On February 20 marks 160 years since the abolition of slavery in the Romanian principalities time. After five centuries of the Middle Ages difficult in 1856, Roma were free men, without a master.
„Musă ce lui Omir odinioară/ Cântaşi Vatrahomiomahia,/ Cântă şi mie, fii bunişoară,/ Toate câte făcu ţigănia,/ Când Vlad Vodă îi dede slobozie,/ Arme ş-olaturi de moşie“. So begins Ioan Budai-Deleanu epic Romanian “Ţiganiada” – „izvoditură noao şi orighinală românească“, as he called the writer Transylvania with strong accents anti-feudal and anti-clerical – which tells the story of Gypsy united under the arms of Vlad the Impaler to cope with hosts Ottoman Pagan . Gypsies army, united in spirit parental duty by glia and hope of deliverance, is located between Flemish and heart – because, rather, hunger and courage people drove them home. How it works in the Middle Ages.
The best craftsmen
“Ţiganiada” of Budai-Deleanu be fictional in the XVth century – almost a century and a half away when, historically, it has been agreed that the Gypsies arrived in Europe in the Romanian. Nicolae Iorga asserted that they arrived in Europe during the Mongol and Tatar invasions, being taken hostage by the kings of Europe after defeating the invading hordes. However, the first documentary to indicate the presence of Gypsies in the Romanian dates from 1385 and 1387 and relate to two donations to the monastery Tismana the monastery Vodiţa respectively. Among the donated items are “Jidovstiţa village, Bahnino orchards, mills on Bistrita and 40 Gypsy families.” So he was seated in the Romanian Gypsies status of slaves. Could be bought and sold or exchanged. There were Freight. The exact timing of the imposition of the state of bondage is not known, but the motivations could be understood by historians and are rather economic. “The peasants were not numerous enough and, especially, artisans were not as good as Gypsies, who practiced all kinds of crafts, especially those of carpenters, masons and brick. […] While most European Gypsies expelled them beyond their borders, the two Romanian principalities, Moldova and the Romanian Country, denied them to leave the territory and took them into captivity, “explains French researcher Emmanuelle Pons in “from slavery to assimilation”.
Lord’s servants and others
In a predominantly agricultural society and with major socio-economic discrepancies, only He, monasteries and nobles could own slaves. Lord Gypsies were most numerous and included four categories of Gypsies free to walk around the country – zlătarii, ursarii, lingurari and lăieşii. Although nomads all annual tribute to the state. After Sir, monasteries were the largest owner of slaves. Or they were bought at auctions or from donations came from the Lord or noblemen in search of forgiveness of sins. Masters – monasteries and nobles alike – enjoyed the talents of these slaves with different occupations: farmers, glass, bucket, weavers, furriers, cooks and numerous musicians. Life was hard to master. Abuses were not unusual situations. Mihail Kogalniceanu, who wrote the first paper on the life of Gypsies in the principalities in 1837, documented and torment they faced. “This kind of cruel torture is the beating of the soles with rods, feet linked to a drug that two people hold it high so that the support can not be beaten earth than head and shoulders” wrote Kogalniceanu. So things went at the dawn of the modern era.
“A graduate of slavery”
However, if the slave master was decent and loyal, the situation is changing. Landowner may issue an emancipation act by which a slave release. “I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the Gypsy Mary, daughter of Dumitru Cracău and descendant of slaves inherited from my parents, widowed after the death of her husband, because I served with devotion and affection in childhood and during its growth in house my putting his heart into his work, so that has always attracted my gratitude and my wife through this act he had handed a graduate of slavery and authorize go where and when you want; as long as you want to stay in my home, she will enjoy, without the slightest problem, the room and the daily food, like all other maids in this house. That will serve as an example and his son – Dincă – which, if you wear his mother, will be released in good time, “he wrote, for example, scribe Dimitrie Canta, on June 8, 1849. Gradually, under the influence of the European Enlightenment, some landowners began to liberate slaves. For example, Ion Câmpineanu was one of the noblemen who freed the slaves early 1834.
