[conculture] Re: Slaves

[Andrew Smith <hobbit@mail.earthlight.co.nz>]

From: Andrew Smith <hobbit@mail.earthlight.co.nz>

I went to my notes to see how the Kemrese dealt with slavery.  Slaves,
known as mencib, from latin mancipium, existed, but were uncommon.  What
was more common was a class in society inherited from Roman law, the serf
or bondsman.  The Law of Hoel described the nature of serfdom in some
detail in Kemrese society.  People were designated llifer, free, or
serwil, essentially unfree.  The free-born are governed by laws that
effect the extended family; the unfree are bound to the land they work and
governed by laws that effect the community they work within, the tref
serwil, the bond village.  Because they were property, thref serwil were
proscribed by law on how they were laid out, usually in proximity of a
curth, or hall, belonging to a lord or a king, on lla der gontad, counted
or 'registered' land, from which they paid a rent in food, or contediwn.
By law a family could become free-born after nine generations of service
and own land.  The people they dealt with was the mawr, the overseer, and
the circhadur, the rent-gatherer.  At its height tref serwil made up one
third of Cambria.  Plague, the consolidation of the landed classes, and
trends towards urbanisation beginning in the late middle ages brought this
social phenomenon to an end.

In modern Brithenig, contediwn (m) means 'census', a serw refers to anyone
who serves, past (m), originally meaning the tribute made by the
noble-born to the king, now means tax.

- andrew.

Andrew Smith, Intheologus 			hobbit@earthlight.co.nz

"Break someone's leg."
			- Old Orc Saying.


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