greek Orthodox Balkans, and although they were Christians, they were not recognized as such by the Catholic Church; hence taking them as slaves was considered legal. [1]
Among the ancillae slaves where Maddalena, mother of Carlo de' Medici (1428–1492), who is noted to have been a Circassian slave bought in 1427 in Venice. [8]
The occurrence of enslaved ancillae disappeared in South Europe when the Balkan slave trade and the Black Sea slave trade to Europe stopped in the mid 15th-century.
Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between two people in which the couple does not want to, or cannot, enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar, but mutually exclusive.
Saqaliba is a term used in medieval Arabic sources to refer to Slavs, and other peoples of Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe. The term originates from the Middle Greek slavos/sklavenos (Slav), which in Hispano-Arabic came to designate Slavic slaves.
Slavery in medieval Europe was widespread. Europe and North Africa were part of an interconnected trade network across the Mediterranean Sea, and this included slave trading. During the medieval period (500–1500), wartime captives were commonly forced into slavery. As European kingdoms transitioned to feudal societies, a different legal category of unfree persons – serfdom –began to replace slavery as the main economic and agricultural engine. Throughout medieval Europe, the perspectives and societal roles of enslaved peoples differed greatly, from some being restricted to agricultural labor to others being positioned as trusted political advisors.
Islamic views on slavery represent a complex and multifaceted body of Islamic thought, with various Islamic groups or thinkers espousing views on the matter which have been radically different throughout history. Slavery was a mainstay of life in pre-Islamic Arabia and surrounding lands. The Quran and the hadith address slavery extensively, assuming its existence as part of society but viewing it as an exceptional condition and restricting its scope. Early Islam forbade enslavement of dhimmis, the free members of Islamic society, including non-Muslims and set out to regulate and improve the conditions of human bondage. Islamic law regarded as legal slaves only those non-Muslims who were imprisoned or bought beyond the borders of Islamic rule, or the sons and daughters of slaves already in captivity. In later classical Islamic law, the topic of slavery is covered at great length.
White slavery refers to the enslavement of any of the world's European ethnic groups throughout human history, whether perpetrated by non-Europeans or by other Europeans. Slavery in ancient Rome was frequently dependent on a person's socio-economic status and national affiliation, and thus included European slaves. It was also common for European people to be enslaved and traded in the Muslim world; European women, in particular, were highly sought-after to be concubines in the harems of many Muslim rulers. Examples of such slavery conducted in Islamic empires include the Arab slave trade, the Barbary slave trade, the Ottoman slave trade, and the Black Sea slave trade, among others.
Slavery in ancient Rome played an important role in society and the economy. Unskilled or low-skill slaves labored in the fields, mines, and mills with few opportunities for advancement and little chance of freedom. Skilled and educated slaves—including artisans, chefs, domestic staff and personal attendants, entertainers, business managers, accountants and bankers, educators at all levels, secretaries and librarians, civil servants, and physicians—occupied a more privileged tier of servitude and could hope to obtain freedom through one of several well-defined paths with protections under the law. The possibility of manumission and subsequent citizenship was a distinguishing feature of Rome's system of slavery, resulting in a significant and influential number of freedpersons in Roman society.
Slavery was a major institution and a significant part of the Ottoman Empire's economy and traditional society.
Slavery in Spain began in the 15th century and reached its peak in the 16th century. The history of Spanish enslavement of Africans began with Portuguese captains Antão Gonçalves and Nuno Tristão in 1441. The first large group of African slaves, made up of 235 slaves, came with Lançarote de Freitas three years later. In 1462, Portuguese slave traders began to operate in Seville, Spain. During the 1470s, Spanish merchants began to trade large numbers of slaves. Slaves were auctioned at market at a cathedral, and subsequently were transported to cities all over Imperial Spain. This led to the spread of Moorish, African, and Christian slavery in Spain. By the 16th century, 7.4 percent of the population in Seville, Spain were slaves. Many historians have concluded that Renaissance and early-modern Spain had the highest amount of African slaves in Europe.
The history of slavery in the Muslim world was throughout the history of Islam with slaves serving in various social and economic roles, from powerful emirs to harshly treated manual laborers. Slaves were widely employed in irrigation, mining, and animal husbandry, but most commonly as soldiers, guards, domestic workers, and concubines. The use of slaves for hard physical labor early on in Muslim history led to several destructive slave revolts, the most notable being the Zanj Rebellion of 869–883, and led to the end of the practice. Many rulers also used slaves in the military and administration to such an extent that slaves could seize power, as did the Mamluks.
The Black Sea slave trade trafficked people across the Black Sea from Europe and the Caucasus to slavery in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The Black Sea slave trade was a center of the slave trade between Europe and the rest of the world from antiquity until the 19th century. One of the major and most significant slave trades of the Black Sea region was the trade of the Crimean Khanate, known as the Crimean slave trade.
Concubinage in the Muslim world was the practice of Muslim men entering into intimate relationships without marriage, with enslaved women, though in rare, exceptional cases, sometimes with free women. If the concubine gave birth to a child, she attained a higher status known as umm al-walad.
Cariye was a title and term used for category of enslaved women concubines in the Islamic world of the Middle East. They are particularly known in history from the era of Ottoman Empire, where they existed until the early 20th century, when the Ottoman Imperial Harem was closed.
In classical Islamic law, a concubine was an unmarried slave-woman with whom her master engaged in sexual relations. Concubinage was widely accepted by Muslim scholars in pre-modern times. Most modern Muslims, both scholars and laypersons, believe that Islam no longer permits concubinage and that sexual relations are religiously permissible only within marriage.
In ancient Rome, contubernium was a quasi-marital relationship between two slaves or between a slave (servus) and a free person who was usually a former slave or the child of a former slave. A slave involved in such a relationship was called contubernalis, the basic and general meaning of which was "companion".
Concubinatus was a monogamous union, intended to be of some duration but not necessarily permanent, that was socially and to some extent legally recognized as an alternative to marriage in the Roman Empire. Concubinage became a legal concern in response to Augustan moral legislation that criminalized adultery and imposed penalties on some consensual sexual behaviors outside marriage.
Avret Pazarları, or female slave bazaar, was a market of female slaves located in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, operating from the mid-15th century to the early 20th century. Many households owned female slaves, employing them as domestic servants. The Ottoman state regulated the slave market and imposed taxes on every slave transaction.
Slavery in Egypt existed up until the early 20th century. It differed from the previous slavery in ancient Egypt, being managed in accordance with Islamic law from the conquest of the Caliphate in the 7th century until the practice stopped in the early 20th-century, having been gradually phased out when the slave trade was banned in the late 19th century.
The Balkan slave trade was the trade in slaves from the Balkans via Venetian slave traders across the Adriatic and Aegean Seas to Italy, Spain, and the Islamic Middle East, from the 7th century during the Early Middle Ages until the mid-15th century. It was one of the routes of the Venetian slave trade.
The Venetian slave trade refers to the slave trade conducted by the Republic of Venice, primarily from the Early Middle Ages to the Late Middle Ages. The slave trade was a contributing factor to the early prosperity of the young Republic of Venice as a major trading empire in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Genoese slave trade refers to the slave trade conducted by the Republic of Genoa, which was a major business during primarily the Middle Ages.
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