국립중앙박물관 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF KOREA

Agreement by which a Poor Person Sold Himself into Slavery

By this legal document, a destitute man named Boksoe, thirty-two years old, sold himself and his wife into slavery for 25 nyang (copper taels). This agreement acutely demonstrates the desperation of impoverished people of the late Joseon period, some of whom were forced to surrender their freedom for relatively small sums of money.

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