Medieval Slavery

Sex trafficking in medieval times threatened women, men and children and they were exploited in one form or another for profit. The experience of the trafficked and enslavement was similar for all victims regardless of sex, violence, intimidation, coercion, and dehumanizing conditions experienced by gender. Mature men were moved from prostitution to intensive labour work. As women developed, they were more valuable because they would be sold as lactating women to care for another’s child.
Children were employed as prostitutes, or enslaved people labours were considered abandoned by their parents. For example, a foster father criticized a man who abandoned his son, claiming that if he left him and he would have been torn apart, birds would have carried him away or worse, he would fall into the hands of a slave seller.
Slaves of either sex did not legally own their bodies, and enslaved people were always vulnerable to sexual exploitation and violence. Men were vulnerable to being castrated in a slave dealer’s art form. The options for young slave people were quite clear to choose rape or further beatings. For enslaved women, maturity brought the exact opposite experience. As girls mature into women of childbearing age, it means constant vulnerability and exposure to sexual assault and coerced prostitution to the degree generally unknown to their male counterparts. The vulnerability of enslaved women to sexual exploitation stemmed from the gender division among them enslaved because men did the apparent work in the fields. An enslaved women’s work was dominated by what is known as a service industry. Slave women usually occupied domestic roles and served as wet nurses, governesses and caretakers for the sick or injured family members. It should be mentioned that there was a significant difference between the family of enslaved people and the legitimacy of the children – freeborn or enslaved person.
The slave woman’s ability to reproduce a new generation of enslaved people was a great advantage to her owner. This framework implied that the slaveholder could produce more enslaved people by impregnating his female slaves. Slave purchasers sought enslaved women for their reproductive capacity, and their mother’s status was not necessarily passed to her children. If a master allowed his slaves to start families, he could claim ownership of the children.
Slave dealers in medieval times were like used car salesmen with their fraudulent ways of trickery. People would talk about the races sold and their background of hard workers, trustworthy, obedient, a virgin, etc. Buyers would purchase women but had to wait a month before any sexual interactions could occur. If the women were to become pregnant, they needed to prove the child’s paternity. A market inspector would ensure the documentation was in order before the salve was finalized to ensure the enslaved person was not kidnapped.
One of the tricks to make a quick sale was to have a woman live with her future master, and she would cook, clean, and treat him like a king. She would spend time with her buyer, eating and drinking to show her talent. He would give a generous donation to her as he anticipates having his sexual desires compensated. He is disappointed because the enslaved person he tried to purchase was not adequately documented, and he could not buy her.
Many women and children were enslaved and the property of masters. Pregnant women were in high demand because the child would be born into slavery, and she would become a wet nurse. Sexual servitude meant that many children of enslaved women were the property of their master or family members of the master. Not all children could live in the same household as their mother as they would be sold to another master. The enslaved women were vulnerable to abuse as they would be exploited for sex to their enslaver or other men, made pregnant to become wet nurses, and their children could be sold and never seen again.
They were purchasing lactating women was more affordable than hiring free women to care for the elite child. The women tend to attend to the child’s needs until they age. They were not allowed to feed their children because they only had enough milk for one child. The wet nurses were not allowed to have sex as it was thought to contaminate the milk.
Children who were not breastfed could survive on animal milk or substitutes, but human milk was best for the health of the babies. The formula was not cheap and readily available. The highest standard of childcare includes having a wet nurse and nanny who lived in an employer’s home, where she was supervised and monitored. Freeborn wives had families and were eager to return to their children, but they could not leave until their duties were completed.
Catrina, her master, was powerful and wealthy, and he would dangle her freedom before her. He purchased a contract offering manumission if Caterina continued to breastfeed his children for eight years and if he did not find fault with her. She spent many years breastfeeding her master children, and the prospects of finding a husband after eight years were slim. She might have known that enslaved women may gain their freedom, marry and have their own families. Catrina was not permitted to marry, she did have children, but there is no mention of them. It was presumed they had taken them away so they would not interfere with her duties. Her master distrusted her as a childcare provider and servant. He explained that he would null and void her freedom if she brought harm to his children or jeopardized the milk supply.
Before Catrina, a wet nurse and freeborn, Guillemoneta negotiated better work conditions and prospects for her and her family. Guillemoneta would earn 300 sous, two fine towels, two shifts and a dress to aid in breastfeeding. This wage was twice the amount a domestic servant would make in the city. She would be paid a certain amount in advance and continue working to the satisfaction of her employer, and the balance will be paid upon completing her contract. Guillemoneta would live with her new employer for a year and have her children accompany her while her husband tended to their farm. Guillemoneta would sacrifice breastfeeding her child, and the mistress resented having her daughter with her because she thought her daughter distracted her from her duties. Their duties included laundering, cooking, sewing, etc. A women’s feelings and needs for her children consisted of minimal contact, or they were ignored entirely.
There were many struggles between employers and workers, as the masters wanted the best care and satisfactory work at a low cost, and the free workers charged a high price for their services. Free wet nurses fees increased, leading to a shift in purchasing enslaved wet nurses. Masters of enslaved women were sexually exploited and physically abused, and when they became pregnant, they would be sold, and their breastmilk was a profit for the sellers. They were leased or sold to others as wet nurses for a long time or when their owners decided they wanted them to return.
The slaveholders ensured the lives of the enslaved pregnant women and that their assessment of risks associated with childbirth reflected the connection between slavery, property and lineage. You could own shares, invest in an enslaved person as a partnership, as collateral against a loan or as part of a women’s dowry and a child inheritance.
Pregnant enslaved were expected to provide sexual and domestic services to their masters as their bodies were solely owned by their masters. If a lactating woman were rented out as a wet nurse, it would generate a wealthy income for their master. The slave status depended on their race and lineage lines passed from generation to generation. the enslaved women were seen as the property of slaveholders but not the lineage lines of slaveholders or enslaved people. “Perhaps, as a result, twice as many illegitimate boys as girls were raised in their father’s households since boys could always be declared legitimate and incorporated into the lineage. Illegitimate girls were abandoned at foundling hospitals more frequently than boys since girls would eventually take a dowry and marry into someone else’s lineage.” (The Risk of Birth, p191)
Childless couples would purchase enslaved women’s children and raise them as their own. The mothers were coerced to give up their children, and she would become their nanny, but upon the death of her master, she could be sold because her son would then be her master. For children who were sold, killed or given to charitable hospitals, the records of their birth parents were recorded accurately or are we to assume that the lineage ended with no history. (Blumenthal 2014) (Winer 2017) (Barker 2021)”To foretell conflict between the master and the father over possession of the child, the statute required that “the master or mistress of the slave woman out to hand over the child of the said slave woman to its father, and the father out to accept the child.” (The Risk of Birth, p200)
Insurance was bought for pregnant enslaved women encase of death to the women due to childbirth. If the master’s brother, son, etc., impregnated the enslaved women, he would be fined, and the insurance policy was three times more than the fine. He would benefit, and the beneficiaries belong to the enslaved owners.
Manumission was written for some enslaved people to become free from slavery. They would give the enslaved the freedom to buy, sell and make will or contracts without obstacles. They will be released from their service bonds and granted freedom from their masters and their families. The last will and testament of masters, who make charitable donations leave money for their families and free their slaves because they wanted their souls to be pure.

