Slavery in Medieval Europe

Abstract

Common knowledge would have it that slavery did not exist in medieval Europe. However, there is a thriving body of scholarship which demonstrates that slavery was practiced widely in various forms in Europe during the Middle Ages, alongside captivity, serfdom, and other types of unfreedom. Where then did the common knowledge come from? In the first instance, it derives from the late-18th- and 19th-century abolitionist assumption that as Christianity spread through Europe during the Middle Ages, it must surely have driven out slavery. Among scholars, this common knowledge is sometimes reinforced by Marxist historical narratives, according to which slavery was the mode of production characteristic of the Roman period, while serfdom characterized the medieval period. Yet into the 14th and 15th centuries, medieval Europeans continued to own slaves, trade in slaves, and enslave each other as well as non-European others. They used slaves for agricultural and artisanal labor as well as domestic, sexual, reproductive, and military service. However, the composition of enslaved populations, their demographic and social significance in relation to free populations, the precise legal meaning of slave status, and the practices associated with slavery all varied significantly by region and era. Though Europe was not the only slave-holding region during the medieval period, scholarship about the history of slavery in medieval Byzantium, the Islamic world, Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Africa, and the Americas is substantial. Each of these regions merits a bibliography of its own. Moreover, though slavery was not the only form of unfreedom that existed in medieval Europe, captives, hostages, prisoners, and pledges have also been the subjects of much research and merit dedicated bibliographies, too. Finally, though the academic study of medieval slavery came into being in the 19th century alongside the abolitionist discourse that ignored its existence, this bibliography will highlight recent works, especially those produced within the last fifty years. Many older works remain useful as reference points and guides to the archival sources, but contemporary scholars have brought fresh analytical perspectives to bear on slavery studies, each contributing to the flourishing field that exists today.