Serfdom Of The United States - 3539 Words

Dabney Matchett III October 27, 2014 History 338 Paper Serfdom in Russia started in the 11th century with its origins in Kievan Rus. Slavery in the United States started in 1700s with the American South being its most prevalent. Russia abolished serfdom in 1861; at the same time, the American Civil War, fought between the Union and the Confederacy, was in its first year with slavery being one of the main fighting points. The war ended in 1865, and slavery was abolished as well. Though serfdom and slavery shared many similarities, they also shared several differences, and made serfdom seem even worse than slavery. One of the many similarities between serfdom and slavery was that in both institutions, they were hereditary. This meant that†¦show more content†¦In interviews with a few of the slaves in from 1936 to 1938, as part of the Federal Writers’ Projects, a WPA program, one of slaves spoke on the punishment she received: Sallie Crane: I been whipped from sunup till sundown. Off and on, you know. They whip me till they got tired and they go and rest and come out and start again. They kept a bowl filled with vinegar and salt and pepper settin’ nearby, and when they had whipped me till the blood come, they would take the mop and sponge the cuts with this stuff so that they would hurt more. These various punishments were often carried out to punish slaves for not doing their work, or simply for assert dominance. In Russia, the treatment of serfs were frequent and just as vicious as the slaves. According to Steven L. Hoch, in Petrovoskoe, a serf estate in Russia, â€Å"at least 79 percent of the adult males [serfs] were flogged, 24 percent more than once† from September 1826 through August 1828. In addition, the serfs were also subjected to being forcibly recruited into the army, being exiled, confinement, and forcing them to wear iron collars around their necks. The most serious punishment however, seemed to be the most innocuous: shaving half of a serf man’s hair and beard. In Serfdom and Social Control, the shaving was used in the most extreme cases and was considered â€Å"a particularly odious form of discipline†. The bailiffs in charge of the serfs used punishment to keep