THE EMANCIPATION

6. The Gypsies in the Romanian Principalties in the First half of the Nineteenth Century.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, especially after 1821, an institutional, economic and social modernization began. In contrast with the dynamics of the Romanian society, the institution of slavery remained the same as in the Ancient Regime. Adopted in 1831 in the two principalties, the Organic Regulations (rudiments of constitution) maintained slavery as part of the system. They also established the fiscal obligations of the slaves and initiated a global policy of sedentarization and involvement of the Gypsies in the farming activities.

At the onset of the capitalist economy, the slave owners became aware of the possibility of transforming their slaves into profitable capital. Some would employ them extensively in farming activities, others in the manufacturing shops they had built on their estate. Sold and bought in the open and on a large scale, the Gypsies became merchandise in the true sense of the word. As a result, a massive sedentarization and sensible changes in the structure of the Gypsy population would occur in the first half of the nineteenth century.

7. The abolitionist Trend

In the Romanian society the idea of emancipation of the Gypsies would only take root in the third decades of the nineteenth century. A new generation of Romanian intellectuals educated in the western countries denounced slavery as a drawback and set the abolition of slavery among the main goals in the modernization of the Romanian Principalties.

Even more Romanians held abolitionist views. After the revolution of 1848 the Romanian society saw in the emancipation one of the imperatives of the time. There were public debates on the subject, with the press taking opposite stands. The literature of the time promoted the idea of "good Gypsy". The preoccupation of the abolitionists was not only with the issue of the slavery and of the legal emancipation of the Gypsies but with the social and economic future of the emancipated Gypsies as well.

8. The Emancipation Laws

The abolition of slavery in the Romanian principalties was made in two decades and a half. According to the specific conditions of the time and the interests of the political factors, one category of slaves after another was restored to freedom.

The following legal steps were taken:

• In March 1843 the slavery of the Gypsies owned by the State was abolished in Wallachia;

• The law passed on 31st of January 1844 abolished the slavery of the Gypsies owned by the Church;

• Another law passed in Moldavia on 14th of February 1844 abolished the slavery of the Gypsies owned by the State;

• On 11th of February 1847 the slavery of the Gypsies owned by the Church and by any other public establishment was abolished in Wallachia;

• During the 1848 revolution in Wallachia after the takeover by the revolutionaries, the Provisory Government issued on 26th of June a decree emancipating the privately owned Gypsies. After the suppression of the revolution they were restored to slavery;

• On 8th of February the law abolishing slavery of the individually owned Gypsies was passed in Wallachia;

• A similar law was passed in Moldavia on 10th of December 1855.

The emancipation of the Gypsies was therefore gradual, by category. The emancipation of the privately owned slaves had already begun before 1855-1856, with the purchase by the State of the Gypsies put on sale. The capitation cashed-in from the State and Church slaves emancipated by the laws of 1843-1844 and 1847 was employed in the process. The laws for the emancipation of the privately owned slaves granted the owners a reimbursement at the market price. The largest part of the amounts came from the capitation paid by the emancipated slaves. Therefore the adopted laws were meant not to infringe upon the right of ownership. The Church and the public establishments were not reimbursed for the slaves they had lost.