Under the Yoke for Half a Millennium: A Legal-Historical Perspective on Romani Slavery in Wallachia and Moldavia

Abstract

The Romani community experienced a unique and overlooked chapter in world history through their enslavement in the two Romanian principalities, a status that persisted from their arrival until the mid-19th century. This phenomenon is currently unknown to the larger Romanian society as well as the majority of the descendants of the liberated Romanis. The article presents a comprehensive legal-historical examination of this nearly 500-year period of enslavement, exploring the theories surrounding the emergence of this legal institution, the various criteria used to classify the Romanis, the norms that governed their enslavement, their legal status, and their eventual legal emancipation at the dawn of the modern era.