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Roma Holocaust Memorial Centre

Slavery

Roma slavery

In Moldavia and Wallachia a large part of the Roma population lived for roughly five centuries as the property of the state, the prince, the monasteries or the boyars. It was abolished in February 1856, and the people freed were given nothing.

Period covered
1385–1856
Where
The principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia
Freed at abolition
33,267 families in Wallachia, an estimated 20,000 more in Moldavia — roughly 250,000 people
Commemorated
20 February, marked in Romania each year as the day of abolition

The earliest surviving reference to Roma in the Romanian lands is already a record of enslavement: a Wallachian document of 1385 recording a gift of enslaved Roma to a monastery. What follows is the longest period of slavery in European history, and one of the least widely known.

Section 1

Roughly five centuries of slavery

In Moldavia and Wallachia, a large part of the Roma population lived for roughly five centuries in conditions of slavery. Roma could be the property of:

  • the state;
  • the ruling prince;
  • monasteries;
  • boyars (the landowning nobility);
  • private individual owners.

They were divided into three legal categories:

Crown or state Roma
“Țiganii domnești” — the property of the ruling prince or of the state.
Monastery Roma
“Țiganii mănăstirești” — the property of monasteries and religious institutions.
Boyar Roma
“Țiganii boierești” — the property of boyars and private landowners.

Roma could be sold, bought, given as gifts, inherited, or transferred between owners; families could be, and often were, separated in the process. Roma slavery was a legal and economic institution upheld for centuries, regulated by customary law and later codified in the legal codes issued by the Phanariote princes — such as the Caragea and Calimach Codes of the early 19th century.

By the time of final abolition, the numbers involved were enormous. When emancipation was completed in 1857, there were 33,267 newly-freed Roma families in Wallachia alone — 6,241 of them formerly belonging to the state and 12,081 to the Church, with the remaining roughly 14,945 families having belonged to boyars. In Moldavia, an estimated further 20,000 families were freed.

Lithograph of a settlement of enslaved Roma in Muntenia: low shelters, carts and figures among trees.
A settlement of Roma slaves in Muntenia.Lithograph, 1850 · Public domain

Sources

Section 2

Resistance

Roma did not passively accept enslavement. Court records preserve individual cases of resistance through the legal system itself: the Wallachian Roma woman Ioana Rădăreasa, for example, spent more than a decade — from 1843 until the final abolition in 1856 — fighting through the courts of Wallachia for her own freedom and that of her family, illustrating both the determination of enslaved Roma to use every available legal avenue, and the resistance of boyar owners to any form of emancipation.

Sources

Section 3

Religion and Roma slavery in the Romanian Principalities

The Church played a complex role in the history of Roma slavery in the Romanian Principalities. A large number of Roma were the property of monasteries and religious institutions, known as “monastery Gypsies”. This historical fact is essential to understanding the slave system as a whole: religious institutions were not merely witnesses to it, but in many cases were themselves owners of enslaved Roma.

At the same time, the dominant religion was used as an instrument in the process of controlling and “integrating” these communities — baptism and conformity to Orthodox Christian practice were frequently presented as conditions for better treatment, even as ownership of Roma persons by monasteries continued for centuries.

Printed notice of 1852 advertising an auction of enslaved people at Elias Monastery.
An 1852 notice advertising the sale, by auction at Elias Monastery, of a group of eighteen enslaved Roma people, including ten boys, seven women and three girls.Public domain

Sources

Section 4

Emancipation of the Roma from slavery

In the first half of the 19th century, intellectual and political movements emerged calling for the abolition of slavery. The process of emancipation was gradual: Moldavia and Wallachia adopted a series of laws that progressively freed the different categories of enslaved Roma — beginning with Crown- and monastery-owned Roma in 1843–1847, and ending with all remaining privately-owned Roma in 1855–1856.

1855 — Moldavia
Moldavia adopted the law abolishing the slavery of the last Roma still held in private ownership.
1856 — Wallachia
In February 1856 Wallachia adopted the final emancipation law. The date appears in two forms, depending on the calendar used: 8 February 1856 in the Julian calendar, 20 February 1856 in the Gregorian.

20 February 1856

Final abolition of Roma slavery in the Romanian Principalities

20 February is now marked in Romania each year as the day commemorating the abolition of Roma slavery. As the Council of Europe factsheets note, however, emancipation was purely legal: it was not accompanied by land reform, financial support, or any programme of social integration for the roughly 250,000 people who were freed — a gap whose consequences are still discussed today.

Nineteenth-century engraving of a standing Roma figure, titled Esclave Tsigane.
“Esclave Tsigane” — “Gypsy Slave”.Engraving by Théodore Valério, 19th century · Public domain

Sources

Recommended sources

Council of Europe

Further reading

  • Achim, V., The Roma in Romanian History, Central European University Press, 2004
  • Europeana, “Roma slavery in Romania — a history”europeana.eu
  • RomArchive — Roma history and the civil rights movementromarchive.eu

The reading list above is the one the Centre supplied with this document, reproduced as it stands. Works cited without a link are books, articles and institutional publications the document names without one; no link has been guessed for them.

The history continues in How many were killed.

How many were killedAll chapters