Since the enslavement of Romani people is so unknown yet so vast, I wanted to compile a little timeline to put it in to perspective on the anniversary of Romanian emancipation. This doesn’t include everything because there is just far too much and also a word limit here.

1100s: King Muhmud of Ghazni used slave warriors to destroy all the Sindh and Punjab peoples in India. These warriors would be some of the earliest beginnings of the Romani people.

Romanian Slavery (1385-1864): This is some of the most severe slavery Roma have gone through. It was generational slavery (as it did last 500 years), so children of slaves were slaves. It became a familial line which is important later on. Extreme physical punishment was commonly given out. Women were often involved in sex slavery by being raped by their owners and any visitors — as many masters considered it polite to offer these sexual favours to guests. Many Romanian Roma nowadays are more lighterskinned, and this can be traced back to this. The Catholic Orthodox Church was also a large slaveholder.

1498: Columbus brings Romani slaves to American colonies.

1500-1700: Spain sent Roma to be enslaved in Louisiana colonies

1500-1700: France sent Roma to be enslaved in the modern day Caribbean.

1500-1700: Dutch sent Roma to be enslaved in modern day Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and more.

1500s: Beginning in the 1500s, Portugal mass deports Roma slaves to Brazil, Africa, and India

1514: All Roma in England were branded with a “V” and forced into two years of slave labor. Attempted escapes were punished by being branded again and now being enslaved for life.

1560: All Roma in Spain eventually sent to galley slavery

1561: France previously banned Roma from the country, so if you were found in the country, you were sentenced to slavery.

1650-1775: Scotland sent Roma to be enslaved in Panama, Novascotia, New Jersey, and Georgia.

1658-1700s: England sends Roma slaves to many Southern state plantations and Caribbean. Mass arrest and deportations occur.

1672-1678: France and Dutch Republic both force Roma to fight for them. Afterwards, the Dutch slaughtered all Roma, even those who fought for them. This was known as the “heathen hunt.”

1700s: Scotland has Roma slaves work in coal mines.

1700s: In Jamaica, Roma woman were almost all sex slaves. Freed Black slaves were given Roma slaves.

1733: Russia’s Empress declares Roma to be slaves to the crown

1749: Great Gypsy Round-up occurs in Spain. All Roma arrested and forced into slave labor, including very young children. The operation was funded by confiscated goods and homes of the Roma.

1839: There were up to a quarter of a million Roma slaves in Romania.

1864: Romania abolishes slavery. Many remained fully dependent on local landowners and authorities after. A lot of Romanian Roma ‘tribes’ can be traced back specifically to what labor they did during slavery.

Holocaust (1933-1945): Roma were some of the forced workers who built the labor camps, many of whom would die in the camps the built. Forced labor occurred in many concentration camps. Around 2 million Roma died in the Holocaust.

Nowadays, Roma are still the most heavily trafficked group in the world for reasons such as forced labour, sex trafficking, illegal adoption. This is in many places, but here are just a few stats to show the severity: “Roma constitute only approximately 7% of the total Hungarian population. A police source estimated that 80% of trafficked persons are Romani. According to information provided by two NGOs supplying services to prostitutes/sex workers in destination countries (Switzerland and the Netherlands), approximately 25-30% of their beneficiaries are Hungarian women, of which 80% are Romani, a large number of whom have been trafficked and/or are exploited.”

You can read more about trafficking in Europe here.

And to leave it off, here is this: “A grim illustration of the silent normalization of extremist attitudes and opinions can be found under the most mundane forms: internet comments. In the section for opinions and comments, at the end of media articles on the long history of the Roma slavery in the Romanian Principalities, some readers are openly stating that the only sad part about the Romani enslavement, from their perspective, was its abolition. A number of other comments were patronizing the daring act of Romani activism, associating Roma people with second-class citizens who should not have a saying in the matters of society. Most of all, since when do they have an informed opinion? Aren’t they supposed to be stealing something or destroy our calm as decent citizens?”