Carl I. Hammer

Almost everyone is taught about feudalism and serfs in high school history classes when discussing medieval Europe, but never do the teachers mention slavery. However, this small book brings to light slavery as it was practiced in just one small region of early medieval Europe.

The author thoroughly researched the topic, clearly organized his the structure of the book, and convincingly presented his reasoning and conclusions. As an additional benefit to the book, the second half includes transcriptions of supporting documentation, which were not previously published.

One can only imagine the academic and social benefit if this type of effort was also placed on studying the institution of slavery throughout the whole of medieval European society and not solely using the topic of slavery as a justification for the Union's invasion and occupation of the southern states during the American Civil War.… (mehr)