Slavery in Europe did not end with the fall of Rome – it merely changed its name, its methods, and its targets. From ancient empires that saw bondage as natural, through Viking slave markets and Ottoman raids deep into Eastern Europe, to the slow transition into serfdom, forced labor remained a cornerstone of power and production for over a millennium. This article traces the evolution of slavery and its substitutes, revealing how deeply the control over human lives was embedded in Europe’s social and economic order.
Middle Age Europe Slavery | L’esclavage en Europe au Moyen Âge | Sklaverei im mittelalterlichen Europa | La esclavitud en la Europa medieval
Yesterday, as I was driving home at a late evening hour, with the radio on for a moment, I was listening to the beautiful Gladiator theme by Hans Zimmer. Somehow, by association, my first thought was of the Don Quixote and Sancho Panza monument, or actually two twin monuments I photographed at Spain squares, one in Madrid and the other in Brussels. Yes, an association that seems to be a bit far-fetched at first sight. On second thought, however, the link between the two pictures is not that impossible at all. I will not cite Sigmund Freud here, but indeed these two have something very special in common.
The Gladiator in the film, a fictional figure, was a Roman general, a Spaniard who beaten by Roman soldiers and left to die somewhere in Spain fell into the hands of slave traders of North Africa. The attempts to free him even in Rome failed. The story was fictitious but the enslavement – not that impossible in the real world.
Quite a similar fate was shared by Miguel de Cervantes, the Spanish writer, who invented Don Quixote. In his early years, Miguel de Cervantes served in the Spanish navy infantry, participating in several key military campaigns in the Mediterranean, including the famous Battle of Lepanto in 1571, where he was severely wounded, losing the use of his left hand. Despite his injury, Cervantes continued his service. When he embarked on a journey back to Spain, his vessel was attacked by Barbary pirates from Algiers. Cervantes, along with his brother Rodrigo and other passengers, was captured. He spent five long and arduous years in captivity, enduring the harsh conditions of slavery making at least four ultimately unsuccessful escape attempts. His family’s resources were limited, and the sum demanded by his captors for ransom was exorbitant. It took his family five years to scrap the ransom and free him out of the slaver’s fate. They were significantly aided by the Trinitarian friars, members of a Catholic religious order dedicated to the redemption of Christian captives. All of these happened in the XVI century Europe, almost fourteen hundred years after the plot of the Gladiator took place.
Ancient Societies
Slavery was common in ancient Greece and later in the Roman Empire. It was deeply embedded in the economic, social, and philosophical systems of that time. Both cultures viewed slavery as a natural and necessary institution, justified by the belief that certain people were inherently suited to servitude. Prominent philosophers like Aristotle argued that some individuals were natural slaves, destined by nature to be ruled and serve the needs of the free citizens. Stoic philosophers like Epictetus and Seneca, however, questioned the moral legitimacy of slavery, particularly emphasizing internal freedom.
Economically, slaves were crucial to the functioning of both Greek and Roman societies, providing essential labour in agriculture, domestic service, crafts, and large-scale construction projects. In large Roman cities like Rome or Carthage, slaves made up a substantial portion of the population – up to 30-40% in some estimates.
People became slaves in various ways. Many were prisoners of war, captured during military conflicts and sold into slavery. Others were born into slavery, the children of enslaved parents. Some were kidnapped by pirates or sold by their families during times of poverty or crisis. People could fall into slavery as a punishment for crimes or debt, unable to pay what they owed and thus forced into servitude. Roman law recognized multiple legal categories of slaves, including “servi poenae” (criminal slaves), “vernae” (house-born), and “captivi” (war captives). Slaves in Greece and Rome performed a wide range of tasks. In Greece, many slaves worked in households as servants, cooks, or tutors, while others toiled in mines or on large estates. In Rome, slaves filled similar roles but also had specialised jobs like gladiators, scribes, or skilled artisans. Some urban slaves, especially those in banking or administration, could accumulate wealth and influence despite their legal status. Some slaves in both societies even served in administrative positions, managing finances or estates for their masters. Despite this diversity, most slaves lived under harsh conditions, particularly those in mines or on farms. The worst conditions were reported in Roman silver mines (e.g., in Spain), where life expectancy was notoriously short.
Freedom from slavery was possible but relatively rare. Slaves could be freed by their masters as a reward for loyal service or through their master’s will upon death. Others could purchase their freedom if they were able to save enough money, often through tips or allowances. Freedmen (liberti) in Rome had legal obligations to their former masters, including continued service and political loyalty. Sometimes, slaves were freed by mass manumissions as a calculated response to maintain social stability or political support. During the transition from the Roman Republic to the Empire, Julius Caesar and his heir Octavian freed large numbers of slaves to gain popular support amidst civil war. Later, Nero also manumitted slaves during periods of unrest, aiming to reduce the risk of rebellion. Emperor Constantine freed slaves owned by the imperial household as part of reforms aligned with Christian values.
