The groups whose
Romani varieties are strongly determined by
Walachian i.e. Romanian features are called Vlach-Roma.
This linguistic influence can be traced to the bondage and slavery of the Roma
in the principalities of Moldavia and Walachia that lasted for centuries.
Together with Transylvania, Moldavia and Walachia form the core of today’s
Romania. Among the best-known representatives of the Vlach-Roma, that are spread all over the world today, are the
Kalderaš (coppersmiths) and the Lovara (horse traders). [
Roma – Sub Ethnic Groups]
The first Roma groups came from Asia Minor to Modavia and Walachia
in the middle of the 14th century. They were attracted by the wealth of the
Romanian principalities of that time. According to Ian Hancock, they were first
referred to in documents in the years of the regency of Rudolf IV and Stefan
Dushan (1331-1355). Offering niche professions, they were originally considered
an economically valuable group, although they already stood on the lowest level
of the social hierachy. With the Ottoman conquest of the principalities the
economical and political situation changed abruptly. Required to pay tribute
from this time on, the rulers and monasteries made the free farmers pay
increasingly higher taxes and forced them into an increasingly higher economic
dependency that finally ended in bondage. Bondage means the personal and economic dependence of a bondsman on the lord of the manor. Bondsmen did not possess anything in terms of land and farmyard, they were committed to service to the lord and bound to the lords' possession.
The Roma were assigned a special role: with only a few exceptions,
all Roma that did not end up in bondage were declared "robi"
(unfree people or slaves). "Robi" were not bound to the land
but to the landowner. Slaves were the possession of their masters. It must be added that slavery was already introduced to
Walachia at the end of the 14th century. 120 years after Walachia, the
principality of Moldavia, which was founded in 1359 and included Buchowina and
Bessarabia, became a tributary of the Ottoman Empire in 1513. From this time
on, the rulers used the same methods as in Walachia. In the Hungarian
principality Transylvania, which was autonomous (under Turkish sovereignity)
from 1542 to 1699 and became Austrian-Hungarian after 1699, bondage and slavery never
reached these dimensions and was abolished completely at the end of the 17th
century. [
Arrival in Europe]
Three groups of Roma slaves were distinguished according to their
masters:
- "Ţigani" or "Robi
domneşti" ("gypsies or unfree people of the
crown")
- "Ţigani" or "Robi
boiereşti" ("gypsies or unfree people of the bojars or the
great landowners respectively")
- "Ţigani" or "Robi
manaştiresti" ("gypsies or unfree people of the
monestaries")
The different circumstances of slavery or bondage that the
respective groups were confronted with changed the homogenous social structure
of the Roma. While the "Ţigani" or "Robi
domneşti" could claim a certain degree of personal freedom as
itinerant craftsmen (Kalderaš, Linguari, Aurari [gold digger or gold washer]), which led to the fact
that they could maintain their culture and language to a large extent, the
"Ţigani" or "Robi boiereşti" and
"Ţigani" or "Robi manaştiresti" were
forced into sedentarism as domestic servants and farm hands and were,
therefore, at the mercy of their owners most strongly. They were also called
"Ţigani vatraşii" ("gypsies of the
community") and could be singled out, punished or sold at will due to
their constant "availability". According to the Romanian
writer Mihail Kogalniceanu, they were the largest group of the about 200,000
Roma slaves.
All Roma groups, however, fell victim to a ruling system that did
not only limit their human rights, but withdrew them completely. "The
dark skinned strangers" were denied their humanness: Roma were seen
as
"debased creatures"
that
"wanted to become slaves because it lifted them,
although not to the level of human beings, to the same level of good, working,
domestic animals".
On the one hand, this kind of racism legitimised the total
enslavement of hundreds of thousands of people. On the other hand, civic rights
were bound to landownership in the Romanian principalities; farmers without
land as well as Roma were affected by this.
The terms "Ţigani" and "Robi"
were interchangable, they described a certain social class. Roma were slaves
from their birth on. They were not allowed to enter relationships with
"free" persons, and marriages between slaves could only take
place, if the respective owner granted permission. The spectrum of bodily
violence ranged from flogging to torture and the death penalty. During his
childhood and youth Mihail Kogalniceanu witnessed the circumstances under
which the Roma lived in slavery:
It also was Kogalniceanu, who made an important contribution to the
abolishment of slavery and bondage in the principalities of Moldavia and
Walachia. In 1844 he started a campaign for the release of all Roma, and in the
same year he published the article
"Desrobirea Ţiganilor" ("The Liberation of the Gypsies"). The changed
political circumstances supported his demands. In 1829 in the
"Peace of Adrianopel" between Turkey and Russia the Romanian
principalities were put under Russian sovereignity. While the Turkish influence
was decreasing, more and more Romanian intellectuals were inspired by the
French Revolution. The idea of human rights entered daily politics and led to a
political climate that was the precondition for the abolition of slavery.
A first step was the exchange of the system of direct exploitation
by a system based on a work contract and paid labour. In 1844 all Roma that were
subject to the church or the state were released. Four years later the
provisional government decided to liberate all Roma. It took another twelve
years, however, until the bojars gave their assent to this law. In 1856 the end
of slavery and bondage, which had lasted for half a century, could be
declared.
"The Second Big Wave of Migration"
Thousands of Roma used their newly gained freedom to leave the Romanian
principalities as fast as they could. A migratory movement which is called
"the second wave of migration" was the consequence. It did
not take place in the form of a mass migration, but in smaller, more flexible
groups that each belonged to a clan (vitsa or
tserha) or to an economic community (kumpania). [
Traditional socio-organisation] Searching for lucrative living conditions, the
Vlach-Roma did not only spread all over the European
continent, but moved to North and South America, South Africa and Australia. A
few Roma groups must have succeeded in leaving the Romanian territory before
the abolition of slavery.
It should be added that the frequently spread figure of 200,000 Roma
migrants is definitely put to high. It probably rests on the assumption that
the Roma could not follow their "innate migratory instincts" because of slavery only. Discussions in the media and in party politics after
the end of Ceaucescu's regime made it obvious what political dimensions and
continuity are carried within this myth. The danger of a new "invasion
of gypsies" could be propagated and politically instrumentalised
easily.
Despite the abolition of bondage and slavery ecocomic dependencies
continued. They even increased in so far as the Roma became liable to taxation
in 1856. Exact figures are not available. Reports point to the fact, however,
that the majority of the Roma living in Romania at that time remained bound
to their former owners and – at that stage – employers.
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