SLAVE TRADE IN GEORGIA ACCORDING TO REPORTS OF TYE THEATINE MISSIONAIRES

ELDAR MAMISTVALISVILI

ELDAR MAMISTVALISVILI Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Gori State University, Georgia, Gori http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5978-7624

Abstract

Following the Ottoman conquests and the subsequent closure of the Black Sea, Georgia—particularly its western regions—was isolated from the outside world. This isolation led to a decline in production and an acute shortage of currency. As a result, in a politically fragmented and economically weakened country, the lower classes—serfs and peasants—were turned by feudal lords into a medium of exchange: money was replaced by human beings. Men and women, young and old alike, were sold and transported abroad, mainly by sea through the Black Sea routes.

Almost all the Theatine missionaries active in Georgia during the first half of the seventeenth century—Pietro Avitabile, Arcangelo Lamberti, Giudice, and Cristoforo Castelli—expressed deep sorrow over the evil practice of trading in human beings. This phenomenon, known in Georgian historiography as the “Slave Trade” (Tqvis Sqidva), had become especially widespread and nearly universal in western Georgia.

This destructive social and moral phenomenon, which gravely damaged the demographic, social, and cultural condition of late medieval Georgia, has been the subject of considerable scholarly attention. Georgian historians have thoroughly investigated its causes and consequences.

The reports of the Theatine missionaries who worked in various parts of seventeenth-century Georgia (Kartli, Imereti, Samegrelo, and Guria) constitute the earliest and most important historical sources for studying the slave trade. Avitabile, Lamberti, Giudice, and Castelli, who resided in Georgia at different times but within the same general period, all commented with concern and compassion on this painful reality.

It is also essential to consider their social and religious–cultural difference from the local population, as well as the missionary objectives assigned to them from Rome. For this reason, the citation and analysis of these Theatine reports in this article aim to reveal the missionaries’ attitudes, their moral anguish, and their empathy toward the Georgian people.

Keywords: slavery, sea trade, Castelli, Turks, Dadiani.