The living conditions of Gypsy slaves in early nineteenth-century Wallachia

Abstract

Very little research has been done specifically on the condition of the Gypsy slaves in Wallachia. Most general histories ignore them, and few contemporary observers studied them. This is just one more sign of their discrimination and neglect. This study draws on the exhaustive nominal lists of the Romani population from the database MapRom which draws on the first preserved count of the population of Danubian principalities (1838). Many aspects of the rob-slave condition have been analysed, the household size, the socio-professional and juridical categories and the Gypsy owners, the degree to which the Gypsies in Wallachia were integrated into the majority population and the ethnic attitudes of the surrounding population, and a case study of formation of a Gypsy settlement.

The Wallachian Gold-Washers

“…A few of the lists are missing, but the archived material covers most of Wallachia. An article based on the analysis of more than 12,000 households classified as Țigan has been published concerning the living conditions of "Gypsy" slaves (Gaunt and Rotaru 2021).…”

“…There are very few contemporaneous documents to compare it with. We have presented a source critical examination (Gaunt and Rotaru 2021) and shown some categories of Gypsies were excluded from registration, for instance the so called "Turkish Gypsies" (Rotaru 2021). However, some useful older documents concerning the Rudari are in the archive of the medieval Cozia Monastery, also deposited in the Romanian national archive.…”