How the Romans, Vikings and other ancient peoples chose white slaves

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In films of the twentieth century, you can often see a plot with the purchase of a slave by some ancient merchant or aristocrat. Something like "rare beauty!" Is sure to sound, and a close-up shows the look from under thickly colored eyelashes. Only now, the slaves presented as beauties in many real slave markets of the past would not have passed the selection. After all, certain requirements were put forward for the slaves.

Romans: a girl must be sweet for love

The Romans indulged in pleasures with almost everything that moved, without asking such questions as gender, consent or the beauty of the object of pleasures, but nevertheless, choosing slaves, they decided for themselves which of them was intended only for the bedroom, and which - to serve around the house … A small test was used for this. First, the skin was examined: there should have been no noticeable difference in the color of the face and hands. The best girl is the one who did not know the sun! Secondly, the girl had to be soft and loose and, if you slapped her, the flesh had to tremble like milk jelly (which, however, the Romans did not know). The same requirements were imposed on castrated boys, bought on purpose for the bedroom.

Of course, when choosing a servant who was to grind grain or serve dinner to women, they looked at completely different qualities: are there strong hands, are there a daring look, are all the teeth from those that are in the field (for the captive captured in battle, the gaps were normal) are not spoiled. But what they rarely looked at was virginity. Prisoners were often captured by the army, what kind of innocence is there - after the Roman army. Probably, even the animals in the captured villages did not have it.

Arabs: poems and paint on the face

It was just the Arabs who were ready to pay a lot for the virginity of a slave, but they also looked at her other qualities: the softness of the hands, the fullness of the legs, the ability to compose poetry. When the slave was examined without clothes (and this was never done as in European paintings - under the scorching sun, otherwise the skin would deteriorate with a tan), they looked to see if she was filled with paint from male gazes. Shyness was considered a sure sign that a girl would soon become very sensual in bed.

Lush breasts were not appreciated - it had to be shaped and sized to resemble a half of a pomegranate. The chanting of the thin waist of the next slave was sure to coexist with the description of a soft, round tummy - so there was no talk of thinness and the waist was outlined, rather, due to the belly pulling the skin forward. It is difficult to remember a movie heroine who would fit such parameters. However, in the Arab market they would be forgiven a lot for fair skin and blonde hair - exotic!

Vikings: a woman should not fall apart

But the harsh Scandinavian robbers did not understand the gentle slaves. Any slave had to be able to work, apart from what the murderer of her entire family intended to do with her. The Scandinavians could not feed the idlers, so the beautiful concubine was required to have strong teeth, good health, strong hands and, ideally, the ability to do any work in subsistence farming, which in those days was defined as a woman's (and for a woman's work was not considered to sit and inspire the beauty of a man). Theoretically, blonde hair and skin were also valued above dark ones, but in practice the Vikings sometimes brought women of a dark and very dark color from northern Africa and from Byzantium.

Slavs: not far from the Vikings

Among the Eastern Slavs, before the emergence of stable statehood, slaves were valued cheaper than slaves: they worked worse, they died when overloaded, and even, through the efforts of the owner, they became pregnant - and the pregnant woman is both gluttonous and weak. So it was more profitable to take the slave to Byzantium, there they looked less at physical strength. A slave for rooms was appreciated if she was overweight, with soft hands and sides, with thick shiny hair (not necessarily voluminous - just without a translucent scalp), with delicate white skin. And everywhere the slaves examined their teeth, here Hollywood does not lie - the teeth had to be whole and white.

Serfdom in Russia: white neck, scarlet blush

While the thinnest waist of ladies was in fashion, when it came to buying a serf for bad purposes, the landowner did not look at the waist - he took it from anyone. They were mainly interested in having a white neck, rosy cheeks, strong teeth. The calloused arms and legs did not bother me either. True, it was not customary to sell directly "for pleasure", so the girls were sold as craftswomen - for example, embroidery. And embroiderers were really appreciated: from the fact that they had to sit for hours and days in the same position, the buttocks became wider and softer - the body built up fat there to protect the lower spine and pelvis from constant pressure, and the muscles, on the contrary, lost strength without training. Such a figure was very much appreciated by voluptuous people. They wouldn’t understand the ass butt.

Mediterranean Europe, Renaissance: best of all Slavic

The French and Italians massively bought up Slavic slaves. They were considered a very convenient investment: at first, thanks to their white skin and delicate thin hair, they "served" one gentleman as a "temporary wife", then, having become pregnant from him, they "served" families (the slave girl gave her own child to an orphanage). Strong in health, even in longing for the child, the Slavs gave a lot of milk and did not drop the grown up heavy children, and in the future, most often they continued to be used as nurses. In the South of France, in the second half of the fifteenth century, the Slavic nurse in the house was almost an integral part of the furnishings.

In Italy, other slaves were also appreciated. Here is an admonition from a Florentine mother to her son: “It occurred to me that since you are getting married, you need to take a slave … If you have this intention, write what … fellow tribesmen in health and strength, or Russian, that is, from Russia, who stand out for their beauty and build …"

As for what was considered beautiful in a slave of that time, then, in fact, the same as in a free woman. White skin, thin hair (yes, volume was not very appreciated), a soft body, under which there were enough muscles for the annoying concubine to be adapted to one or another job. For the slave, another requirement was added: a calm disposition, so that she would not die of melancholy. A free woman was expected to have a cheerful disposition, by contrast.

American plantations: white will do as long as it is strong

Until enough slaves of African descent were brought into the English colonies and bred there, the Irish and Gypsies, including women, were brought in in a stream. Girls on the American coast were praised primarily for their strength, strength, endurance. These were the very first and necessary qualities. Those that are more beautiful became slaves only for five years in the house, later they were freed. Others were herded to the plantations. Not only did they work there, they were also forced to mate with already imported black males to produce heat-resistant offspring - they were also considered "black". Many girls have died from violence or early childbirth.

Later, when the importation of black slaves was established as a trading routine, girls and women were no longer abducted throughout Britain. And then they stopped supplying new slaves: the planters established "reproduction" on the spot. This turned out to be safer, because the "fresh" slaves who remembered a free life, often under the leadership of some captive prince or governor, rebelled.

Slavery, alas, is a huge part of human history: The African who saved America from pestilence and other slaves who made history.