This gradual association of Christianity with moral opposition to slavery would intensify in the Late Empire, although slavery remained legally tolerated.
Middle Age Europe Slavery | L’esclavage en Europe au Moyen Âge | Sklaverei im mittelalterlichen Europa | La esclavitud en la Europa medieval
Vikings
Slavery was also a significant institution among the tribes living in Central and Northern Europe, such as the Celts, Germanic tribes, and Slavs, long before and after Roman times. It often resulted from warfare, raids, punishment for crimes, or as payment for debts. Slavery, however, was a local issue. These early systems were usually decentralized, with slaves integrated into households or local economies rather than traded widely.
But in early mediaeval Europe it was the Vikings, who mastered and economised slavery on a larger scale. Vikings integrated slavery deeply into their economic and social systems, making it a central part of their way of life. Slaves, known as thralls, were a crucial source of labour. Others were a source of revenue. Vikings were exceptional seafarers and raiders. They targeted monasteries, coastal villages, and towns across Europe from the British Isles, Francia, Iberian Peninsula, the Slavic regions, and even beyond, creating a diverse pool of slaves who could be sold in different markets. Slavic captives were especially valued, and the very word “slave” in many European languages (e.g. English “slave”, French “esclave”, German “Sklave”) derives from “Slav”. This diversity increased the attractiveness of Viking slaves to buyers, who could find a variety of skills, appearances, and characteristics among those captured. Vikings established trade routes that connected Europe with the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic Caliphates, where there was a consistent demand for slaves. Particularly important was the eastern route along the rivers of Rus (e.g., Dnieper and Volga), connecting Scandinavia with Constantinople and Baghdad. This trading activity allowed them to build a lucrative and sustainable economic practice centred on the acquisition and sale of human beings. Vikings established important trade centres such as Hedeby, Dublin, York, Chester, Bristol, and Birka, which became hubs for the exchange of goods, including slaves. In Dublin, archaeological finds suggest that the slave trade was a cornerstone of the city’s early economy, with purpose-built enclosures possibly used for holding captives. They were not just places for selling slaves but also for redistributing them across Europe and beyond.
As Scandinavian societies gradually converted to Christianity from the 10th to the 12th centuries, Christian teachings increasingly condemned the practice of enslaving fellow Christians, prompting a cultural shift away from slavery. Laws began to differentiate between Christian and non-Christian captives, often prohibiting the enslavement of co-religionists while permitting slavery of pagans or Muslims. At the same time, Viking society itself underwent significant changes; as raids subsided, the focus shifted from raiding and capturing slaves to more settled agricultural and trade-based economies, reducing the demand for slaves. Concurrently, the rise of strong centralized monarchies in Europe established new legal and political structures that curtailed slave trade practices. For example, the Norwegian Gulathing Law (11th century) imposed fines for enslaving Christians, reflecting changing legal attitudes. But it does not mean that slavery in Middle Age Europe was cut for good. While Viking-driven slavery declined, new forms of human exploitation – such as serfdom and long-distance slave trade via Mediterranean routes – took prominence in later centuries
Barbary Pirates
Still, in another form, piracy and the slave trade remained widespread throughout the Mediterranean until the late 18th century. The very center of this Mediterranean slave trade was North Africa. North African pirates – later described as Barbary pirates or corsairs – operated out of Sale, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. They traded in European slaves, mostly with the Ottoman Empire. The Barbary States were nominally under Ottoman rule but operated with significant autonomy, often under local dynasties such as the Deys of Algiers.
The slaves were not only soldiers like Miguel de Cervantes – who had been captured from a boarded ship and spent five years in captivity – but also ordinary civilians kidnapped from the coastal cities and villages of what are now Spain, France, and Italy. Some entire settlements, such as the Irish village of Baltimore in 1631, were raided and depopulated. Basically, anyone sailing through the Mediterranean or living near the shore was at risk of being enslaved, regardless of social status or origin. The wealthy could often count on being ransomed by their families or governments. The poor, however, frequently met a grimmer fate, with thousands condemned to galley slavery – chained to a single bench for years, rowing under brutal conditions with little chance of survival.
