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Most serfs worked on manors as farmers. Serfs also worked at other jobs as well, including nearly all unskilled labor. This included forestry, mining, providing labor for building castles and roads, carting, river transportation, and so on.

Some serfs were manorial officers who organized the labors of other serfs and the land they were assigned to work on.

There were serfs who worked at other specialized tasks, including blacksmithing, baking, weaving, spinning, simple carpentry, and making pottery. Many of these people became skilled enough to establish themselves as independent craftsmen.

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What duties did a lord of a manor and his serfs owe one another?

Serfs were required to work the lord's land for food, as well as taxes and manor labor. The lord was a general governor of his people, set to protect the serfs and settle disputes between them.


Who paid the taxes in the feudal system serfs or peasants?

In the feudal system, it was primarily the peasants, including serfs, who paid taxes. Serfs were bound to the land and worked for the lord in exchange for protection and the right to work a portion of the land for their own sustenance. They often paid taxes in the form of labor, goods, or a portion of their harvest, while free peasants, who had more rights, also contributed through similar means. Ultimately, the economic burden of taxation fell heavily on those who worked the land.


Freeing the serfs did what for the Russians?

In practical effects, it did nothing. Serfs were bound to the land that they worked. When Tsar Alexander II issued the Emancipation Manifesto it freed the serfs but created economic conditions that made it impractical to leave. The Russian government took land from the owners but paid them for it. Then the serfs were required to repay the government with what were called "redemption payments." Typically, redemption took about 49 years. Serfs were free to leave but if they did leave they had no land to work. Many left for the cities to work in factories instead. If former serfs wanted to own their own farms, they had to pay the redemption payments first.


What ideas allowed for Europeans lords to completely control people and property on the land he owned?

Manorialism


What is serf in Russia?

Serfs were the lowest level of workers in most areas of medieval Europe, though in some there were slaves, who were at a lower level. Serfs were not slaves, but were not free to leave the land where they worked. Their obligation with their feudal lord was mutual; he had obligations to them, to provide a place and protect them, just as they had obligations to him, to give a part of the crop, or later, money for rent. Serfs could not be bought or sold. They belonged to the land, not the lord. If the lord sold the land, they went with it. The new owner did not have the option of moving them off the land. Most serfs worked in agriculture, and lived on the land. Some lived in towns or villages, and formed the lowest level of laborers there. They could be cooks helpers, or even cooks. They could work in such trades as weaving. Miners were serfs of a sort. They could be masons' helpers. They did not usually occupy positions that involved mastery of a craft, such as the master masons, or the best cooks, who worked entirely for hire and were free. The serfs without plots of land were called villeins, a word related to the word village. Various customs in various places allowed the serfs to become free, meaning they could leave the land they were born on and go elsewhere. In some cases, when a king needed to populate a new port, for example, they could be freed by running away and staying in the new town for a year. In other cases, such as after the Black Death, they were bribed off their land to farm lands of other lords that had been depopulated. The result is that serfdom ended in some places several generations before the end of the Middle Ages. The technicalities of ending serfdom took longer; for example, serfdom was technically legal in Scotland for four hundred years after it had died out nearly everywhere in the country. And in some places, such as Russia, it remained in practice into the nineteenth century. Loosely, the term serf might be applied to anyone of peasant class, including laboring freemen, cottars, villeins, bordars, and even slaves. This use should be considered rather imprecise, however. Please see the links below for more information.

Related Questions

Describe the hierarchy of the manor system from the manor lord down through to serfs?

In the Manor System the mutual obligations meat the lord provide military protection for his serfs and the serfs provided labor.


True or false serfs were the lord's slaves?

False. Serfs were legally bound to a certain piece of land and obligated to work for the lord who owned that land, but they were not considered slaves as they were not owned by the lord and did have some legal rights and protections.


Where did serfs live at?

The Serfs lived under the estates of the Lord, along with Peasants.


An aristocrat would give serfs land in an agreement in which the serfs would then give protection to the lord?

Yes, an aristocrat would give serfs land in an agreement that the serf would protect the lord.


Whats so important about middle ages and lord and serfs?

a serf is a person who worked on the lord manor and make food


What was the name of peasants in medieval England if they were owned by the lord?

They were called serfs. Since they were not slaves, it is not precise to say they were owned by the lord.


An aristocrat would give serfs land in an agreement in which the serfs would then give protection to the lord.?

false


How do you use the word lord in a sentence?

The lord was angry at the serfs for they weren't doing their job.


What is a serfs master called?

The serf's master was a lord. This was not always a title with a specific rank attached to it, so it could have applied to a knight, or even a person of no title at all. The person who organized serfs was often called a reeve. This person was appointed by the lord or elected by the serfs with the lords final approval, depending on the traditions at the particular manor. The reeve was often a serf himself, and acted as the representative of the other serfs to the lord, and of the lord to the other serfs. His job also included assignment of jobs and land.


When a new lord took over a manor were the serfs were set free to farm as they pleased on their own fiefs?

Serfs did not have fiefs. They were bound to the soil and not allowed to leave it. The arrival of a new lord did not change this. Nevertheless, the serfs were largely free to farm as they pleased. The condition of the serfs was not slavery, but a different sort of thing governed by a sort of contract in which the serfs and the lords each had obligations to the other. The serfs had to pay rent in some form, labor, part of the crop, or money. For his part the lord had to provide a place to live, fields to farm, and protection in such difficult times as war or famine. The serfs were not allowed to leave the land, and the lords were not allowed to force them off of it. The serfs had reeves to organize them. The reeves were also serfs and were often elected by the serfs on a manor. The reeves decided how the serfs would be organized for their common labor, what fields would be tilled and what crops planted, and what parcels would go to which family for their own use.


The Use of the word bound to?

Serfs were bound to the fief and their lord.


What is a peasant who lived on a manor and served the lord or nobleman?

Serfs