The Servant’s Freedom. A Few Thoughts on Slavery and Service in a Long-Term Perspective

In this essay, I will provide some insights into the theme of the servant’s freedom. In part, the attention to this problem has been prompted by the present socio-economic trend, which sees, according to several scholars, a revival of paid domestic work and even of slavery. In the light of the plentiful references to Aristotle present in early-modern texts, the analysis starts precisely from the Greek philosopher’s model. First I will focus on the profile of the δοῦλος (“doulos”, i.e. servant/slave) as described by Aristotle as well as the relationship between the οἰκία and the πόλις, briefly illustrating the long-term success of the Greek philosopher’s ideas. Then I will analyse how the issue of the servant’s capacity to value and choose, even behaving against his master’s will, was dealt with over time. I will show that in many texts, not without contradictions, there was a change in the way servants were represented: from passive tools in the hands of their masters, they turned into free and self-aware creatures, responsible for their own servitude. Significantly, at two crucial moments in the elaboration of the modern political category of citizenship, the first English Revolution and the French Revolution, voluntary servants, i.e. men who had renounced their own freedom, were excluded from the franchise. Thereafter, the idea spread that any forms of dependence were destined to disappear in a political regime based on freedom; nonetheless domestics for a long time would be excluded from enjoying full citizenship rights. Gender is here brought to the fore: female domestics were excluded from suffrage not only because they were servants but also, and much more radically, because they were women. Over time, there would be a feminisation of dependency. The discussions described in the article show the difficulty to find a solution that allowed personal freedom and the execution of orders at work to co-exist. In early modern times the difference between free and unfree labour was rather blurred if assessed according to our categories, yet real slaves did exist. I will therefore conclude the article by briefly mentioning the longue durée of slavery in Europe, focusing in particular on Italy, also mentioning, in the last section, the role of race and racism.