The North African slave trade had its early roots on the Iberian Peninsula, dating back to the Muslim invasions of the 8th century, when both Muslim and Christian forces engaged in raiding and enslaving their enemies. With the rise of the Ottoman Empire, the trade expanded eastward, and North African corsair cities flourished as centers of both piracy and slavery.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, with the spread of the Protestant Reformation and the decline of English and Dutch privateering, many English and Dutch seamen joined the Barbary pirates. Some, like Jack Ward (Yusuf Reis) and Simon Danseker, converted to Islam and rose to prominence as corsair captains. Though officially their targets were Catholic vessels, in practice, profit was the overriding motive, and ships of all nations were attacked. To balance the story, it must be noted that the Catholic Church, while condemning the enslavement of Christians, explicitly permitted the enslavement of non-Christian prisoners of war. This mirrored Islamic legal traditions, which also allowed slavery under similar conditions. Both systems used religion as a boundary between lawful and unlawful enslavement.
Kidnappings and raids persisted well into the 18th century. The Catholic Trinitarian and Mercedarian Orders raised funds across Europe to ransom Christian captives, liberating thousands, though this represented only a small fraction of those taken. National governments occasionally launched military expeditions to suppress piracy and rescue captives. For many coastal communities in Southern Europe, frequent pirate raids were so devastating that entire populations relocated inland. In response, some regions fortified their coasts with watchtowers, garrisons, and early warning systems.
The decline of Barbary slavery came only with the rise of European naval power in the early 19th century. The 1816 bombardment of Algiers by British and Dutch fleets is often seen as a turning point, effectively signaling the beginning of the end of Barbary piracy and its associated slave trade.
Middle Age Europe Slavery | L’esclavage en Europe au Moyen Âge | Sklaverei im mittelalterlichen Europa | La esclavitud en la Europa medieval
The Ottoman Empire
For centuries after the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, Tatars and Turks of the Ottoman Empire conducted numerous raids into Eastern Europe. These incursions were particularly concentrated on the territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which, from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, stood as one of the largest and most influential political entities in Europe. The vast, sparsely populated borderlands of the Commonwealth – including areas of present-day Ukraine, Belarus, and parts of Poland and Lithuania – were prime targets for slave-hunting expeditions carried out by the Crimean Tatars, who functioned as vassals of the Ottoman Empire. Men, women, and children were captured during these raids, known in Polish sources as jasyr, and were either sold into slavery within Ottoman markets or transported farther into the Middle East. Captives were often subjected to grueling forced marches before reaching the bustling slave markets of Istanbul, Ankara, and Cairo. The fate of the enslaved varied by age, gender, and skill: men were typically sold as labourers, craftsmen, or galley slaves; women and girls were often sold as concubines or domestic servants; and children were sometimes retained as household slaves or raised within Ottoman families.
Among the most distinctive features of the Ottoman system was the institution of the Janissaries – elite infantry units composed primarily of Christian boys who had been either captured or taken from their families as a kind of blood tax, known as devşirme. These boys, officially owned by the Sultan, underwent extensive training in warfare, strategy, and administration, and were integrated into the state apparatus. They enjoyed a privileged legal and social status that set them apart from ordinary slaves or conscripts. The Janissaries were highly disciplined and well-compensated, and in many cases fiercely loyal to the Ottoman throne. Over time, they became not only a formidable military force, but also a bureaucratic elite, deeply embedded in the structures of imperial governance. Some rose to prominent positions as generals, provincial governors, or imperial advisors, wielding significant influence. In this way, the Ottoman state transformed a system of coercive integration into a mechanism of state-building, drawing on the diversity of its empire to create a loyal and effective ruling class directly tied to the interests of the central authority.
Serfdom
In the same time, outright slavery declined in most of Western, Central and Northern Europe, but still other forms of coerced labour persisted. People’s ownership was still spread through in the form of serfdom – a system where peasants were bound to the land and controlled by local nobles, the Church, or other authorities. The system emerged in Western Europe and then spread to Central and Eastern Europe. This gradual shift from slavery to serfdom reflected changes in the economic and political landscape. Serfdom was less about the ownership of individuals and more about controlling labor through legal and territorial obligations. Serfs could not be bought or sold like slaves, but they were not free to leave the land they worked on. In exchange for protection and the right to cultivate plots, they owed fixed services or rents to their lords, often in the form of agricultural labor or produce.
While in Western Europe serfdom weakened as cities grew, trade expanded, and labor became more mobile, in Eastern Europe – particularly in areas like Poland, Prussia, and Russia – it became more entrenched. There, the nobility secured stricter control over the peasantry to maintain large agricultural estates that supplied Western markets with grain and other goods. Serfdom slowly disappeared in the same order as it appeared, beginning from the West already in the Renaissance time, with Eastern Europe as the last. In the latter, the abolishment of serfdom began as the Napoleonic army marched in. It was the early 19th century. In some regions, like Russia, serfdom would survive even longer, persisting until the mid-1800s. The legacy of these regional differences left a lasting impact on social structures, economic development, and political change well into the modern era.