Slavery in the Western Mediterranean

Abstract

This chapter discusses household slavery in relation to the urbanization process and Mediterranean colonialism taking place in late medieval Europe. It reassesses the Ehrenkreutz thesis that urban slavery in late medieval Europe was a secondary byproduct of power relations in Central Asia and the Black Sea region by evaluating information on the entry of individuals into slavery from fragmented documents. Furthermore, the chapter shows that urban slavery in the late medieval Mediterranean included far more than domestic services and discusses the value of court papers and wills for the understanding of exit scenarios for slaves.