While both are members of The Working Class who are controlled by The Owning Class, Serfs differ from Slaves in a few key ways.
Serfs have basic legal rights.
- They can marry, be baptized, and cannot be murdered by their Landlord (unlike a Slave, where it’d be closer legally to killing a cow).
Serfs are bound to the land, not a person.
- In a sense, a Serf is owned by the land they live on.
- Serfs cannot being forcibly relocated to a new plot of land like a Slave could.
- Serfs have Landlords, who currently own the land, but do not own the Serf themselves.
- Serfs change hands by the changing of Landlords, like an apartment complex being bought by a different company.
Serfs own their excess labor.
- All production by a Slave is owned by the Master (who can decide to give some of the food back to let them feed themselves)
- Serfs have an obligation to work (graze the cattle, farm the land, pay the rent), but that is it.
- As long as they pay rent on the land, they can keep the remaining harvest to themselves.1
Footnotes
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(Although, in practice, there wont be much extra to keep - if there regularly is, the landlord will simply raise the rent) ↩