IMC 2026: Sessions
Session 807: Slavery, Sexuality, and Society, IV: Rethinking the Field Slavery / Domestic Slavery Divide
Tuesday 7 July 2026, 16:30-18:00
| Sponsor: | ERC DoSSE Project (101001429) |
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| Organiser: | Erin Thomas Dailey, School of History, Politics & International Relations, University of Leicester |
| Moderator/Chair: | Christopher Heath, School of Humanities & Heritage, University of Lincoln |
| Respondent: | Erin Thomas Dailey, School of History, Politics & International Relations, University of Leicester |
| Paper 807-a | Beyond Free and Enslaved: Forms of Dependency in Visigothic Iberia (Language: English) Index terms: Law, Mentalities, Social History |
| Paper 807-b | Slavery in Merovingian Homes and Histories (Language: English) Index terms: Sexuality, Social History |
| Paper 807-c | Beyond the House: Gendered Slavery and Agrarian Work in Venetian Crete, c. 1300-1400 (Language: English) Index terms: Daily Life, Economics - Rural, Gender Studies, Social History |
| Abstract | The distinction between field slavery and domestic slavery, itself rooted in Roman law, has proved to be a useful distinction for scholars who have attempted to understand the different historical trajectories of these two practices. But for individuals who found themselves enslaved in the Middle Ages, the experience of slavery might not divide so neatly into two clear legal and historical categories. Among the many reasons, not least of which is the fact that a person might traverse the boundary between field and household over their life course as a slave. The papers in this session explore domestic slavery and field slavery, then ask questions about the distinctive nature of these conditions and the fluid reality of slave experience. |