villein

• 25 6] We shall see later in this work that by the English law, the "villein" was real property and in the same case as land: also that when Parliament came to legislate so as to make lands in the American Colonies liable for debts, "Negroes" were included in "hereditaments" and therefore "real estate 7] Thus early do we find the Abolitionist getting in his fiendish work--the enemy of society, of God and man 8] This ordinance is quoted (_Mich. —  The Journal of Negro History, Volume 5, 1920
• The investigation of Paul Vinogradoff and others have conclusively established that there was not a real difference in status between the so-called villein regardant and villein in gross, and that in any case the villein was not properly a slave but rather a serf. —  The Journal of Negro History, Volume 5, 1920
• Fines are in all cases to be proportionate to the magnitude of the offense, and even the villein or rustic is not to be deprived of his necessary chattels. —  The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing A Manual of Ready Reference
• Every native and villein (which were such as we call husbandmen) paid each a cock and a hen, besides a small rent in money, for a toft and one bovate of land, held of the Priory of Thurgarton. —  A Righte Merrie Christmasse The Story of Christ-Tide
• The villein was able to pay his lord instead of working for him, and by the sale of the produce from his own yard-land was put in a position to hire helpers for himself, and to develop his own agricultural resources. —  Mediaeval Socialism

Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

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