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Wallachia and Moldavia Petre Petcut PROJect EDucatION OF ROMA | HIstORY ROMA CHILDreN COUNCIL CONSEIL OF EUROPE DE L´EUROPE IN EurOpe WALLACHIA 2.2 AND MOLDAVIA Wallachia and Moldavia Petre Petcut Settlement in Romania | Freedom and Slavery | How Was Slavery Possible? | The Legal Status of Roma in Slavery | Legislation | Aspects of Slave Life | The Beginnings of Emancipation | Emancipation of Roma Owned by the Church. Act of 1847 | The End of Slavery Unlike in any other European region, the Roma in former Wallachia and Moldavia (today‘s Romania), have lived in slavery for five hundred years. In the mid-19th century, when slavery was officially abolished, a large number of Roma left the country and migrated to Central and Western Europe as well as to America. INtrODuctION The history of Roma migration into ACQUISITIONS after Europe was abruptly brought to a halt WORLD War I IN 1919/20 for those Roma who arrived in the Romanian territories of the Southern CHISINau IASI and Eastern Carpathian Mountains. BISTRITA Roma who arrived in Wallachia and MOLDAVIA Moldavia in the second half of the CLUJ th BAcau 14 century were forced into bondage traNSYLVANIA BESSARABIA and slavery for five centuries, and ACQUISITIONS after their history was marked by a turning WORLD War I IN 1919/20 ROMANIA IN 1858/59 point comparable only to the enslave- WIth WaLLachIA AND MOLDAVIA ment of the Afro-American population SIBIU in the United States. BANAT GALATI “Gypsies shall be born only BRAILA slaves; anyone born of a slave mother shall also become a slave …” stated TISMANA ROMANIAN the code of Wallachia at the beginning ACQUISITIONS IN 1881 of the 19th century. Roma were owned WALLACHIA BUCHAREST by the Prince (as “slaves of the State” CraIOVA CONSTANTA – “tigania domneasca”), monasteries and private individuals. Selling, bu- ACQUISITIONS ying and giving away whole families IN 1913 of slaves was common practice among the owners, who had unlimited rights over their slaves. In fact, slave-ow- Actual borders of Romania ners could do whatever they liked to (after WW II) The FORMatION OF ROMANIa Ill. 1 their slaves, short of killing them. Towards the middle of the 19th century, an abolitionist movement literature and plays. Once the emanci- Traces of slavery persisted in the emerged among intellectuals in the pation of slaves had been achieved, it memories of former masters and their sla- Danubian Principalities, and the figure raised – and still raises today – the is- ves, and the period of slavery has marked of the “Gypsy” became a frequent sue of their integration into the social relations between the descendants of the- subject in newspaper articles, poetry, and economic life of Romania. se two social strata to this day. ISTANBUL Settlement in Romania Freedom and Slavery How Was Slavery Possible? Ill. 2 Ill. 3 Bill of sale for a group of Roma slaves, 1558 Auguste Raffet, “Famille tsigane en voyage en Moldavie” (from Hancock 2002, p. 22) (Gypsy family on tour in Moldavia), July 19, 1837. (from Hancock 2002, p. 28) StefaN RAZVAN, ROM AND LORD OF MOLDAVIA The instances when Roma succeeded in overcoming social bar- high official representative of some of the dynasties in the prin- riers and achieving good standing in the public structure in the cipality. As a child, Stefan was a slave of Anastasi, metropolitan principalities are more of an exception than the rule. The case of Moldavia in 1572 - 1578, who gave him a good education, and of Stefan Razvan who became prince, is well known. Different subsequently in his will the metropolitan liberated him. Stefan versions exist about his origins. According to one of them, he Razvan‘s life was quite turbulent. He became a boyar (contrary to was the son of a Romanian, a serf, while his father was a Gypsy Central and Western Europe, in Wallachia and Moldavia, as well slave of Prince Mihai Vitezul of Wallachia. According to another as throughout the entire Orthodox world, where the aristocracy version, popular in literature, he was the son of a Gypsy slave of was not a closed inherited category, this was possible), he be- the Prince of Wallachia, and his father was unknown, probably a came a government official, was sent on a diplomatic mission to A donation of 300 “salashe” service”, a village on the banks of the SETTLEMENT IN ROMANIA of “Gypsies” was made to the Cozia Jeravat where it flows into the Bârlad, monastery in 1388, by Lord Mircea or more precisely where “Lie” and “Ti- the Old. Further documentary evidence ganestii” were “cnezi” (local masters). The first undisputed evidence of Roma emerges over the following decades. Historians consider this deed as the first north of the Danube also constitutes The Roma slaves of the Tismana mo- indirect documentary evidence of Roma the first evidence of slavery. In 1385, nastery are mentioned in all documents in Moldavia, and