Bibliography

Barker, Hannah. 2021. “The Risk of Birth.” Journal of Global Slavery 187-217.

Blumenthal, Debra. 2014. “Domestic Medicine: Slaves, Servants and Female Medical Expertise in Late Medieval Valencia.” Renaissance Studies 515-532.

Paolella, Christopher. 2020. In Human Trafficking in Medieval Europe: Slavery, Sexual Exploitation and Prostitution. Amsterdam University Press. DOI:https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv18x4hw8.7.

Teaching Medieval Slavery and Captivity. 1368. Slave Women and Their Children in Venetian Crete. January 8. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://medievalslavery.org/byzantium-and-the-aegean/source-slave-women-and-their-children-in-venetian-crete/.

Teaching Medieval Slavery and Captivity. 1375. Childcare and Slavery in Barcelona. July 2. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://medievalslavery.org/europe/source-childcare-and-slavery-in-barcelona/.

Teaching Medieval Slavery and Captivity. 13th Century. Concerning Sellers of Male and Female Slaves. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://medievalslavery.org/middle-east-and-north-africa/source-concerning-sellers-of-male-and-female-slaves/.

Teaching Medieval Slavery and Captivity. 1302. Manumission in Cyprus. April 16. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://medievalslavery.org/byzantium-and-the-aegean/source-manumission-in-cyprus/.

Teaching Medieval Slavery and Captivity. 1214. Manumission in Genoa. May 13. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://medievalslavery.org/europe/source-manumission-in-genoa/.

Winer, Rebecca Lynn. 2017. “The Enslave WEt Nurse as Nanny: The Transition from Free to Salve Labor in Childcare in Barcelona after the Black Death (1348).” Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 304-319.