Serfdom is a system of unfree labor in which peasants were legally bound to the land they worked and owed compulsory labor and dues to its lord. Unlike a slave, a serf was tied to an estate rather than owned outright as movable property, keeping a family, a customary holding, and a recognized place in law. For much of the European Middle Ages it was the condition of most people, and in Russia it lasted until 1861. As a name for dependent labor that cannot freely leave, the idea has never quite disappeared.
By the eighteenth century a Russian noble could stake a peasant at the card table, or advertise one for sale in a newspaper, listed beside livestock. In law that peasant was still no slave; he was bound to the land, not owned as a movable thing. Yet the distinction had worn so thin that a whole society could look at a human being and see a chip to be wagered.