In 1380, an enslaved woman named Cali petitioned the government of Genoa for freedom from Bernardo and Franceschina de Carraria. The judges assigned to her case considered several kinds of evidence. Cali’s procurator (her designated legal representative) argued that she had been born as a free Greek woman and that, under the terms of the Byzantine-Genoese treaty of 1352, Greek captives must be released and Greeks must not be held as slaves in Genoa.[1] Franceschina de Carraria showed the judges the sale contract by which her husband Bernardo had purchased Cali, described as a Tatar, from a tailor named Ianoto who lived in the port of Famagusta on the island of Cyprus. Cali herself testified that she had been born in Constantinople with the name Theodora, was not a Tatar, and had never belonged to Ianoto. The questions listed below were asked of the other witnesses who testified in Cali’s case. Their answers and the judges’ decision were not preserved.

[1] The Genoese general Paganino Doria had just inflicted a major defeat on Byzantine forces but agreed to release all of his Greek captives except those who had already been sold. Another enslaved Greek woman, Lucia, petitioned the Genoese government for freedom in 1365 on the grounds that she had been captured and enslaved by Doria but never sold.

Translated from the Latin by Hannah Barker. Genoa, Archivio di Stato di Genova (ASG), Notai ignoti, b.xxiv, folder 14, dated April 4, 1380. This translation CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

If the said witness knows the said Cali.

In what place the said witness first came to know the said Cali.

How much time it is that the said witness has known the said Cali.

If the said witness knew the father of the said Cali, and by what name he was called.

What kind and how great of a man he was, if he was fat or thin, big or small.

If the said witness knew the mother of the said Cali, and among [other things if] the said [woman] is proportionately higher [in status] than the father.

In what city, town, estate, or fort was the said Cali born, and so let him specify, state, and name the place in which she was born.

If the said witness saw the said Cali in the said place.

If the said Cali was first called Theodora.

If he saw, knew, or heard something on account of which he would say that the said Cali was of Greek race [de progenia grecorum].

If many Genoese and also those of other nations [nationum] know the tongue and language of the Greeks very well.

If on the island of Cyprus the language of the Greeks is spoken by slaves and others who are brought there as slaves who there are called Bulgars.

Who are they and by what name are they called who report and reported the said Cali to be of the race of the Greeks [de genere grecorum].

If the said Cali stayed for a time on the island of Cyprus as a slave.

If Ianoto of Chios held the said Cali as a slave and of Tatar race [de progenia tartarorum], and was she held, treated, and reported as such.

If the said Cali, at the time when she was possessed by the said Ianoto, was called Theodora.

If the said Cali, at the time when she was on the island of Cyprus, was reported, held, and treated as a Tatar and of the race of the Tatars [de progenia tartarorum].

If the said Cali was sold by the said Ianoto to the said Bernardo as a Tatar and of the race of the Tatars [de progenia tartarorum].

Last, the witness himself is interrogated alone.

How many years [old] he is.

How much he has in goods.

If he was led, prepared, or asked.[1]

If he is Greek and of the Greek race [de progenia grecorum].

And let [these questions] be general.

[1] I.e. whether anyone had told the witness what to say.

Discussion Questions

  1. How did Cali/Theodora become enslaved? Why does it matter in the context of this petition?
  2. Cali/Theodora’s petition was based on the claim that she had been wrongfully enslaved. What information did the judges consider relevant in making a decision about her status and why?
  3. What information is missing that you might expect the judges to consider relevant?
  4.  The scholarly consensus has been that religious difference was the basis of slave status in the late medieval Mediterranean. Did Cali/Theodora belong to a different religion than Bernardo and Franceschina de Carraria? How do you know? What additional information would you need to answer this question fully?

Related Primary Sources

Related Secondary Sources

  • Barker, Hannah. “Christianities in Conflict: The Black Sea as a Genoese Slaving Zone in the Later Middle Ages.” In Slaving Zones: Cultural Identities, Ideologies, and Institutions in the Evolution of Global Slavery, ed. Jeff Fynn-Paul and Damian Alan Pargas, 50-69. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
  • Barker, Hannah. That Most Precious Merchandise: The Mediterranean Trade in Black Sea Slaves. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019.

Themes

Agency, Birth, Captives, Law, Manumission, Race, Religion