Mihail Kogălniceanu’s Historical Inquiry into the Question of Roma Slavery in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Romanian Principalities

Abstract

This article examines Ochire istorică asupra sclăviei (A brief historical survey of slavery), a mid-nineteenth-century pioneering study about the history of slavery, to ascertain the growing influence of anti-slavery ideas in the framing of the new Romantic historical discourse about Roma slavery in the Romanian principalities. The study, written by the leading Romanian historian, writer, journalist, and liberal statesman Mihail Kogălniceanu (1817–1891), was published in 1853 in a censored edition and has received only limited scholarly attentiondue to its incomplete form (the full version of the original article has yet to be published). The present paper intends to provide a critical reflection on the main features of Kogălniceanu’s analysis of the institution of slavery in the Romanian principalities by exploring the author’s multilayered interest in the question of Roma slavery, his command of primary sources, and the underlying historical interpretation and social doctrines thatframed his investigation.