Article: Serfdom

SERFDOM

SERFDOM. Serfdom was a status of legal bondage, almost invariably referring to peasants in enforced dependence on seignorial overlords. Serfdom could be an inherited, personal status (serfs of this sort were known as neifs in English, hommes de corps in French, and Erbuntertanen in German) or the consequence of the tenure of servile land (serfs of this sort were known as villeins in English, serfs de la gl è be in French, and Gutsuntertanen in German). During the early modern period serfdom encompassed a wide variety of conditions and social relations. Generally speaking, however, serfdom was a more recent, more widespread, and more onerous phenomenon in eastern than in ...

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