Serfs’ Obligations in the Eastern Part of Southern Podlasie in the 19th Century

Abstract

The manorial-serfdom system was predominant in Southern Podlasie until the early 1860s. Very few villages were based on the monetary rent system. Most of the local landowners showed little interest in investing in new technologies, and they associated improvement in their prosperity with the exploitation of the mandatory labor of peasants. Therefore, the latter were burdened with numerous obligations. The primary one was a fixed weekly corvée, which varied significantly in its extent and was not always correlated with the area of land used by the peasants. Additionally, during periods of intensified agricultural work, especially the harvest, peasants were required to work extra days of corvée. Working them off caused the peasants to have little time to tend to their own crops in the appropriate period. The working day was usually regulated by the sunrise and sunset, although at some estates, peasants were allowed to start work between 5 and 7 in the morning. Corvée work was not valued very high. Peasants rarely showed open opposition to performing these duties since the court cases they filed often ended with their defeat. In this situation, they avoided diligently fulfilling their imposed obligations, which landowners tried to force them to perform through legal regulations, rewards, and punishments. The landowners were interested in maintaining the existing system, and leasing land to peasants for rent was regarded as harmful to their (i.e. landlords’) interests.