: the condition of a tenant farmer bound to a hereditary plot of land and to the will of a landlord : the state or fact of being a serf
Despite obvious personal repugnance for serfdom, she enhanced the powers of nobles to demand more labor from their ill-treated and unorganized serfs. Carol S. Leonard
Servitude stretched from serfdom in Russia to the sugar plantations of the Caribbean to the indigenous slave systems in Africa that supplied both the Arabian and Atlantic trades. Adam Hochschild
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebSlavery had existed for millennia in ways akin to medieval serfdom.Washington Post, 1 Apr. 2022 Among Czar Alexander II’s sweeping reforms—including, most notably, the abolition of serfdom—were overhauls to the criminal justice system and greater freedom of the press. Jennifer Wilson, The New Republic, 28 Dec. 2021 His arrival saw the military subjugation of the tribes, mass death in the pandemic that accompanied the Spanish occupation and the enforced serfdom of free Indians.WSJ, 20 May 2021 Some on the nationalist right have switched their allegiance from the market to the state, but that hardly changes much — it’s a form of serfdom either way. Cameron Hilditch, National Review, 1 May 2021 Those who forego or simply can’t afford it are essentially consigning themselves to economic serfdom.New York Times, 23 Feb. 2021 When gold was discovered on Hispaniola, the native population was forced into serfdom to mine it.Longreads, 5 Feb. 2021 Called the Nakaz, or Instruction, the 1767 document outlined the empress’ vision of a progressive Russian nation, even touching on the heady issue of abolishing serfdom. Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 May 2020 The shift in power set into motion by the black death—the opportunity that came when the world split open—led to money replacing obligation and the abolition of serfdom in much of the West. Kevin Baker, Harper's Magazine, 23 June 2020 See More