serfs

Examples of serfs in the following topics:

• The 1861 Emancipation of the Serfs

• The Manor System

  • The workers of the land were on their way to becoming serfs.
  • Serfs formed the lowest class of feudal society.
  • However, a serf had some freedoms within his constraints.
  • A well-to-do serf might even be able to buy his freedom.
  • A serf could grow what crops he saw fit on his lands, although a serf's taxes often had to be paid in wheat.

• Catherine's Domestic Policies

  • A landowner could punish his serfs at his discretion and under Catherine the Great gained the ability to sentence his serfs to hard labor in Siberia, a punishment normally reserved for convicted criminals. 
  • The only thing a noble could not do to his serfs was to kill them.
  • The life of a serf belonged to the state.
  • While she eliminated some ways for people to become serfs, culminating in a 1775 manifesto that prohibited a serf who had once been freed from becoming a serf again, she also restricted the freedoms of many peasants.
  • He had a substantial force composed of Cossacks, Russian peasants, factory serfs, and non-Russians.

• The Westernization of Russia

  • The class of kholops, or feudally dependent persons similar to serfs but whose status was closest slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation (Russian agricultural kholops were formally converted into serfs in 1679).
  • Peter's reign deepened the subjugation of serfs to the will of landowners.
  • For example, he created a new class of serfs, known as state peasants, who had broader rights than ordinary serfs but still paid dues to the state.
  • Evidence suggests that Peter's advisers recommended the abolition of serfdom and the creation of a form of "limited freedom" but the gap between slaves and serfs shrank considerably under Peter.

• Caste Systems

  • Prominent for centuries throughout Europe, and enduring through the mid-19th century in some areas, members of this numerically large caste were called serfs.
  • In some countries such as Russia, the 1857 census found that over 35 percent of the population could be categorized as a serf.
  • Serf mobility was heavily restricted, and in matters of marriage and living arrangements, they were subject to rules dictated by the State, the Church, by landowners, and by often rigid local custom and tradition.

• Joseph II and Domestic Reform

  • In 1781, Joseph issued the Serfdom Patent, which aimed to abolish aspects of the traditional serfdom system of the Habsburg lands through the establishment of basic civil liberties for the serfs.
  • The Hungarian estates claimed that their peasants were not serfs, but “tenants in fee simple, who were fully informed as to their rights and duties by precise contracts” and continued to restrict these “tenants.”
  • The Patent granted the serfs some legal rights in the Habsburg monarchy, but it did not affect the financial dues and the physical corvée (unpaid labor) that the serfs legally owed to their landlords, which it practice meant that it did not abolish serfdom but rather expanded selected rights of serfs.

• Class Conflict and Marx

  • For example, in the feudal stage, feudal lords owned the land used to produce agricultural goods, while serfs provided the labor to plant, raise, and harvest crops.
  • When the serfs rose up and overthrew the feudal lords, the feudal stage ended and ushered in a new stage: capitalism.
  • Feudalism ended with class struggle between serfs and lords, and gave rise to a new stage, capitalism.

• Culture in Classical Sparta

  • Its inhabitants were classified as Spartiates (Spartan citizens, who enjoyed full rights), Mothakes (non-Spartan free men raised as Spartans), Perioikoi (free but non-citizen inhabitants), and Helots (state-owned serfs, part of the enslaved non-Spartan local population).
  • Instead, Helots were given a subordinate position within Spartan society more comparable to the serfs of medieval Europe.
  • Since Spartiates were full-time soldiers, manual labor fell to the Helot population who worked as unskilled serfs, tilling the Spartan land or accompanying the Spartan army as non-combatants.

• Income Distribution

  • During the feudal era labour (serfs) and land owners (aristocracy and church) were the important factors of production.
  • Generally, the social classes were the serfs, aristocracy and clergy.

• Preindustrial Societies: The Birth of Inequality

  • Feudal lords were landowners; in exchange for access to land for living and farming, serfs offered lords their service or labor.