Buying freedom in Greece and Rome Flashcards
The Old Oligarch 1.1 1 (fifth or fourth century BC):
If anyone is surprised by the fact that [the Athenians] let slaves live luxuriously (In Athens] and some of them magnificently so, it is apparent that they do this for a reason. For where there is a naval power, economic reasons require us to be slaves to the slaves in order to take their apophorai (slave rents), and then to free them.
seems Athens let slaves work in navy as rowers for economic reasons as it is such a large and commercial city, they need lots of wealth and finance to make this money, you have to allow slaves to earn money
(Dem. 36.13-14 —
Apollodorus subsequently leased the bank to Xeno and Euphraeus, and Euphro, and Callistratus… Evidence has been submitted to you, men of Athens. that they granted a lease to these men also, and gave over to them no private banking-capital; and that they gave them their freedom.
i think the bank was leased and men got their freedom? unclear to me
(Aeschines 1,97, talking about the inheritance of Timarchos).
There were nine or ten slaves who were skilled shoemakers, each of whom paid him a rent (apophora) of two obols a day, and the superintendent of the shop three obols
this suggests that these slaves were getting a wage
(Isaeus 6.19; 21, about the property of a rich man named Euctemon).
He had a freed-woman, gentlemen, who managed a property of his at the Peiraeus and kept prostitutes. As one of these she acquired a woman of the name of Alce, whom I think many of you know. This Alce, after her purchase, lived the life of a prostitute for many years but gave it up when she became too old… The woman Alce was then installed by Euctemon to look after his property… Euctemon, going there constantly to collect the rent (enoikien), used to spend most of his time in the brothel.
suggests she was like a tenant- we dont know if she brought her freedom before or after this happened but shows some respect
(Diogenes Laertius 5-2.55).
Here is an example from the will ofTheophrastus, a student of Aristotle: And of my slaves I at once emancipate Molon and Timon and Parmeno; to Manes and Callias I give their freedom on condition that they stay four years in the garden and work there together and that their conduct is free from blame.
sounds like slaves get freedom when their master dies, however they have to keep working the garden for 4 years
Delphi 2nd century
‘When Thrasykles was archon, in the month of Poitropios, Andronikos son of Phrykis sold to Pythian Apollo two young home-born slaves named Soteridas and Sosikrates for the price of seven silver minae and he has the whole money, since Soteridas and Soskrates had entrusted the purchase money to the god, so that they are free and unseizable by anyone for all time, doing that which they wish. But Soteridas and Soskrates must remain (paramenein) with Andronikos for the rest of Andronikos’ life and do whatever it is ordered them to do, uncomplainingly. ‘
they worked in the sanctuary at Delphi, and purchaed their slavery by Apollo but have to stay and work and do whatever they are told still
strings attached
Even purchase of freedom has stipulations that are enforced at the will of the master
Questions asked to the oracle at Dodona (discovered on lead tablets):
.1 asks the god what he should do about his freedom and whether he will gain a paramon— from his master. (375-850 BC).
Will Kittos get the freedom from Dionysius that Dionysius promised him? (350 BC).
suggest that manumission was happening and shows a level of freedom for slaves to have purchased these and travelled here
shows uncertainty
vatican Fragments 261
Peculium is seen as given if it is not taken away upon a registered manumission or an informal manumission. From this comas the rule that one who possesses lawfully can acquire ownership of a thing. A different rule is accepted for those who accept freedom through a will, or are liberated from ownership by the death of their household head: it is established that they lose peculium if it has not been legated. For one could not understand the silent generosity of the deceased as allowing to keep peculium
seems peculium is passed onto heirs- the people who assumed ownership of slaves after the death of their previous owner
peculium is seen as given if not taken away in manumission
so confusing
Gumersinda, a black woman and a slave belonging to Mrs. Maria Martinez … states: … on August 5 of this year, before the alcalde primero [chief alcalde], a fair appraisal established her coartado price at 650 pesos and was duly recorded, the honorable syndic and her mistress being in agreement on this amount. That valuation was based on erroneous information concerning her abilities. On the paper that her mistress gave her, her mistress lists skills that the deponent did not possess, and this almost certainly accounted for the high price for which she was appraised. This is exceedingly prejudicial for her and, furthermore, makes it impossible for her to find another master. Therefore, in consideration of what has been stated above, she requests a new appraisal
black woman in the states who was priced at 650 pesos, this is high due to the fact someone claimed she had skills that she does not, making her too expensive and unable to be brought by someone else
she has to pay back more thus wants to be priced lower, at a honest price that lines up with her skills
[Manuel Cordova] states that his current master, Don Francisco Ceballos, had him coartado in 1842, as attested to in the attached document. Since that time, he has continued to work at his trade as a baker. As those working in this occupation typically earn wages of twenty reals a day, he soon will have put aside some two thousand pesos. By working on Sundays and all the religious holidays that are celebrated during the course of the year, he is some nine hundred pesos to the good, besides. For these reasons, he requests that Your Excellency deign to forward this case to the deputy syndic so that he may represent the deponent .
