990 slaves and slavery: Europe slaves in cities were not only lazy but arrogant, using much of their time to earn money of their own while having none of the expenses of feeding, housing, or clothing themselves Even so, household slaves were often treated like part of their owner’s family, and when they became too old to work, they were cared for by their owners EUROPE BY AMY HACKNEY BLACKWELL Slavery was a fact of life throughout the ancient world Almost every society had some form of servitude in which people exploited the labor of others Among ancient Europeans slavery existed but not nearly to the extent that it did in the Mediterranean region European society was not heavily agricultural or urban, so there was not as much need for labor as there was in the Greek and Roman economies Many thousands of Celts and Germans became the slaves of Greeks and Romans, who used them in a variety of ways The Celts, like many ancient peoples, often enslaved the people they conquered when they moved into a new territory For example, this may have happened in ancient Ireland when the Celts arrived; some historians believe that the Celts enslaved the prehistoric people to build tombs such as Newgrange The favored slaves were usually women and children, who were more docile than men and better suited for the domestic tasks the Celts needed performed Celts would use slaves to gather wood, carry water, cook, weave, and perform sexual favors It appears that the Gauls, the Celts who lived in France, were using slaves during the eighth and seventh centuries b.c.e Slaves came from conquered nations in the region Wellto-do Gauls used women and children as domestic slaves to basic household chores Noble families would exchange gifts of slaves as a way of solidifying friendships Historians believe that Gauls of this period engaged in trade of slaves with the Etruscans in Italy, and some further contend that the Gauls were still engaging in the slave trade with Italy during later Roman times During the late second and first centuries b.c.e Gauls are said to have sold their brethren as slaves in exchange for wine Some 15,000 Gauls may have been enslaved in this way It is not known whether these slaves were family members of the traders or if they were already slaves of the Gauls The Celtic peoples had clear laws about slavery They divided themselves into several social classes, including nobles, free property owners, and freemen who did not own property The bottom of the Celtic social ladder was occupied by people who were not free Some nonfree people were not slaves at all; these individuals did not hold the full rights of the group, but they were still allowed to support themselves by farming on tribal lands In Ireland, for example, there was a class of nonfree farmers called fudirs These people were not exactly slaves in the modern sense, in that their master could not buy and sell them, but they had almost no legal rights They worked the land for their master and were forced to pay rent or tribute every year This rent supposedly obligated the master to feed and house them However, their master could throw them off the land at any time and for any reason When a fudir died, the land he occupied did not pass to his children unless the master chose to allow them to stay Other individuals were genuine slaves, that is, owned by other people and forced to work without wages Celtic law set values for slaves; male slaves were considered more valuable than female ones Celtic slaves were usually Celtic peoples who had lost their liberty through a variety of causes, such as financial misfortune or losing in battle Sometimes Celts imported slaves from other areas, but usually slaves were local Occasionally parents sold their children into slavery if they felt they needed the money Slave traders often raided farms at night to steal children and sell them for slaves These raiders typically attacked houses on the coast of Roman Britain (modern-day Wales) and carried their slaves over to Ireland The Irish Saint Patrick (fift h century c.e.) was himself stolen as a boy from his family’s estate in Britain and spent several years working as a slave shepherd in Ireland before escaping and taking on a religious vocation Some sources say that it was a law in Ireland that slaves were freed every seventh year and suggest that Patrick may have been freed under this law instead of escaping Both categories of slave were at a severe disadvantage under the Celtic legal system A person’s rank determined the value of his evidence and whether he would be allowed to testify at all A freeman could testify against a fudir, but a SLAVERY AND DIVINE VISIONS A youth spent in slavery produced what many consider to be Ireland’s greatest saint Born in Roman Britain (modern-day Wales), Saint Patrick was a teenager when he was stolen from his home and sent to Ireland to work as the slave of a pig farmer He ate the pigs’ food and dressed in whatever rags he could scrounge up He was always hungry and cold In his misery, Patrick prayed to God 100 times a day and 100 times a night After a few years he began to see visions telling him that he should escape These visions instructed him to walk to the sea, where he would find a ship waiting to take him away The visions were persuasive and certainly more attractive than his current life as a slave, so Patrick walked away from his pigs and continued walking to the ocean Sure enough, there was a ship waiting to take him to Europe He sailed away and became a priest, but Ireland was deeply ingrained in his soul He devoted the rest of his life to converting Ireland’s people to Christianity