I think the argument was that they automatically took on the legal status of their mother when they were born, and she tried to argue they were born after she was freed, but the court found that they were not.
You might be thinking of the toddlers at Emar maybe 🥺🥺
Although details of La-tubashinni’s early life are murky, she may have been adopted only to eventually be sold by her adoptive mother, Hammaya, into marriage.
This marriage-by-purchase might be how she ended up enslaved.
The history of slavery in ancient Mesopotamia does not give a clear-cut divide between enslaved and free. There were degrees of freedom and mobility among enslaved, free, and freed people. It’s nuanced, important social history.
Image: the sale of an enslaved person named Aya-idâ
It's absolutely incredible that we are able to figure out so much about someone from so long ago, who wasn't a queen or a princess or a king, but an enslaved mother and her children.
Imagine the intense mix of relief and grief she must have felt to at least secure freedom for Ardiya, but not her other children. Like holy crap that must've been so hard.
Learning about the lives of ordinary people is my favourite thing about history.
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You might be thinking of the toddlers at Emar maybe 🥺🥺
This marriage-by-purchase might be how she ended up enslaved.
Source: Cornelia Wunsch 1998 https://www.academia.edu/734422/_1997_98_Und_die_Richter_berieten_Streitfälle_in_Babylon_aus_der_Zeit_Neriglissars_und_Nabonids
Image: the sale of an enslaved person named Aya-idâ
He has researched enslaved peoples, fugitive slaves, the children of slaves, imprisonment, and related topics https://rts.academia.edu/NicholasReid
Sources attest to their status as being enslaved, just like their mother. This tablet records a sale of her daughters and one son on Sept 5, 560 BCE
Her daughters were Kishrinni and Gimilinni.
Her sons were Nabû-ēda-uṣur, Bēl-aha-uṣur, Esagil-rēṣua, and Ardiya.
She fought for her children’s freedom. A lawsuit dated to October 29, 560 BCE records her case brought before a minister and the king’s judges.
Oh boy, I really need to buy your book 🤯🤯🤯
Learning about the lives of ordinary people is my favourite thing about history.