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Roman Slavery versus the Peculiar Institution
A few years back I was explaining to somebody about how there were a lot of Black people in Rome. The other person, needless to say a white American, responded with “Right, all of those slaves.”
The link between slavery and race was so strong in his mind that he immediately assumed all the slaves in Rome were Black.
Classical slavery was not at all the same as southern chattel slavery. Here are some of the key differences.
It Had Nothing to Do With Race
While the majority of slaves in Rome were foreigners, it had absolutely nothing to do with race.
Slaves were captured in war, bought in markets outside the Empire or, of course, born from other slaves. But they were mostly European. There’s no doubt that some Africans did end up as slaves in Rome.
Another source of slaves was child exposure. Poor parents who could not afford to raise an infant would leave the unborn to await its fate…except that this was done at special sites that everyone knew about. Anyone who picked up a child at one of these sites could do what they wanted with the baby. While some of these babies were adopted, it seems that the majority were enslaved. (If the story of an abandoned child being picked up and enslaved triggers vague familiarity…yes, you…