a document from July Dan I, Voivode of Wallachia, confir- confirming its possessions, until the 8, 1428 as the first direct evidence. In med property given to the Convent of 17th century. the latter, Voivode Alexander the Good the Virgin Mary, Tismana, including 40 A deed of August 2, 1414, is- endowed the Bistrita monastery with 31 “salashe” (a term derived from Turkish, sued in Suceava, Moldavia, mentions “chelyadi” (a term derived from Slavic denoting families or tent communities) Alexander the Good, who gives Toader languages, equal in meaning to “sa- of “Atigani” (“Gypsies”). the Dwarf, in return for “his faithful lash”) of “Gypsies”. slavery from their eastern neighbours, Tartar families as slaves. However, FREEDOM AND SLAVERY the Tartars. The latter commonly tur- slavery was known in the region well ned prisoners of war into slaves, a fate before the Roma arrived. suffered by many Romanians, and vice Historians believe that, in their Some historians believe that the Ro- versa: in 1402, Alexander the Good migration from Greece and Bulgaria manians took over the institution of gave the Moldovita monastery four towards Central and Western Europe, COUNCIL OF EUROPE ROMA | HIstORY PROJect EDucatION OF ROMA CHILDreN IN EurOpe WALLACHIA 2.2 AND MOLDAVIA Ill. 4 Gold-panner Roma (“Rudari”/“Aurari”/“Bayash”) at work. Drawing, about 1850 Ill. 3 (from Gronemeyer / Rakelmann 1988, p. 125) Ill. 5 (provided by Elena Marushiakova / Veselin Popov) Istanbul, then went to the “Zaporozhskaia Sech” (an indepen- prince‘s throne for five months (from April to August 1595) with dent formation of the Cossacks on the territory of present-day the support of Poland. While he was successfully fighting with the Ukraine), reaching the position of “Hetman” (commander in Ottoman armies in Wallachia, he captured Bucharest, Giurgiu, chief of the Cossack forces), served in the Polish army under Braila, and besieged Targovishte and Ismail. At this time the boy- King Sigismund III Batory with the rank of colonel and with a ar Ieremia Movila was proclaimed Prince of Moldavia, also with noble title, and returned to Moldavia to become the commander Polish support. Stefan Razvan returned to Moldavia, however on of the personal guards of Prince Aron Tiranul. In the internal December 14, 1595 he was defeated at the battle of Areni by the strife in Wallachia and Moldavia in 1595, Stefan Razvan suc- united army of King Sigismund III and Prince Ieremia Movila, ceeded in overthrowing Prince Aron Tiranul and ascended to the and executed on March 6, 1596. a significant number of Roma passed ly documents refer to Roma as “cnezi” by a whole series of liberties granted through Wallachia and then Molda- (master of the village, minor nobili- to slaves by their owners. The most via. Thus there must have been an in- ty; therefore free men); in the case of valuable of these were the freedom of itial period during which Roma in this Transylvania, Roma were always free moving about within the country (with area were free. In Wallachia, the 1385 (their legal status was identical to that nomads simply paying an annual tax document by Voivode Dan I tells us of serf peasants). to their masters), and the internal ju- nothing about their legal status prior The hypothesis of an initial pe- dicial autonomy mainly for nomadic to that donation. In Moldavia, the ear- riod of freedom for Roma is confirmed communities. face of the authority of the nobility. convenient way of repaying debts or HOW WAS SLAVERY The sovereign could not exercise effec- redeeming oneself from Turk or Tar- POssIBLE? tive authority throughout the country tar slavery. Slaves were good for any- in order to keep his own slaves under thing, equivalent to any value, sold, A local custom required free peasants his direct influence. The Roma were given as wedding presents or dow- who had worked on a feudal estate for forced into slavery by local masters. ries, gifted to the monastery so that twelve years to become serfs (“ruma- The existence of Roma slaves the master’s name was mentioned du- ni”) of the boyar. There is reason to in Wallachia and Moldavia underwent ring mass, and exchanged for animals believe that the Roma were treated si- the most spectacular reversals with or cloth trousers; should they fail to milarly. Another, equally important as- changes in the masters’ financial si- submit, “they should be beaten very pect is the weakness of the state in the tuation. Selling slaves was the most hard”. [Ills. 2, 10] The Legal Status of Roma in Slavery Legislation Aspects of Slave Life SPOONMAKers GOLD paNNers “UrsarI GYpsIes” Their trade was woodwork; they made Some of them lived off the proceeds of They owned bears and earned a living bins of various sizes, spindles, spoons the gold they discovered. Others did by making them dance in towns and and other domestic utensils.
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