The article examines aspects of slavery and slave trade in the Iberian Peninsula, namely in its northeastern part, in the lands of Roussillon. The chronological period of the studied problematic covers the stage of the Late Middle Ages (14th—15th centuries), when Roussillon was Spanish territory. The reference materials are the studies of 19th century historians — I.V. Luchitsky and J.-A. Brutails. Through the review of I.V. Luchitsky “Russian slaves and slavery in Roussillon in the 14th and 15th centuries” (1886), distinguished by particular depth, the introduction of historical documents and his own analysis of the designated problem, the research path leads to the essay of the French author J.-A. Brutails, dedicated to the topic of slavery in Roussillon in the 13th-17th centuries. His French-language study, “Study on slavery in Roussillon, from the 13th to the 17th century” (1886), is also a very valuable source for historians: it contains numerous excerpts, quotations, copies of notarial acts, government decrees, and statistical data. When studying these works, the following key aspects of slavery, characteristic of medieval Roussillon, were revealed: 1) the socio-economic reasons for the spread of slavery; 2) the influence of the religious factor and the ambiguous attitude of the Catholic Church towards slavery; 3) the difficult social and legal situation of slaves; 4) the sources that replenished the slave stratum; 5) the ethnic diversity of slaves, who arrived not only from the African continent and the shores of the Mediterranean, but also from the distant Black Sea coast; 6) the spread of female slavery and its specific, sometimes horrific features. The disclosure of these aspects is undoubtedly a pressing task and requires further development and close attention from modern researchers.
Source: Kravtsova, Evgeniуa V. (2025). Slavery in the Pyrenees in the Late Middle Ages: Referring to the Works of I.V. Luchitsky and J.-A. Brutails on Slavery and the Slave Trade in Roussillon. Slavery: Theory and Practice. 2025. 10(1): 44-56
Source web-site: https://stp.cherkasgu.press/journals_n/1766134637.pdf
Number of views: 14
