3 – The English Peasants’ Revolt – 1381 AD
Though not always equated directly with slavery in the modern mind, the institution of serfdom in feudal society bore many of the hallmarks of outright enslavement. Serfs were bound to the land where they lived and were prohibited from leaving. The land itself belonged to a lord, who was entitled to all the surplus crops produced by the serfs and could also call upon them to work for him. In exchange, the lord offered protection to his serfs and allowed them to consume some of the products of their labor.
By the fourteenth century, this feudal relationship in England was beginning to fray under the pressure of the Black Death and the Hundred Year’s War with France. As a consequence of these tension, when a royal official called for the immediate payment of back taxes in Brentwood 1381 he sparked an uprising that quickly expanded across southeast England.
Under the leadership of Wat Tyler, the rebels soon entered London unopposed, prompting King Richard II to go into hiding in the Tower of London. They ransacked the capital, burning government buildings and killing the King’s men while demanding that serfdom be abolished.
After escaping London, King Richard collected a force and offered to parlay with Tyler. The talks went sour, though, and Tyler was killed. With the death of their leader, the rebellion lost its focus and was picked apart by royal militia. Though the revolt failed to end serfdom outright, it did mark the beginning of the end of unfree labor in England. Over the next three centuries, serfdom would gradually disappear in Western Europe, though in the East, and particularly in Russia, the reliance on Serfdom would expand radically in the same period.