The Roma in Romanian History by Viorel Achim

Roma historian Viorel Achim also explained that 'slavery was not a phenomenon characteristic only of Wallachia and Moldavia. The Tatar slaves, smaller in numbers, were eventually merged into the Roma population. By then, the institution of slavery was already established in Moldavia, at the time enslaving the rumani, but the arrival of the Roma made slavery a widespread practice. While it is possible that some Romani people were slaves or auxiliary troops of the Mongols or Tatars, the bulk of them came from south of the Danube at the end of the 14th century, some time after the foundation of Wallachia. The ethnic identity of the 'Tatar slaves' is unknown, they could have been captured Tatars of the Golden Horde, Cumans, or the slaves of Tatars and Cumans. The practice of enslaving prisoners may also have been taken from the Mongols. Other historians consider that they were enslaved while captured during the battles with the Tatars. Historian Nicolae Iorga associated the Roma people's arrival with the 1241 Mongol invasion of Europe and through the Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe, taking the Roma from the Mongols as slaves and preserving their status. The exact origins of slavery in the Danubian Principalities are not known. Īfter the abolition, there were attempts (both by the state and by private individuals) to settle the nomads and to integrate the Roma into Romanian society, but their success was limited. Many formerly enslaved Romani people in Romania went to the United States and became the Romani Americans. In 1843, the Wallachian state freed its slaves, and in 1856, in both principalities, slaves of all classes were freed.

Mihail Kogălniceanu, who drafted the legislation on the abolition of slavery in Moldova, remains the name associated with the abolition. The abolition of slavery was achieved at the end of a campaign by young revolutionaries influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment.

They were used as blacksmiths, goldsmiths and agricultural workers, but when the principalities were urbanized, they also served as servants. Romani slaves belonged to boyars (aristocrats), Orthodox monasteries, or the state. Particularly in Moldavia there were also slaves of Tatar ethnicity, probably prisoners captured from the wars with the Nogai and Crimean Tatars. Most of the slaves were of Romani ethnicity. Slavery existed on the territory of present-day Romania from the founding of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia in 13th–14th century, until it was abolished in stages during the 1840s and 1850s before the independence of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia was allowed, and also until 1783, in Transylvania and Bukovina (parts of the Habsburg monarchy).

The Roma in Romanian History by Viorel Achim