Greek slavery

In ancient Greece, most jobs were done by slaves instead of free people. This was because the Greeks had no money to pay workers with (until the Archaic period), and because they had no clocks (to measure how long somebody had worked). But it was also because it is cheaper to force people to work for you than it is to pay them.

Most people who were slaves in Greece had been born free. They were sold into slavery by their parents when they were children, because their parents were too poor to take care of them. Or they were captured by kidnappers or as prisoners of war and sold as slaves. A few slaves were the children of other slaves. Some slaves were Greek and some were Persians or Egyptians or Scythians.

There were a lot of jobs, and so about a third of the people living in ancient Greece were slaves. Slaves were owned by other people, and had to work for their owners. They could not decide to go work for somebody else. If they refused to work, their owner hit them. People who were slaves could not marry or raise children without their owner’s permission. And slaves could be sold at any time.

Most of the slaves worked in the fields, plowing and planting seeds and harvesting wheat and barley and olives. Some slaves worked for small farms, maybe just one or two slaves working alongside their boss. Other slaves worked on huge farms with hundreds of other slaves, and never saw their owner. Slaves who worked in the fields were almost all men.

Other slaves, both men and women, worked in factories or small shops, making shoes or shields or pottery or leather or weaving cloth. Some slaves cut hair in barbershops, and others worked in the public baths. Some were prostitutes. Slaves who could read and write were often teachers or accountants. Or slaves who had skills might be musicians or dancers. Skilled slaves were often freed when they got too old to work, though we’re not sure whether this was good or bad for them.

A slave nanny taking the baby
(see the loom behind her?)
Greek red-figure vase from Athens,
about 450 BC

A smaller number of slaves worked as servants in the houses of their owners. Women worked as wet-nurses, or as nannies, or as cleaning women or cooks. They went to get water from the public fountains. Men worked taking care of the horses, or accompanying free children to school, or as handymen or gardeners. Men went to the market to do the shopping every day. These slaves, too, were often freed when they got old and couldn’t work anymore.

Some poor slaves worked rowing trading ships. They were kept down in the bottom of the ship and never saw the sun, and they were given only bread and water to eat, and were often beaten to make them pull the oars harder. Most men who worked as rowers didn’t live very long.

But the slaves that were the worst off were the men who worked in the silver mines. The silver in the mines was mixed with lead. So the men who worked in these mines gradually died of lead poisoning. Nobody lived more than two or three years. Their owners knew that the slaves were being poisoned, but they didn’t care. Some of these slaves were criminals, murderers or thieves who were being punished by working as slaves. Others were slaves who had tried to run away from other jobs, or had refused to work. But many slaves went to the mines for no reason at all, just because people were needed to work in the mines, and free people didn’t want that kind of work.

To find out more about Greek slavery, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:

Eyewitness: Ancient Greece , by Anne Pearson. For kids.

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Slave in Ancient Greece!, by Fiona Macdonald and others (2000). For kids - funny illustrations, but real facts.

Slavery in Ancient Greece, by Yvon Garlan (revised 1988). A standard account, meant for adults but not too hard going.

Greek and Roman Slavery, by Thomas Wiedemann (1989). A collection of more than 200 things ancient writers had to say about slaves and slavery. Draw your own conclusions.

Ideas of Slavery from Aristotle to Augustine, by Peter Garnsey (1997). More about the philosophy of slavery than about the slaves themselves.

Greek families
Greek friendship
Greek houses
Greek school
Greek People
Main Greeks page