When the Christian kingdoms in northern Iberia began expanding in the 11^th century, like the Umayyad dynasty and the Visigothic kingdoms before them they engaged in the practice of slavery.[1] The majority of research that has been done on how the slave trade operated and what the experiences of enslaved peoples were focuses on territories within the Crown of Aragon, especially Catalonia.[2] Because little is known about slavery in the western Christian kingdoms of Castile and Leon in comparison, it is difficult to make generalizations about how slavery was practiced and what impacts it made throughout northern Iberia. However, it seems safe to infer a few things. First, that the gender, race, health, physical appearance, age, and skill set of an enslaved person determined how much they would be sold for.[3] Second, that the well-off members of society, such as merchants and nobles, were more likely to own enslaved people because they possessed the wealth necessary to make such large purchases.[4] Third, that there was little to no stigma toward owning enslaved people.[5] Slavery was viewed as an “unfortunate necessity,” and this attitude helped to perpetuate the practice.[6] And, finally, that it was possible for individuals to be released from this slavery––although the conditions of their manumission often varied.[7] But who were the main victims of the slave trade in Christian Iberia? Given the cultural diversity of the population throughout the medieval period, it may be assumed that the same diversity was present within the slave trade and that no specific group of people were targeted more than others. However, as this essay will show, that was not the case. The breakdown of Al-Andalus during the 11^th century into smaller taifa kingdoms allowed the Christian kingdoms in the north to steadily expand southward. The frequent conflicts between Muslims and Christians between the 11^th and 14^th centuries led to the capture and subsequent enslavement of thousands of Muslims, and because of this the majority of slaves in northern Iberia were Muslim for centuries.[8] In addition, slave contracts from the Crown of Aragon in the 13^th and 14^th centuries indicate that women were enslaved more often than men due to an increased demand for wet nurses and nannies.[9] Before investigating the reasons behind this demand and the experiences of these enslaved women, as well as the experiences of enslaved Muslims throughout the Crown of Aragon, it is important to look at how the practice of slavery was enshrined in and guided by law.

The Siete Partidas is a law code that was first compiled by King Alfonso X in approximately 1265 to regulate human activity throughout the entire kingdom of Castile.[10] It was not enforced until 1348 but can still be used to better understand the attitude toward slavery and how it was theoretically meant to be practiced in Castile during the 13^th century as well, not just the 14^th.[11] This is essential to expanding our understanding of how slavery functioned throughout all the Christian kingdoms because, as stated previously, there is a surprisingly small amount of research available on slavery in Castile and Leon compared to the amount available for the Crown of Aragon. The Siete Partidas defines an enslaved person as someone who was originally free but became the subject of another person’s authority. The individuals who became enslaved were either “those taken captive in war who are enemies of the faith,” those who were children of enslaved women because they followed the “condition” of their mother, and those who voluntarily consented to being sold into slavery.[12] The reference to enslaved women and the status of their children could be an indication that enslaved women were common in Castile as well, at least enough to be specifically addressed in legislation. Also, since war captives could be enslaved, it seems safe to assume that there would have been many enslaved Muslims in Castile because Christians in the Crown of Aragon were not the only ones expanding and therefore engaging in conflict with the Muslim taifa kingdoms. The Siete Partidas gave owners full authority over the enslaved people they purchased but forbade them from wounding or killing an enslaved person––unless that person had been found having intimate relations with someone in the owner’s family. Enslaved people were bound to protect their owners from injury and dishonour, even if there was a chance they could lose their own lives by doing so, and were not subject to penalty for wounding or killing an attacker in these situations. Any profit an enslaved person earned and any property bequeathed to them, through a will for example, could be claimed by owners because it technically belonged to them.[13] As discussed in Soyer’s article, the Siete Partidas also contained laws regarding manumission. Enslaved people could gain freedom by paying their owners back the amount of money they had been purchased for, though owners could also emancipate them without the requirement of payment. They could also gain freedom through marriage to a free person if their owner permitted it.[14] Because manumission was considered a “gift” it was not unconditional, and owners had the right to withdraw it and return an emancipated individual to servitude if said individual disrespected them, defamed them, or befriended their enemies.[15] With a better understanding of the legalities surrounding the practice of slavery in western Iberia, it is time to investigate the experience of enslaved Muslims in eastern Iberia.

