Talk:serf

This is a term used in feudal times, long before strategy games came about. — Paul G 13:56, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I know - but I felt that this was the only def I was qualified to enter. --Vladisdead 14:43, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Not only a feudal term. It was also used in the age of absolutism and way later concerning peasants in Imperial Russia. In Denmark, serfdom was abolished in 1788. There was a previous variant that was worse. It isn't chattel slavery. In broad terms, serfs weren't held in chains and overseers weren't allowed to kill them. But e.g. in Denmark, serfs weren't allowed to leave the village they were born in without permission from the landlord, they couldn't marry without his permission, they were obliged to do manual work as he demanded it and for whatever reward he may see fit. They didn't have land rights and they could be severely physically punished by the landowner or his overseers, including what would be torture under current standards. He could also draft them for the army, a tactic used against "misbehaving" serfs. The legal distinction to a chattel slave didn't matter much since - at least in Denmark, Germany and other places - the landowner would also be the local judge, so that theoretical legal protection wasn't worth much. When I studied history at university in Denmark, we were told that broadly speaking, the line between free and unfree peasants followed the Elbe river in Germany. Peasants had way more rights west of the Elbe than east of that river. There are exceptions of course. Valentinian (talk) 10:08, 12 July 2021 (UTC)