Test 2 - Slavery

Verna

person born into slavery

• cost effective way of producing slaves

• frowned on to impregnate enslaved woman on purpose

Vilicus

Most privileged of all slaves

• a farm manager overseeing the economic production of the entire familia

• owner was in the city

Familia Urbana

Slaves who worked in the city and provided emotional support, were highly educated, and often had specialized jobs

• expensive clothes

• cared for when sick

• very niche jobs (pearl setter, in charge of purple garments/pictures)

Familia Rustica

Slaves who worked on farms, often in poorer conditions, without varied food or comfortable shelter

• slave prisons: tiny, dark, quarters where field workers were chained when not working

• some owners disproved of chain gangs

Contubernium

Relationships of slaves, tent mates

• children illegitimate

• not recognized by law

• owner may recognized these families and kept them together or given them wills

Peculium

Assets allowed by a Roman slave owner for a slave to manage as their own while still remaining the owner's property

opera

free work

• certain number of days a year

• labor similar to that of a slave

  • could be exempt if they needed to care for their family, were old, sick, or paid someone else to do it

Obsequium

A deferential attitude that slaves had toward their patrons

• accepting harm or sexual use

• can’t bring evidence against owner

• can’t be a witness

• can’t bring any law action

• offer financial assistance

Patron

slaves bound to former owner for life

• patron was “parent”, ex-slave was “child”

• social glue

Major sources of slaves***

• Captivity in warfare

  • pay war indemnities for their freedom

  • butchered them

  • enslaved them

    • Sevri: slaves from war saved (servare) from murder

• Foundlings

  • exposed children picked up by others could be enslaved

    • regardless of parental status

    • if they proved their free birth as an adult, they could have their status

Functions of slaves in a household***

• showed the owners status more than anything

• acted as emotional support to free people

  • confidants/companions

  • childcare/elderly care

  • loyalty, affection, intimacy

  • ensuring elite lifestyle

Methods of resistance***

to tick off the owners

• stealing

• Feign illness

• Act stupid

• Attack owner

  • if slave attacked owner, they were killed

• Suicide

  • profound and desperate escape

  • proof of slaves “bad morals”

    • not ever because of any pain they were in, but due to their nature

    • stealing themselves from their owner

  • owners were therefore not at fault

• Fleeing

Reasons owners gave freedom***

• depended on a slave being “good”

• Slave had proven him/herself worthy of being a freed person/citizen

  • released to match their inner status

• owner appeared generous and wealthy

  • public esteem

  • freed slaves in will

• slave could purchase him/herself

• affection for slave

  • adopt or marry the slave

• so slave wouldn’t give evidence against owner in court

• free slaves that were dying

  • good masters don’t let their slaves die slaves

Formal freeing***

• specific times. lots of waiting

  • owner could change their mind

  • had to be 30 years old and owner at least 20 (unless owner was freeing a woman for marriage)

• three formal methods

  1. manumissio vindicta

     • owner, slave, and one Roman citizen would go to the magistrate

     • assertor would declare the slave a born free person mistaken as a slave and the owner wouldn’t object

     • in some provinces, magistrate was available sporadically

  2. entry into the census

     • owner entered slaves name into census list of citizens (census every 5 years)

  3. freeing in the owners will

     • freed them in will

     • Augustan period limited number of slaves that one owner could free

what freed people owed their ex-owner

slaves owed old owners obsequim (deferential attitude)

• acceptance of physical harm or sexual use

• couldn’t bring criminal evidence against patron

• couldn’t be a witness

• couldn’t bring law action that would discredit owner

• financial assistance

• opera

• care for owner in death (grave tending, rituals)

• something to owner in slaves will

naming practices***

kept old owners name as their own

• slave had only a first name

• male freed person took owners two names and kept his own as his last name

• female took feminized owners last name and kept her name as an additional last name

  • example

  • male slave named Syrus were freed by Marcus Tullius Cicero, his name would become Marcus Tullius Syrus

  • female slave named Erotion were freed by Marcus Tullius Cicero, her name would become Tullia Erotion

• naming practices help us see family lines