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Often appears with: slavery and bondage · inheritance and the passing of the house · equity, mercy, and pardon · contracts, oaths, and obligation · venetian bequests · treatment of slaves · st. mark’s library · slave loyalty · servants’ deaths · robert king · religious persecution and toleration · register office
Usually: praise (3) · narrative (2) · argument (1) · law or decree (1) · letter or document (1) · captivity (1) · grief and loss (1) · reconciliation (1) · detachment (1) · lament (1)
“These words of my master were like a voice from heaven to me: in an instant all my trepidation was turned into unutterable bliss;” Olaudah Equiano (also known as Gustavus Vassa), The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equ · vivid
“Divine inspiracionis donum est et provide mentis arbitrium ut antequam superve- niat mortis iudicium quilibet sua bona sit ordinare sollicitus ne ipsa sua bona inordinata remaneant.” Marco Polo (translated by Sir Henry Yule, revised by Henri Cordier), The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 2 · insight
After the trunk’s empty “treasure,” Equiano has about forty-seven pounds, pays toward his manumission, and rejoices when his master Robert King honors the promise.
While we thought we were embracing a substance we grasped an empty nothing. The whole amount that was in the nest of trunks was only one dollar and a half; and all that the man possessed would not pay for his coffin. Our sudden and exquisite joy was now succeeded by a sudden and exquisite pain; and my Captain and I exhibited, for some time, most ridiculous figures--pictures of chagrin and disappointment! We went away…
A will dated 9 January 1324 (1323 in the heading) sets out Marco Polo’s religious and family bequests, including money to monasteries, support for relatives, manumission of a servant, and distribution of remaining goods.
Will of MARCO POLO. (In St. Mark’s Library.)[4] In Nomine Dei Eterni Amen. Anno ab Incarnatione Dni. Nri. Jhu. Xri. millesimo trecentesimo vige- simo tertio, mensis Januarii die nono,[5] intrante Indictione septima, Rivoalti. Divine inspiracionis donum est et provide mentis arbitrium ut antequam superve- niat mortis iudicium quilibet sua bona sit ordinare sollicitus ne ipsa sua bona inordin…
Pliny consoles Paternus for servants’ deaths by stressing his practice of manumission and allowing enslaved people a will-like right, then admits sorrow still gets the better of him.
other was rejected; while the third, as it was not powerful enough to conquer both the others, had only to choose to which of the two it would yield. Farewell. XC -- To PATERNUS THE sickness lately in my family, which has carried off several of my servants, some of them, too, in the prime of their years, has been a great affliction to me. I have two consolations, however, which, though by no means equivalent to suc…
It continues praising Pliny’s friends, emphasizing his wealth and generosity, his role supporting younger writers and officials, and his household ethics—especially his treatment of slaves and his concept of the home as a kind of polity.
"Viximus insignes inter utramque facem." This is no isolated example. One of the most pathetic letters is that in which Pliny writes of the death of the younger daughter of his friend Fundanus, a girl in her fifteenth year, who had already "the prudence of age, the gravity of a matron, and all the maidenly modesty and sweetness of a girl." Pliny tells us how it cut him to the quick to hear her father give directio…
Seneca provides examples of slave loyalty during sieges and executions, including Grumentum’s case and a story of two slaves who deceive enemies to save their mistress.
your power to receive or not to receive it from a slave. Yet who is so exalted, that fortune may not make him need the aid even of the lowliest? XXIII. I shall now quote a number of instances of benefits, not all alike, some even contradictory. Some slaves have given their master life, some death; have saved him when perishing, or, as if that were not enough, have saved him by their own death; others have helped the…