Slave Trading in the Early Middle Ages - (Manchester Medieval Studies) by Janel M Fontaine (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book reexamines slave trading in the early Middle Ages from a comparative perspective, situating it at the core of economic and political development in northern and eastern Europe.

Book Synopsis

This book reexamines slave trading in the early Middle Ages from a comparative perspective, situating it at the core of economic and political development in northern and eastern Europe.

From the Back Cover

This book reexamines slave trading in the Early Middle Ages from a comparative perspective, situating it at the core of economic and political development in northern and east central Europe.

Fontaine focuses on the 'slaving zones' centered around the British Isles and the Czech lands, tracing the forced migration of enslaved people from the point of capture to their destinations across Europe, the North Atlantic, North Africa, and western Asia. The book explores the changes of the ninth and tenth centuries prompted by increased demand, principally in the Islamic world as well as areas of Viking settlement. The desire to source more slaves led to changes in the practice of warfare to maximize captive taking, the logistics of slave trading and rulers' legal and economic relationships with slavery.

By spanning from the seventh through to the eleventh century, this important study traces the growth, climax, and decline of slave trading in the early Middle Ages and establishes its role as a driver of connectivity.

Review Quotes

'Janel M. Fontaine has in her book, Slave Trading in the Early Middle Ages: Long-Distance Connections in Northern and East Central Europe, presented us with an important study regarding slavery and slave trading in medieval Europe. The book presents both a good and up-to-date summary of the human abomination called slavery and unfreedom, as well as--and here lies the great merit of her work--a discussion of slavery and slave trading in eastern Europe, especially in and around the Czech lands, comparing what we find here with what we understand of slavery and slave trading in England and the British Isles. This is an important book for our understanding of slavery in early medieval Europe.'
Stefan Brink, University of Cambridge, Uppsala University, University of Highlands and Islands

'This book is a welcome contribution to the thriving historiography of slavery in the Middle Ages... Janel M. Fontaine provides a different perspective by comparing the 'slaving zones' of the British Isles with those of the Czech lands... With her rewarding, comparative case study approach, Fontaine has given us a productive model for further research.'
James R. Burns, Early Medieval Europe, 2025

'This monograph is a valuable addition to the scholarly literature on the challenging and important topic of slavery in early medieval Europe. Janel Fontaine makes slaving (= 'slave trading') central to her study, albeit as the axis of exposition that also informatively addresses essential correlates such as methods of enslavement and the rand of conditions in which slaves lived.'
John Hines, The Antiquaries Journal, 2025

About the Author

Janel M. Fontaine is an archaeologist in the public sector and an Affiliate Researcher at the University of Glasgow.