Serfdom was a condition of debt bondage and indentured agricultural servitude under which a peasant, the serf, was bound to work a lord's land and could not leave it without permission. It formed the characteristic labor institution of the feudal manorial system in medieval Europe, alongside comparable institutions such as helotry in ancient Sparta and the colonus system of the late Roman Empire. Serfdom weakened across Western Europe from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, a decline often linked to the labor shortages following the Black Death from 1347 onward; it strengthened instead across Central and Eastern Europe over the same period, a divergence historians call the second serfdom, and persisted there into the nineteenth century, with Russia abolishing it only in 1861.
Facts
Institution TypeSourced to the subject's own accountStratification system: a hereditary, land-bound labor status under feudalism, comparable in structure to the slavery already on this atlas but distinguished from it by the serf's attachment to land rather than outright status as property. 1 Emergence PeriodSourced to the subject's own accountDevelops in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages in Europe, with earlier analogues in Spartan helotry and the Roman colonate, becomes the dominant peasant status under feudal manorialism, and persists longest in Central and Eastern Europe, not abolished in Russia until 1861. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Sociologists compare serfdom and slavery as related but distinct systems of unfree labor, distinguished chiefly by the serf's attachment to land rather than status as property outright.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Serfdom
WikipediaLead section, definitionQuote, Lead section, definition
Serfdom was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery.
1. Wikipedia: Serfdom
WikipediaHistory section, decline and second serfdomQuote, History section, decline and second serfdom
serfdom grew stronger in Central and Eastern Europe, where it had been less common.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.