serfdom
Sign in to saveSerfdom was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed during late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages in Europe and lasted in some countries until the mid-19th century and became the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism and similar systems.
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Serfdom was a system in medieval and early modern Europe where peasants were bound to the land they worked and owed services to a local lord, occupying a status between free people and slaves. It matters historically because it structured society and economics across Europe for centuries, shaping the lives of millions of people until its abolition in various countries as recently as the 1800s.
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Article
32 sectionsContents
- History
- Etymology
- Dependency and the lower orders
- Initiation
- Class system
- Coloni
- Freemen
- Ministeriales
- Villeins
- Bordars and cottagers
- Smerd
- Kholops
- Slaves
- Duties
- Rights
- Variations
- Serfdom by country and location
- Americas
- Aztec Empire
- Byzantine Empire
- France
- Habsburg monarchy
- Ireland
- Gaelic Ireland
- Poland
- Russia
- Emancipation dates by country
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Serfdom was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed during late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages in Europe and lasted in some countries until the mid-19th century and became the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism and similar systems.
Unlike slaves, serfs could not be bought, sold, or traded individually, though they could, depending on the area, be sold together with land. Actual slaves, such as the kholops in Russia, could, by contrast, be traded, abused with no rights over their own bodies, could not leave the land they were bound to, and marry only with their lord's permission.