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II.6 - Poor and powerless

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
David A. E. Pelteret
Edited by
Julia Crick  and
Elisabeth van Houts
David A. E. Pelteret
Affiliation:
Independent Scholar
Julia Crick
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
Elisabeth van Houts
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

[Geatflæd] gave freedom for the love of God and for their souls' need, that is, Ecceard smith and Ælfstan and his wife and all their offspring, born and unborn, and Arcil and Cole and Ecgferth, Aldhun's daughter, and all those people whose head she took in return for their food in those evil days.

Durham Liber Vitae, c. xxxx

Slavery is a legal status whereby people are denied freedom by being defined as chattels subject to the ownership of another person or institution. In societies that have permitted slavery usually only criminals have had a lower status. As the human possessions of others, slaves would seem to represent the essence of powerlessness. There were slaves in Anglo-Saxon England from the time of our earliest texts and the institution survived the Anglo-Saxon period, only disappearing from English records in the first half of the twelfth century. From a modern perspective, this was a social change of momentous significance; for the English of the time the disappearance of slavery elicited no comment at all. This gulf in perception should arouse the curiosity of anyone who examines the period from 900 to 1200.

Type
Chapter
Information
A Social History of England, 900–1200 , pp. 142 - 151
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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References

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