Medieval Slaves: Forced to work, Forced to Struggle

Why you chose this specific medium?

I chose this specific medium because of the interest it brought to me. Through doing research, my main primary thought was that men typically used women as household slaves. The reason I thought this was because of how women were viewed in medieval times, basically as second-class citizens. As I continued to do more and more research, I was interested and shocked to find how aside from men, women also owned slaves. I chose a medium that could illustrate events during specific times. I wanted to capture different events throughout different times that would showcase what a day-to-day routine for enslaved women might look like. As well show off how they played large roles in the households of families.

Overview of your topic and why I chose it

As previously stated above, I chose this topic because I was interested to find out how deep this topic went, and how uneducated I was on an interesting topic. A majority of those who were enslaved were women, the medieval period was largely dominated by enslaved women. A main region where documents were produced was the Mediterranean. It is important to also understand the roles of these enslaved women. They served a large role within households and usually served similar roles of a servant. It should be important to understand that wives were more than servants at the time, they also spent time with their husbands and were very involved in the businesses of their partners. “Human trafficking has become a global humanitarian concern over the last 20 years, yet its coercion and violence have affected victims across the centuries” (Paolella, 2020). In Human Trafficking in Medieval Europe: Slavery, Sexual Exploitation, and Prostitution by Christopher Paolella, it discusses how human trafficking is a huge issue today yet has always existed. Slave trading became a big issue within early medieval times because it evoked violence. “The commercial and communications networks that allowed human trafficking to flourish in Late Antiquity spanned the Mediterranean and Black Seas, but eventually fractured and regionalized over the course of the sixth and seventh centuries” (Paolella,2022). Alongside slavery in the Mediterranean, other regions suffered as well. The source Childcare and Slavery in Barcelona, discusses how women had to deal with childcare and this effected slaves who were purchased. “The children of female slaves were likely to remain slaves, at least until they could buy their freedom or negotiate manumission through other means” (Paolella, 2020). Slavery and human trafficking effected not only women but their children as they would become forced to work as well.

Explanation of each section of what my piece represents and how it relates to my topic

In my artistic representation, I wanted to split it up into three separate drawing. Each drawing would represent a different subject of my topic. The top left image is being used to represent how slave trading would have looked in medieval times. we get a glimpse of individuals going around looking for certain different workers. I searched up online different images that may help me get a clear picture of how these times may have looked. When looking for painting of slave trades or human trafficking, I was typically pointed towards images of large areas with several different merchants around. Aside from selling product, they also sold other people who would do work. Most of these images include whoever was looking to purchase these individuals examined them to see how hard they can work.

The goal of my second image was to depict the kind of work these women would have to do. as previously stated, we know that women who were forced to do work were typically tasked to do servant type jobs around the house. It was interesting to find through searching online other forms of jobs then women would have to do. One image I found was of two women working on a farm raking hay. I wanted to give an illustration of work that was being done. Interesting to note the types of outfits these women wore during their work outside. They remained in dresses.

Finally, my third image in the bottom left is used to illustrate how women who had to become slaves remained with their children. “Sometimes, for example, women were bought as slaves pregnant, so that the child was born into a state of slavery or became pregnant by others outside of the family that owned the slave” (Slave Women and their Children in Venetian Crete). It is sad to see how those who hired slaves put in mind that they could take advantage of them because they were pregnant. My first wanted to show how even if you were pregnant, you and your child would still be forced to work.

How primary and secondary sources influenced my representation

The primary sources that I read was Human Trafficking in Medieval Europe: Slavery, Sexual Exploitation, and Prostitution. I used this as a source because it gives me a lot of useful detail about human trafficking within medieval Europe. This source discussed slave trades in the Middle Ages, how they happened and what came out of them and their purpose. It provided a perspective of how women and children were treated. This source was very useful because it gave great insight into the topic.

For secondary sources, I used Childcare and Slavery in Barcelona and Slave Women and Their Children in Venetian Crete. Childcare and Slavery in Barcelona was useful because it gives information about how women with children were treated. It further described how the wealthy would give these women specific jobs such as breastfeeding for their owners’ children. Slave Women and Their Children in Venetian Crete was useful because it discussed how when pregnant slaves give birth or just had children with them, these children would be forced to become slaves as well. Other secondary sources that were used were photos to help give an idea of what to draw.

Reference:

Paolella, C. (2020). Introduction. In Human Trafficking in Medieval Europe: Slavery, Sexual Exploitation, and Prostitution (pp. 11–40). Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv18x4hw8.4

Paolella, C. (2020). Early Medieval Slave Trading. In Human Trafficking in Medieval Europe: Slavery, Sexual Exploitation, and Prostitution (pp. 41–82). Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv18x4hw8.5

Pilny, O. (1925). Slave Market [Painting]. Artvee. https://artvee.com/dl/slave-market/

Childcare and Slavery in Barcelona

https://medievalslavery.org/europe/source-childcare-and-slavery-in-barcelona/

Slave Women and Their Children in Venetian Crete.

https://medievalslavery.org/byzantium-and-the-aegean/source-slave-women-and-their-children-in-venetian-crete/

[Women Working]. (n.d.). MedievalChronicles. https://www.medievalchronicles.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/medieval-women-working-in-field.jpg