Serfs

Serfdom was a condition of slavery most common in the Middle Ages. The serfs themselves were subjected to agricultural labor, such as mining, forestry and farming, and sometimes were included in the production of crafts. The serfs were bound to the land on which they had made an oath to their lord and his manor. Although serfs held rights, they were seen as the lowest in the social pyramid. The term serf is of Latin origin and derives from servus. The serfs were originally known as colini during the period of serfdom’s reign. Serfs could not be sold, but the Nobility that possessed them had full jurisdiction over their lives.

The manors consisted of a Baron or Knight, a village of small mud straw huts, a small church inhabited by the center of the social essence, the priest, and places of labor. The three places in the society were all needed, the serfs “worked for all,” while a knight or baron “fought for all” and a churchman “prayed for all”. This meant that they were all codependent. The serfs were then subdivided into freemen, villeins, Cottars or cottagers and slaves. The freemen were rent paying tenant farmers.

The villains were the most common and were like slaves, except that they held many more rights. They rented homes from a lord and as part of the legal contract they made were required to farm the land of the lord. The cottars or cottagers worked specifically the lands of the lord and own the land. The slaves were the worst off and were made to work off the lords’ land, owning nothing and surviving off only the master’s generosity. The serfs in general were all submitted to heavy taxing. The ending of the medieval ages marked the decline of serfdom, due to the decrease of the rural population and peasant unrest. It then returned during soviet collective farming, which once again died with the fall the USSR.