Country: Romania

Group: Roma

Date Finalized: 11/20/20

Team: Natasha Chandra (lead), Colleen Clauss, Maya Shrikant, Michael Demangone

Content Warning: ethnocide, genocide

Approximate Time Period: 1370-1855

The Roma people, or Gypsies, were subjected to forced labor after their arrival in Romania in the Middle Ages. We rated the information and findings a 3 because there were many articles and accounts describing the conditions the Roma people had to endure.

            The Roma, sometimes referred to by outsiders as Gypsies, are one of Romania’s largest minorities, making up 8% of the population. After the Roma people arrived in Romania during the Middle Ages, the Roma became enslaved (Minority Rights Group, n.d.). During these times of slavery, the value or worth of the Roma was considered less than that of a cow (Nicolae, 2003). The Roma were held as slaves and were used as blacksmiths, gold panners, farm workers, and domestic servants (Minority Rights Group, n.d.). There were typically three categories of Roma slaves, the names of which are translated as “Gypsies belonging to the lords”, “Gypsies belonging to the monasteries”, and “Gypsies belonging to the boyars” (Wikipedia, n.d.). “Gypsies belonging to the boyars” was in reference to the landowners at the time. Overall, the slave group “Gypsies belonging to the lords” held the higher status among the three groups. The Romanian Orthodox church enslaved the Roma for centuries, the majority of them placed in rural areas with Orthodox churches (Nicolae, 2003). Slavery was formally abolished in 1856, but the discrimination against Roma people because of their ethnic classification continued long after abolishment. Many Roma were also subjected to forced labor in the Holocaust from 1940-1944 (Minority Rights). Currently, many Roma continue to face discrimination and Roma children face segregation in schools (Minority Rights Group, n.d.). The Roma are still considered “subordinate or located outside the reaches of “culture” and “civilization” itself,” a prejudice that continues today (Beck, 1989).

Sources

  1. Beck, S. (1989). The Origins of Gypsy Slavery in Romania. Dialectical Anthropology, 14(1), 53-61.
  2. Minority Rights Group. (n.d.). Roma. Retrieved November 20, 2020. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/roma-14/.
  3. Nicolae, V., & Slavik, H. (2003 May 10). Being a “Gypsy”: The Worst Social Stigma in Romania. Retrieved November 20, 2020. http://www.errc.org/roma-rights-journal/being-a-gypsy-the-worst-social-stigma-in-romania.
  4. Wikipedia. (n.d.). Slavery in Romania – Wikipedia. Retrieved November 16, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Romania.