Galley slaves

What is it about?

This study asks whether and how galley slaves, who according to their legal status were not even human beings, possessed means of acting and discussing the circumstances and practices of galley slavery in the Ottoman fleet. This case study focuses on the potential traces of slave agency and questions the notion of total absence of agency in the mechanism.

Featured Image

Photo by John McDonald on Unsplash

Photo by John McDonald on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Although galley slavery is one of the most absolute forms of asymmetric dependency structures, in the recent past it has not been an intensive area of research for evidence of slave agency.