Slaves and freedmen

How do people become slaves?

• Born a slave (born to a slave mother)

• Captives of war

• Exposure (abandoned babies)

• Kidnapping (captured sold into slavery)

• Criminals (condemned to slavery)

• Sold (parents may sell their children)

What happened at slave markets?

1. Slaves displayed on platforms and undressed for closer inspection

2. New arrivals marked with white chalked feet

3. Slaves wore placards

What are the three types of slaves?

1. Domestics slaves
2. Industrial slaves
3. Public slaves

What do domestic slaves do?

• Live in household
• Look after family
• Perform familial tasks

What type of job roles do domestic slaves do?

MEN

• Paedogogi
• Gardener
• Cooks
  FEMALE
• nurses
• hairdressers
• cleaners

How many slaves would an average household have?

Only one or a few, a wealthy household will have many

What do industrial slaves do?

Work in the mines, large farming estates

Who were typically industrial slaves?

Strong male slaves

What was life as an industrial slave like?

Short life expectancy

• supervised by overseer (slave)
  — may be put in private prison if slave displeased their master

What are public slaves?

Owned by the state and performed many roles in the city

What role did public male slaves perform?

Construction - roads/buildings
Clean temples
Maintaining public aqueducts
Scribes
Gladiators
Prostitutes

Rights and treatments of slaves

• Newly enslaved individuals were stripped down of their former identity
• Slaves could not get married
• Slaves had no legal or political rights
  Quality of treatment depends on master

How could freedmen obtain their freedom?

• Earn enough money and buy freedom
• Master chooses to free the slave if they served well
• Freeing female slaves for marriage
• Freeing elderly slaves who were too weak - to cut expenses

Manumission

The act of freeing a slave by the slave's master

Different ways of performing manumission

• Slave + master appear before a magistrate
• Master states in his will that he wished to free some or all his slaves
• Slave is invites to recline on a couch by his master
• Master would declare his slave free in front of his friends

Rights of freedmen

• Roman citizenship
• Vote in elections
• Make a will
• Make business agreements
• Get married
• Could be Augustales

Augustales

Priests of the imperial cult, usually made up of freed men

Limited rights of freedom

• Could not become senator
• Could not be senator's wife
• Could only be equestrian rank
• Could not serve as an officer in legions
• Could not stand as candidate in elections

Obligations of slaves

• Leave his ex master money in his will
• Could not do anything which could harm his ex master
• Had to work for a certain number of days for his master each year or give him money