“This kind of cruel torture is the beating of the soles with rods, feet linked to a drug that two people hold it high so that the support can not be beaten earth than head and shoulders.” (MK)
Freedom
In Transylvania, the era of enlightened absolutism brought Gypsies and improving condition. Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Joseph II took early measures of sedentary nomadic Gypsies. Additionally, the children were forced to attend religious education. Gypsies owned by a nobleman had to learn rather than farm work traditional crafts. The other two Romanian principalities, the institution of slavery persisted until the mid-nineteenth century. Gradually they were taken restrictive measures on slavery, such as the prohibition of separating families when they were sold or traded slaves and masters reduction of rights. Only in 1837 they were released in Country Romanian princely Gypsies, who are treated as free peasants. Later, Prince Bibescu freed slaves and clergy. On 31 January 1844 the Moldavian ruler decreed the abolition of slavery Sturdza monastery for Gypsies and those working in cities. Slavery exist only in Lords yards. After the Revolution of 1848 is achieved complete abolition of the institution of slavery. Prince Grigore Alexandru Ghica decide, on December 22, 1855, the emancipation of all Gypsies from Moldova. The anecdote says that his gesture was prompted by the story of a young gypsy who committed suicide out of love and helplessness, she had not been freed to marry a girl free. On February 20, 1856, Barbu Ştirbei proclaimed Romanian Country same law. Slavery ended. After five centuries. How it works. Later, Romanians had the chance to listen to Fărâmiţă Lambru, with its wonderful “ring, gold ring”: “I have loved you, child / But I got lucky.” And not only. There have been others.
“Where do you see the« Gypsy »of yesteryear?”
Legal reform of the Romanian Principalities released an estimated 250,000 people. Free people to work the land, practicing their crafts and their huts to live in peace, but captive master-slave relationship generations. People who remained at the margins of society – and the cities and villages alike.
Emancipation
Only in the interwar period, when 242 656 people declared themselves Gypsies (from a total population of 14,280,729), according to the 1930 census, it has noted an acceleration of Roma emancipation movement and the emergence of an elite. However, 84.5% of Roma living in rural areas and only 15.5% in cities, according to Petre Petcut in volume “Roma. Slavery and freedom. ” If the majority of Roma in the villages were engaged in agriculture, employees of large landowners, the situation was more dynamic cities. They were established socio-professional organizations, which are preoccupied with the popularization of Roma culture. For instance, in March 1933, it was founded the General Association of Gypsies in Romania. The objectives included the entire area on Roma socio-cultural: literacy, the establishment of a Roma folk and a rum museum, the establishment of workshops and colonization of nomadic Roma.
Romanization
The momentum of cultural and social integration of the Roma was stopped suddenly to power of Ion Antonescu. It wanted separation Romanian Roma communities. It introduced the idea of deportation over the Dniester. Further, in Ukraine today. In the early years of communism, the Roma issue back to the fore. In 1945, the government Petru Groza împroprietăreşte 19 559 Roma, ie half the remaining population in the country, explains Peter Petcut in “Roma. Slavery and freedom. ” And in the 60s, the Roma situation changes. Given that the Romanian Communist Party wanted homogenization of Romanian society, it was considered a problem Roma identity. Romanization was necessary Gypsies. Education became mandatory, but poverty and marginalization of the majority kept at a high school dropout. It wanted sedentary nomads, but authorities have hit sometimes reticent in the face of change and the desire to preserve traditions. The situation of Roma in Romania to 160 anniversary of the liberation from slavery was debated on January 21 at a conference organized by the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Societies and Democrats in the European Parliament. This was the opening event of the anniversary of a series of actions that bring to the fore the development of Roma communities and preserve their identity and memory.
They go on foot to another halt
As a conclusion and a reflection on the identity and image of the Roma yesterday, we present an excerpt from the text “Fashion in the camp. Collection Autumn-Winter 1832 “, published by Petre Florin Manole, historian and member of the National Council for Combating Discrimination. “On 21 December 1831 great honor having Governor inner write command Romanian State county, in a case that today I would call … of abuse of office. The documents say that officials just, Precious officers ordained from the prison with the expulsion of Gypsies Netot in Turkey and spent them by decree, without the goods. In other words, I crossed the border, but he also took all things wagons, horses, clothes, tools. So, later, the glaciers June 1832 DVORNICIC great honor having received the answer from within Romanaţi Province. A man of State, faith and honest inventory had requested their number and the way things taken by officials just. Here’s what I mean about documents that could be found in household wheel of a Roma family. Tools and other objects: 2-3 hatchets and axes, bridles of the wool, a wool tent and other hemp, more bedpans, a fur blanket, two rugs and a sheet of cloth. Clothes: a mantle, a belt of wool and a girdle, a black beanie goat, a Saric shirt and one female, a hemp vest. Nothing special – you say – because these things there were, of course, and the Romanian peasant house. They had tools for agriculture, because they were nomads, but had the same clothes. That led him to write the Nicolae Iorga later, referring to his times, that looking at Gypsy see former Romanian peasant. But where you see today, look for him, «Gypsy» of yesteryear? Nowhere, but you could see at the Museum of Roma Culture. Whether there will be. “