he claims he has worked harder than he should have and is being forced to pay more interest than needed
- Yesterday the black man Paulino, a Cuban-born slave belonging to Don Francisco de la Vega, residing on his ingenio (Cuban plantation)… according to the slave, in the jurisdiction of either Colon or Cérdenas, appeared before me. The slave is coartado at 250 pesos, and, as a coartado slave, the law accords him the legal right to leave his master’s service for a position elsewhere earning daily wages, and paying his master only at the rate of one strong real per 100 pesos of his set price. The slave complains that his owner keeps him isolated on his ingenio, treating him as if he is a full slave [rather than a coartado slave], keeping him far away from anywhere he can exercise his rights [to earn money]. He states that he distrusts being attended to by the syndic in his own jurisdiction. For this reason, he has come all the way to Havana, on foot and without means…
he works on a Cuban plantation and claims he is being kept isolated and treated as a full slave, meaning he can’t earn money
he has also had to travel as he doesn’t trust his local as his master has political power
Statement of the slave José Antonio Avilés Congo, the third of this month, he was unable to come up with his daily wage of four reals that he was obliged to hand over to his mistress. A stranger, a black man with a full beard, apparently English, purchased half a dozen pairs of shoes from him for a total of nine reals, and then he did not pay for them. The deponent recalled that the aforementioned black man had told him that he was a cook on the English vessel Pont6n. So, Antonio set out with two men in a small pilot boat for the ship in question…. Then he asked for the captain, and a white man came forward. The deponent begged him to take him back ashore and intervene on his behalf with his mistress, for he feared that she would punish him for the missing wages…. The English captain told him that he could not be an effective advocate for him there [in Cuba], and he immediately took him back to Havana.
he was a shoemaker, who got scammed and tried to beg captain of the ship to come to land and be a witness to what had happened but he refused
shows they were still able to be punished although having agency e.g shoemaker paying rent
Maria de JesÖs, female slave and her daughter always has been placed out after falling three weeks behind in her wages, her mistress turned her out, depriving her of shelter and neglecting to provide documents attesting to the daughter’s status as either slave or free. Because of this, the daughter now finds herself in desperate straits, forced by this situation to live in a house of corrupt women, at the mercy of circumstance. wants daughter’s mistress to appear in court and state if she is a slave or fre she asks that Your Excellency order her daughter be fetched and admonished, and, if she be free, she asks that Your Excellency make provisions for her by placing her daughter in an establishment where they teach her to work currently confined to a house of women of ill repute, residing at present at 51 Monserrate Street without the benefit of either pass or permit.
she was deprived of shelter and documents
resulting in a question of ownership,
seems worse than slavery as no identity and now prostitute
The freedman Pedro Real Congo, a black man, chief capataz asks that Maria Luisa Gonzålez, a black woman, Congolese, owned by Ångel ÅrrechasabaIeta, appeared before him with a two-day pass to look for a new master. She had been coartada at 350 pesos… At said slave’s request, Don Ångel Årrechasabaleta issued her documents allowing her the two days to look for a new master. [In his own words:] I sought out Lic. Don José Fornaris to purchase her. This gentleman waited for said Årrechasabaleta to make out the bill of sale. The aforementioned owner did not go to the notary’s office but, instead, seized the slave woman and sent her out into the rural countryside to be punished, [this, the fate of] a coartado slave enjoying the privilege of refusing to be sold for an amount not to her liking…
a chief capataz is a black man usually freed i think
black woman lookign for new owner,
she was punished for this as she was lacking documentation
(the comedies of Menander):
Married charcoal-makers in Menander’s Epitrepontes live apart from their master and return an apophora to him.
Apophora is profit,
this suggests these slaves earnt a wage and gave it to master,
like in cuba!
