Abstract

The article aims at demonstrating that slavery persisted in Rome and Civitavecchia until the first half of 19 th Century. My archival research covers exactly the period of 1750-1808. I present slavery cases in connection with the problem of the Mediterranean slavery, focusing my research on religious problems and living conditions. The rite of baptism is also the manifestation of the link between slavery and religious problems. Indeed, conversion is a double-sided instrument: on the one hand, for the most part religion tries to be a process of integration, on the other hand religion tries to coerce the slave. For this reason baptism is also a form of agency and it is not merely a practice that slaves undergo.