When Al-Andalus dissolved into small taifas in the mid-11^th century, the Christian kingdoms in northern Iberia took advantage of the weakness caused by disunity amongst the taifa kings and began their gradual conquest of Muslim lands. By 1250, the Christians had successfully conquered the majority of Iberia; the small southern kingdom of Granada was the only remaining Muslim-controlled territory.[16] Many Muslims were allowed to remain in Christian lands with religious freedom and communal autonomy. However, many were also captured during the countless battles that took place and forced into slavery and, because of this, the Iberian slave trade became less diverse after the 11^th century. In Al-Andalus the majority of enslaved peoples were imported from various European countries, while some were Christian prisoners of war. In the Christian kingdoms slavery became heavily associated with Muslim captives, which further indicates that there was an exorbitant number of enslaved Muslims present within the slave trade during the first few centuries of their rule.[17] During this period of frequent conflict, enslaved Muslim captives were especially valued by nobles and knights because they symbolized victory and the luxuries it could bring. For this reason, enslaved individuals were more often present within castles and homes performing domestic duties, rather than “toiling the fields in obscurity.”[18] Enslaved Muslims were also often donated or sold to churches rather than bequeathed to family members to “serve as trophies of Christian triumphs.” Owners believed their own souls would be redeemed through these acts of piety.[19] Enslaved individuals were increasingly thought of as “divisible assets” that could be divided and distributed, and they were frequently used as pledges for loans. These extremely impersonal treatments indicate that enslaved Muslims were not integrated into the households of their owners during the 11^th and early 12^th centuries.[20] This changed at the end of the 12^th century, however, when enslaved Muslims became increasingly disassociated from the idea of war and were viewed more as “objects for domestic consumption” due to their widespread presence within both local and international markets.[21] These enslaved individuals were incorporated into their owners’ households more frequently because they were no longer viewed as threatening enemies. Rather than being bequeathed to churches, they were passed on to “spouses, children, and close kin” in wills and were often gifted personal items and small amounts of money.[22] Enslaved Muslims were encouraged to convert to Christianity more often during and after the 13^th century because this, in their owners’ eyes, would more firmly integrate them into the household.[23] Another dramatic shift that occurred in the slave trade of the Crown of Aragon during the 13^th century was the increased demand for enslaved women who could act as wet nurses and nannies.

By the 14^th century, enslaved women outnumbered enslaved men “by a proportion of almost two to one” in the Christian territories of eastern Iberia.[24] Not surprisingly, most of these women were Muslim.[25] Beginning in the 13^th century in Iberia, mothers were greatly encouraged to breastfeed their children because of the health benefits it provided, and because it was an important symbol of maternal love. The elite women in these Christian societies typically did not breastfeed their own children, however, for a variety of reasons.[26] Women had to abstain from sexual intercourse while breastfeeding due to the belief that such acts would “sour” their breast milk, thus harming, or even killing, the child they breastfed.[27] Because children were typically weaned after a year, this meant a long period of abstinence.[28] However, due to the the desire of most elite families to have a son rather than a daughter in combination with the high infant mortality rates of the medieval period, women were encouraged to get pregnant as often as possible to increase their chance of giving birth to a healthy boy.[29] This pressure to become pregnant outweighed the benefits of maternal breastfeeding and wet nurses became popular amongst elite women because they took over the important duty of breastfeeding, which meant the women were free to have sex and become pregnant as often as they needed to. Because Muslims were forbidden from breastfeeding Christian children––a law present in both the Crown of Aragon and Castile––enslaved Muslim women who became wet nurses were forced to convert to Christianity.[30] Converted enslaved Muslim women were preferred as wet nurses over free Christian women because their status as slaves meant that they could not leave their position after a year, as most free wet nurses did, and that their owners could monitor and control their sexual activity to ensure they were not jeopardizing their healthy breast milk.[31] If enslaved wet nurses did end up becoming pregnant, their babies were often given away, placed in “foundling hospitals” as orphans, or sent to another wet nurse until they were weaned and able to return to their mother to act as another slave in the household.[32] This is because it was commonly believed that wet nurses could not breastfeed more than one child at a time, or they would run out of milk.[33] Owners wanted to ensure their children were the ones being fed, so they did away with the competition.

