Slavery in the eighth century was not a “peculiar institution.”1.A term generally attributed to the antebellum southern politician John C. Calhoun, who owned slaves himself. Slavery was embedded into every aspect of early medieval society. All strata of society bought, sold, and used slaves. Slavery had been inherited from the ancient world, and continued for more than a millennium after Charlemagne’s death. The only hint of concern or opposition to the practice of treating people as property came from the church, and that opposition was heavily conditional, as we shall see.
The topic of slavery is a large one, and over the next couple of posts I will touch on some of its most salient and visible aspects. In this first installment let’s look at what the law said about slavery.2.This post has been delayed due to the amount of content I’ve found (and my own laziness), so I decided to break it up into more manageable chunks.
Defining who was and was not a slave is surprisingly difficult, as Frankish law recognized degrees of slavery. There are two words that denote full slavery, servi and mancipia, which meant a person owned by another person.3.Much of my understanding of the legal landscape comes from Drew, The Laws of the Salian Franks. I will reference specific passages where warranted. The slave was treated differently than everyone else under the law, and in most ways, but not all, was considered physical property. Slaves could be punished, sold, or otherwise used as their owner desired. There were no laws against the misuse or abuse of slaves.
Footnotes
| ↑1 | A term generally attributed to the antebellum southern politician John C. Calhoun, who owned slaves himself. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | This post has been delayed due to the amount of content I’ve found (and my own laziness), so I decided to break it up into more manageable chunks. |
| ↑3 | Much of my understanding of the legal landscape comes from Drew, The Laws of the Salian Franks. I will reference specific passages where warranted. |