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The word serf originated from the Middle French serf and was derived from the Latin servus ("slave"). In Late Antiquity and most of the Middle Ages, what are now called serfs were usually designated in Latin as coloni.
The great majority of serfs were not affected (under this decree by 1858 152,000 male souls, or 1.5 per cent of serfs, had been bought out to freedom [14]). [19] Alexander I forbade to advertise the sale of serfs without land (1801), to sell peasants at fairs (1808), cancelled the right of landlords to exile peasants to katorga ('hard labour ...
These patents converted the legal standings of all serfs into those of free-holders. All feudal restrictions were abolished in 1848 when all the land property were converted to non-feudal, transferable properties, and feudalism was legally abolished. The eradication of the feudal system marks the beginning of an era of rapid change in Europe.
The government decreed that the non-Christian slaves were to be freed. [14] This in turn led local Russian owners of slaves to petition the government for conversion and even involved forced conversions of their slaves. [14] The rules stipulated that the native convert became a serf of the converter. [14]
In 1858, three million serfs were held by 1,400 landlords (1.4%) while 2 million by 79,000 (78%). [25] In 1820 a fifth of the serfs were mortgaged, half by 1842. [ 26 ] By 1859, a third of nobles' estates and two-thirds of their serfs were mortgaged to noble banks or to the state. [ 27 ]
Some serfs became emancipated by their owners, who replaced the physical labor rent with monetary one. [16] It became illegal for a lord to murder a serf, and the peasants regained some right to land ownership. [16] As the situation of Polish serfs improved, it actually caused a problem in the Polish–Russian relations.
Slaves were generally imported from foreign countries or continents, via the slave trade. Serfs were typically indigenous Europeans and were not subject to the same involuntary movements as slaves. Serfs worked in family units, whereas the concept of family was generally murkier for slaves. [184]
The strips or selions were cultivated by peasants, often called tenants or serfs. The holdings of a manor also included woodland and pasture areas for common usage and fields belonging to the lord of the manor and the religious authorities, usually Roman Catholics in medieval Western Europe.