Starting in the 13^th century, enslaved women were often forced to serve as wet nurses for elite families in the Crown of Aragon. The majority of these women were Muslim, which is reflective of the fact that the Iberian slave trade was comprised mostly of enslaved Muslims during the period between the 11^th and 14^th centuries. Frequent conflict between Christians and Muslims after the fall of Al-Andalus led to the capture of thousands of Muslim individuals who ended up being sold into slavery in the Christian territories. The Siete Partidas is an example of a law code that would have governed the lives of enslaved people. Originally composed in the 13^th century in Castile, it shows that slavery was accepted in the kingdom and provides a general idea of how it was practiced––in theory, at least. By understanding who the main enslaved peoples were in Christian Iberia during the period between the 11^th and 14^th centuries, we are able to better picture how the slave trade functioned under Christian rule because the sources and acquisition processes of the trade are revealed. In addition to this, our understanding of how Muslims––and more specifically Muslim women––were treated under Christian rule is also expanded, which provides a better idea of how religious, ethnic, and gender hierarchies were structured in the Christian territories.

Works Cited

Bensch, Stephen P. “From Prizes of War to Domestic Merchandise: The Changing Face of Slavery in Catalonia and Aragon, 1000-1300.” Viator 25 (1994): 63-93.

Internet Medieval Source Book. “Las Sietes Partidas.” https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/jews-sietepart.asp.

“Las Sietes Partidas: Concerning Slaves, 1348.” In Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, 2^nd edition, edited by Olivia Remie Constable, 393-398. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.

Soyer, Francois. “Muslim Freedmen in Leon, Castile and Portugal (1100-1300).” Al-Masaq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean 18, vol. 2 (2006): 129-143.

Winer, Rebecca L. “Conscripting the Breast: Lactation, Slavery, and Salvation in the Realms of Aragon and Kingdom of Majorca, c. 1250-1300.” Journal of Medieval History 34, vol. 2 (2008): 164-184.

Winer, Rebecca L. “The Enslaved Wet Nurse as Nanny: The Transition from Free to Slave Labour in Childcare in Barcelona After the Black Death (1348).” Slavery and Abolition 38, no. 2 (2017): 303-319.

[1] Stephen P. Bensch, “From Prizes of War to Domestic Merchandise: The Changing Face of Slavery in Catalonia and Aragon, 1000-1300,” Viator 25 (1994): 66.

[2] Francois Soyer, “Muslim Freedmen in Leon, Castile and Portugal (1100-1300),” Al-Masaq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean 18, vol. 2 (2006): 130.

[3] Bensch, “Prizes of War,” 77; Ibid 78.

[4] Ibid, 79; Ibid 80.

[5] Soyer, “Muslim Freedmen,” 130.

[6] Bensch, “Prizes of War,” 80.

[7] Soyer, “Muslim Freedmen,” 137; Bensch, “Prizes of War,” 85.

[8] Soyer, “Muslim Freedmen,” 129.

[9] Bensch, “Prizes of War,” 79; Rebecca L. Winer, “Conscripting the Breast: Lactation, Slavery, and Salvation in the Realms of Aragon and Kingdom of Majorca, c. 1250-1300,” Journal of Medieval History 34, vol. 2 (2008): 168.

[10] “Las Siete Partidas: Introduction,” Internet Medieval Source Book, https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/jews-sietepart.asp.

[11] Soyer, “Muslim Freedmen,” 131.

[12] “Las Sietes Partidas: Concerning Slaves, 1348,” in Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, 2^nd edition, edited by Olivia Remie Constable, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), 393-394.

[13] Ibid, 395-396.

[14] Soyer, “Muslim Freedmen,” 131.

[15] Ibid, 133-134.

[16] Ibid, 130; Ibid 129.

[17] Bensch, “Prizes of War,” 66.

[18] Ibid, 67.

[19] Ibid, 70.

[20] Ibid.

[21] Ibid, 81.

[22] Ibid, 82.

[23] Ibid.

[24] Ibid, 83.

[25] Winer, “Conscripting,” 184.

[26] Ibid, 166.

[27] Ibid, 176.

[28] Rebecca L. Winer, “The Enslaved Wet Nurse as Nanny: The Transition from Free to Slave Labour in Childcare in Barcelona After the Black Death (1348),” Slavery and Abolition 38, no. 2 (2017): 311.

[29] Winer, “Conscripting,” 177.

[30] Ibid, 173.

[31] Ibid, 176; Winer, “Enslaved Wet Nurse,” 311-312.

[32] Winer, “Conscripting,” 171.

[33] Ibid, 184; Winer, “Enslaved Wet Nurse,” 310.