By: Sandra Huffman

Department of History 

Abstract

This paper examines the practice of slavery and the slave trade in England when it was ruled by the Anglo-Saxons, from the departure of Rome in the 5th century, to the conquest by the Normans in 1066. The vernacular language of the Anglo-Saxons was Old English, and it is documents written in this language that are the focus of research. Using the work of prominent medieval historians, a close study of legal, religious, and fictional text, an idea is gleaned of the practice of slavery in Anglo-Saxon England throughout their rule, and whether the raise of the Christian Church had an impact on the number of enslaved. Legal and religious texts frequently preach the immorality of slavery, but the reality of active slave ports as well as the language of the Wessex Gospels, imply that the concern of the English people was curtailing cruel slave masters, rather than slavery itself.

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