170 years since the emancipation of the Roma

On February 20, 1856, the Romanian society took a major step towards modernization by freeing the Roma from slavery.

Steliu Lambru, 02.03.2026, 14:00

On February 20, 1856, the Romanian society took a major step towards modernization by freeing the Roma from slavery. A very sensitive chapter of the past was closed, but another one was opening, that of integration and building a climate of recognition and equality.  Ethnologist Delia Grigore is a professor of Romani language and culture at the University of Bucharest, and we asked her to detail the ideas that directed Romanian society towards abolitionism in the first half of the 19^th century.

Delia Grigore: “The reforming ideas of the French Revolution of 1789 also reached Romania, it was actually the period of the Romanian Principalities. The enlightened, young boyars went abroad to study in the universities of Paris, Vienna and elsewhere, and they came back with reforming ideas, they acquired a lot of knowledge there. There they were told that it was shameful that in the 19^th century, in a country that wanted to be European and wanted to enter the modernizing system of Europe at that time, one could still find a system of slavery and that one could read in the boyars’ and monasteries’ diaries such mentions as ‘a servant, a gypsy to sell’. Because the word gypsy meant in the old Romanian language, slave, serf. These young people who learned there, who came from families of slave owners, were put in a situation of being ashamed of what was happening in the country and they came up with these ideas. They were Cezar Bolliac, Dimitrie Bolintineanu, Nicolae Bălcescu, Mihail Kogălniceanu and Vasile Alecsandri. Other young enlightened boyars came with these ideas and some of them freed their Roma without compensation. Others, however, received compensation. It should be emphasized that the abolition of slavery was made with compensation from the state. Basically, the state bought these slaves from their private masters, boyars and monasteries, and then freed them.”

The situation of the Roma slaves was inhumane, one that had revolted the minds of those who wanted Europeanization. Delia Grigore is back with details: “No master was ever punished for killing his slave. They beat their slaves, tortured them but nothing happened to them. So, even if apparently slave owners were not allowed to kill the slaves, but only to beat them, they still sometimes beat them to death. So it is about a status of a human being unrecognized as a human being, it is something terrible. I would use, for that era, the term gypsy in the sense of slave, and for now, even if we are talking about that era, the term slave in order not to insist on the Slavic term of serf in an attempt to diminish the severity of slavery. The Romanian Principalities were slave countries during that long period. We must all assume this, the Romanian state, the Church, and move forward for reconciliation.”

We learn what followed after emancipation from Delia Grigore: “The consequences are still today, the marginalization, including residential, of the Roma. They built their settlements, after they came out of slavery, on the outskirts of villages and cities. They had nowhere to build settlements in the center because they came later as people, as citizens, they were not even recognized as citizens. The Roma were recognized as citizens much later, they were not recognized as a national minority in the Treaty of Paris signed by Romania in 1919. Other minorities were recognized, and the Hungarian minority, interestingly, was recognized, although the Hungarians opposed the union with Transylvania. And it was natural because they considered that part of their territory was being taken away. The Roma did not oppose, there were even gatherings immediately after 1918 in several localities, for example in Rupea, in Brașov County. Then, on April 27, 1919, the Roma made a memorandum, they showed their joy for the union and solidarity with Romania. They were very happy that, finally, they could become Romanian citizens. And, despite this, they were not recognized as a national minority nor as Romanian citizens. Much later, in the interwar period, a Roma movement began to emerge, with organizations, with Roma newspapers, Glasul Romilor (Voice of the Roma) and Uniunea Generală a Romilor (The General Union of the Roma). And as full citizens, we could say that only after the Second World War were they recognized, but without being recognized, again, as a national minority, but only as Romanian citizens, the policy being one of assimilation. They were recognized as a national minority only after 1990.”

Roma integration policies have been unsatisfactory, in general, but there are also some successes. Delia Grigore: “There was no policy of integrating former slaves into society, it was left to chance. And then, some Roma continued to live and work for the boyars, on their estates, so they continued to be with the boyars, there was not much of a difference between the period when they were slaves and afterwards. The consequences on ethnic self-esteem are still visible today. The internalized stigma is seen in the difference between the number of Roma who assume their identity in the census, 600 thousand or so. The stigma of being Roma also remains as a consequence of history, slavery, the Holocaust, the fear of being identified ‘as a gypsy’ in quotation marks and the possibility of being discriminated against. So, there are big problems in this regard with self-esteem. But, shortly after the liberation from slavery, there were also Roma, not many, who managed to integrate into society, said Kogălniceanu, who managed to become, at the end of the 19^th century, parliamentarians, cultural personalities, judges, lawyers, artists and so on. And they also fought in wars alongside Romanians. Roma are patriots, they love their country, Romania, even though it has had such a tragic history, and they want to be and feel Romanian.”

170 years ago, Romanian society did what it had to do for the dignity of some people. And today it must consolidate its gains. (LS)