[Aelfwine]

Slaves were the lowest rank in Anglo-Saxon society and included a variety of people. For example, those who had to sell themselves into slavery because they were unable to pay a fine; those who sold themselves or their family, including children, because of desperate hardship; and those who were captives because of war.

New female slaves would have their hair cropped to distinguish them from their freeborn couterparts. Her duties on a farm would have included corn grinding. In a domestic household, she would have been termed a birele meaning cup bearer. On one estate in the 10th century, a female slave was entitled to eight pounds of corn for food, one sheep or threepence for winter supplies, beans for Lenten supplies, and whey in summer or or one penny.

Slaves had few rights, but theeoretically they did have some protection under the law. There were fines for raping a slave girl, but this was in accordance with her owners rank: a fine of twelve shillings was set for any man raping a nobleman`s slavewoman, but only six shillings for a commoner`s slave. The crime was considered an abuse against the master, not the victim.

[Melisende]

I did not know about the cropped hair for "new" female slaves as a form of identification.

Question: was a child born of a freeman and a slave-woman considered to be freeborn or a slave? And I suppose the reverse: a child born of a freewoman and male slave - what would be that child's status (most likely hushed up or passed off as the offspring of her spouse?)

[Aelfwine]

Cannot answer that, Mel`. However, Anglo-Saxon slaves could and did obtain their freedom quite often. Some married out of slavery and some could even buy themselves out of slavery, because slaves could own money. They could even reach high stauus when freed. Two women in particular, one literary and one historical, are examples how Anglo-Saxon society did have social mobility.

Wealtheow in the story of Beowulf was the wife of Hrothgar, king of the Geats. Her name translates as foreign slave. The first element of her name comes from the Old English word wealh, meaning foreign.The word could also mean slave and was used by the early Anglo-Saxons for the subserviant native peoples they enslaved. It survies in the modern word Welsh.

Queen Balthilde, according to the writings of Gregory, bishop of Tours, was an Anglo-Saxon slave girl who was spotted by Clovis, and went on to exert influence over the Merovingian court. After the death of her husband she became regent for a while before the accession of her son. Now perhaps she may not have actually have been a slave. Gregory may have exaggerated her statue for effect, but she does seem to have been of lower status than her husband.

This post has been edited by Aelfwine: 19 November 2009 - 02:22 PM

[Wulfwynn]

Aelfwine:

All this is in accordance with the things I've read about in Anglo-Saxon society. There were ranks in that society, but they tended to be, as far as I can tell, rather fluid. There are all kinds of pieces of evidence that this fluidity was common, and came from the fact that each rank of society had a certain monetary worth(that comes out in things like wergild and the like). Slaves were fairly common in AS soeity, but were generally, again as far as I can tell, fairly decently treated, though they did have to do a bunch of pretty hard work(things were fairly similar in Scandinavian societies of the time, too). In any case, as time wore on, the institutuon tended to die out, so that in later AS times, there were actually people who tried to stop it completely. And they were always complaining about the Irish and their habits of kidnapping people, for that matter.
Anne g

[Melisende]

Aelfwine, on 19 November 2009 - 02:21 PM, said:

Queen Balthilde, according to the writings of Gregory, bishop of Tours, was an Anglo-Saxon slave girl who was spotted by Clovis, and went on to exert influence over the Merovingian court. After the death of her husband she became regent for a while before the accession of her son. Now perhaps she may not have actually have been a slave. Gregory may have exaggerated her statue for effect, but she does seem to have been of lower status than her husband.

I had read that Bathilda was a slave - and Fredegunda.

I wonder if "concubine" was sometimes inter-changeable with "slave".

[Wulfwynn]

Mel:

It probably was, given the wars and such that seem to have been going on at the time.
Anne G

Melisende, on 21 November 2009 - 02:47 AM, said:

I had read that Bathilda was a slave - and Fredegunda.

I wonder if "concubine" was sometimes inter-changeable with "slave".

This post has been edited by Wulfwynn: 21 November 2009 - 11:47 AM