Editing Moldavia (section)

===Slavery===
{{Further|Slavery in Romania#Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia}}
[[File:Auguste Raffet, Famille tsigane en voyage en Moldavie, 1837.jpg|thumb|Nomadic [[Roma minority in Romania|Roma]] family traveling in Moldavia, [[Auguste Raffet]], 1837]]
Slavery ({{langx|ro|robie}}) was part of the [[social class|social order]] from before the founding of the Principality of Moldavia, until it was [[Abolitionism|abolished]] in stages during the 1840s and 1850s. Most of the slaves were of [[Roma minority in Romania|Roma]] (Gypsy) ethnicity. There were also slaves of [[Tatars|Tatar]] ethnicity, probably prisoners captured from the wars with the [[Nogai Horde|Nogai]] and [[Crimean Tatars]]. The institution of slavery was first attested in a 1470 Moldavian document, through which Prince [[Stephen III of Moldavia|Stephen the Great]] frees Oană, a Tatar slave who had fled to [[History of Poland during the Jagiellon dynasty|Jagiellon Poland]].<ref name=Achim>Viorel Achim, ''The Roma in Romanian History'', Central European University Press, Budapest, 2004, {{ISBN|963-9241-84-9}}</ref>

The exact origins of slavery are not known, as it was a common [[Slavery in medieval Europe|practice in medieval Europe]]. As in the [[Byzantine Empire]], the Roma were held as slaves of the state, of the [[boyars]] or of the monasteries. Historian [[Nicolae Iorga]] associated the Roma people's arrival with the 1241 [[Mongol invasion of Europe]] and considered their slavery as a vestige of that era; he believed that the Romanians took the Roma as slaves from the [[Mongols]] and preserved their status to control their labor. Other historians consider that the Roma were enslaved while captured during the battles with the Tatars. The practice of enslaving prisoners may also have been taken from the Mongols. The ethnic identity of the "Tatar slaves" is unknown, they could have been captured Tatars of the [[Golden Horde]], [[Cuman people|Cumans]], or the slaves of Tatars and Cumans.<ref name=Achim/> While it is possible that some Romani people were slaves or auxiliary troops of the Mongols or Tatars, most of them came from south of the [[Danube]], demonstrating that slavery was a widespread practice. The Tatar slaves, smaller in numbers, were eventually merged into the Roma population.<ref name=Stefanescu>Ștefan Ștefănescu, ''Istoria medie a României'', Vol. I, Editura Universității din București, Bucharest, 1991 {{in lang|ro}}</ref>

Traditionally, Roma slaves were divided into three categories. The smallest was owned by the ''hospodars'', and went by the Romanian-language name of ''țigani domnești'' ("Gypsies belonging to the lord"). The two other categories comprised ''țigani mănăstirești'' ("Gypsies belonging to the monasteries"), who were the property of [[Romanian Orthodox Church|Romanian Orthodox]] and [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox]] monasteries, and ''țigani boierești'' ("Gypsies belonging to the boyars"), who were enslaved by the category of landowners.<ref name=Djuvara>[[Neagu Djuvara]], ''Între Orient și Occident. Țările române la începutul epocii moderne'', Humanitas, Bucharest, 1995. {{ISBN|973-28-0523-4}} {{in lang|ro}}</ref><ref name=Guy>Will Guy, ''Between Past and Future: The Roma of Central and Eastern Europe'', [[University of Hertfordshire Press]], Hatfield, 2001. {{ISBN|1-902806-07-7}}</ref>

The abolition of slavery was carried out following a campaign by young revolutionaries who embraced the [[Liberalism|liberal]] ideas of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]]. In 1844, Moldavian Prince [[Mihail Sturdza]] proposed a law on the freeing of slaves owned by the church and state. By the 1850s, the movement gained support from almost the whole of Romanian society. In December 1855, following a proposal by Prince [[Grigore Alexandru Ghica]], a bill drafted by [[Mihail Kogălniceanu]] and [[Petre Mavrogheni]] was adopted by the Divan; the law emancipated all slaves to the status of taxpayers (citizens).<ref name=Achim/><ref name=Djuvara/>

Support for the abolitionists was reflected in [[Romanian literature]] of the mid-19th century. The issue of the Roma slavery became a theme in the literary works of various [[Liberalism and radicalism in Romania|liberal]] and [[Romanticism|Romantic]] intellectuals, many of whom were active in the abolitionist camp. The Romanian abolitionist movement was also influenced by the much larger movement against [[Slavery in the United States|Black slavery]] in the United States through press reports and through a translation of [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]]'s ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]''. Translated by Theodor Codrescu and first published in [[Iași]] in 1853, under the name ''Coliba lui Moșu Toma sau Viața negrilor în sudul Statelor Unite din America'' (which translates back as "Uncle Toma's Cabin or the Life of Blacks in the Southern United States of America"), it was the first American novel to be published in Romanian. The foreword included a study on slavery by Mihail Kogălniceanu.<ref name=Achim/>