조선후기 노비의 속량과 생존전략

Abstract

While the escape is a secret action of a slave from his owner, Sok’ryang is an official liberation through legally approved process. As widely known, Chosun was a feudal society. Therefore, if permission of Sok’ryang, which was an opportunity of the ascent of status given to the lowest social class, had been allowed, it would have disturbed the social structure and order, resulting in the collapse of the social status system. Therefore, the authorization was strictly limited during the early Chosun. It was only allowed to the sons and daughters of a concubine of low birth to a classical scholar. However, the system expanded widely in the late Chosun and thus the children of a slave could be subject to Sok’ryang as long as they were qualified. Those cases are actually found in the existing old literatures. The causes or reasons for the easier permission of Sok’ryang during the late Chosun were much influenced by the aspiration of the slaves for the emancipation of social status and their accumulation of wealth. Besides it, there must have been a clear intention of their owners to liberate the slaves. Since most of classical scholars bequeathed slaves to their sons and daughters or left a will to keep them for hard works, the gap between the selling price and Sok’ryang of a slave was very wide. The price of Sok’ryang was two or three times higher than the selling price. For the reason, the slaves made a surviving strategy that they nominated a fake person as their owners and had him to liberate them through Sok’ryang. Later but soon, their real owners noticed it but were not in a position to do something against it because their social and economic position had deteriorated. So they could not help but sell their slaves. The objective of this study is to determine the actual status of Sok’ryang in the local areas of the late Chosun through old documents.