villeinage

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

For one thing, the poll-tax was stopped, and the end of villeinage was hastened.

From The Rise of the Democracy by Clayton, Joseph

The villeinage into which the peasants had been thrust back could not, indeed, endure long, because service unwillingly rendered is too expensive to be maintained.

From A Student's History of England, v. 1 (of 3) From the earliest times to the Death of King Edward VII by Gardiner, Samuel Rawson

In spite of the prayers and resolutions and acts of the early fathers, a form of slavery grew up here, but it was milder than the English villeinage: it resembled apprenticeship except in the duration.

From Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence The Best Speeches Delivered by the Negro from the days of Slavery to the Present Time by Dunbar-Nelson, Alice Moore

A plea had been set up that villeinage had never been abolished by law in England; ergo, the possession of slaves was not illegal.

From Toronto of Old by Scadding, Henry

The facts are all against them; these showing it a scheme of villeinage, more oppressive than the European serfdom of the Middle Ages.

From The Death Shot A Story Retold by Reid, Mayne