Aldarion
Neoreactionary Monarchist
You do realize you are basically arguing that a form of slavery once practiced in Poland is superior to those once practiced in other countries, right...
Bruh, just admit it, it was a stupid institution that never should have existed!
Serfdom is NOT slavery:
With slaves, person itself was a property. Serf was not a property himself.
Big fucking difference. For one, a noble could not just go and kill a serf the way slaveowner could with a slave. Secondly, serfs could not be bought, sold or traded individually. This meant that serfs had a fairly stable life, as there was no possibility of a family being randomly ripped apart - if a plot of land was sold by a noble to another noble, that changed literally nothing for the serf - only thing different was whom he paid his dues to. Third, noble had a legal obligation towards serfs, especially in terms of protection, and serfs had extensive legal rights: ability to collect firewood from lord's forests, right to sell any surplus produce on the free market, right to demand legal protection at the court. And while lord could demand certain produce (usually wheat) as part of the tithe, so long as the tithe was met, serf could choose to produce whatever he wanted on his land and sell the produce on the free market. Tithe was also not excessive: 10% to the lord and 10% to the Church; compare to modern world where average person gives to the state some 50% - 60% of their income. And a serf knew to whom and to an extent even for what his taxes were being used; good luck knowing that with the modern state. Lord could also not randomly dispossess the serf - in a way, serfs had more extensive legal protection of property rights than today's "free people" have (just ask the banks). Lord also had a legal obligation to support the serfs, both in terms of protecting them from depredations of bandits and other lords, but also in terms of supporting them in time of famine or war. And while lord could and did demand serfs to work his own land, not just theirs, this obligation was sharply limited: in 14th century Poland, requirement was one week per household per year.
If there is no difference between slaves and serfs, then there is no difference between slaves and today's "free" people.