Brittany CortésHistory 269The Gradual Decline of Serfdom in Medieval Europe Serfdom played a vital role in the medieval European economy as well as in its social structure. Throughout the medieval period, as slavery began to slowly decline, a comparable mode of serfdom began to emerge that provided free or cheap labor to aristocratic landowners. Serfdom is a form of slavery. Unlike the institution of slavery, where a person was considered property to be bought, exchanged, and sold, leaving them with no legal rights, serfs were considered free to some extent because they could not be bought or sold. In the early Middle Ages, the transition from slavery to serfdom in rural Europe occurred almost imperceptibly. Its consequences were one of the great milestones in the history of labor and were undoubtedly a decisive factor in economic development. Since the serfdom and peasant class of the medieval period were important to both the development and decline of the economy, so too was the village that provided them with a home and a place to work: it served as a community. The medieval village was the main place where they would contribute to the success of the local economy and provide a stable income to the local lord. If anything the land, which literally provided them with their daily bread, was more truly the village. Both serfs and peasants were as much in their village trampling the rutted stripes as in the dusty streets and alleys of the village corners. Medieval servitude came in many different forms, and their rights and duties differed from place to place. Serfdom tied man to the land, which prevented him from moving or in this... middle of paper... and the work of serfs and free farmers, not only would the economy have suffered but also the class social as GOOD. The high nobility needed the wealth provided to them by serfs to remain in their current positions or claim a higher one. Many factors contributed to the slow decline of the seigneurial system and the institution of serfdom, from the plague, to the peasant revolt, the rise of trade and the development of cities: all gave the peasant class the motivation it needed to bring about a change in social structure of the medieval period. Although the peasant revolt and the effects of the Black Death ultimately did not favor the peasants, the events nevertheless gave them awareness of the impact they would have on the economic market and on the overall development and maintenance of the villages. Everything depended on the continuous work of both serfs and free peasants.