bondmen
Feudal estate workers
Bondmen is the plural of bondman, meaning men held in servitude or slavery.
The term appears primarily in historical and biblical contexts: The bondmen toiled in the fields.
A bondman was legally bound to serve a master, distinct from a free laborer.
The word sounds archaic now, replaced by slave or serf in most contexts.
Ownership of people
- serfdomFeudal bound labor
- feudalismLand-for-service social structure
- thrallsPersons in bondage
- chattelMovable personal property
vassalage · subjugation · peasantry · enslavement · captivity · oppression · servile · unfree
Formal freeing of enslaved
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
- enfranchisementGranting citizenship rights
- freedomAbsence of constraint
- liberationRelease from constraint
abolition · redemption · release · deliverance · freedmen · abolitionism · Underground Railroad · jubilee
Middle Eastern nation
- EgyptNortheastern African nation
- PharaohEgyptian royal title
- exodusMass departure from somewhere
- deliveranceRescue from bondage
captivity · Hebrew · covenant · jubilee year · redemption · Moses · oppression · taskmaster
Formal binding contract
- contractEnforceable written agreement
- apprenticeshipLearning trade through employment
- obligationRequired task or commitment
- termFixed period or word
immigrant · colonial · settler · passage · sponsorship · journeyman · master · seven years
slavery
Ownership of people
chattel · vassalage · subjugation · peasantry · enslavement · captivity · oppression · servile · unfree · helots
manumission
Formal freeing of enslaved
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
- enfranchisementGranting citizenship rights
- freedomAbsence of constraint
liberation · abolition · redemption · release · deliverance · freedmen · abolitionism · Underground Railroad · jubilee
Israel
Middle Eastern nation
deliverance · captivity · Hebrew · covenant · jubilee year · redemption · Moses · oppression · taskmaster · brickmaking
indenture
Formal binding contract
- contractEnforceable written agreement
- apprenticeshipLearning trade through employment
- obligationRequired task or commitment
term · immigrant · colonial · settler · passage · sponsorship · journeyman · master · seven years · transportation
bondmenfreemen
Those no longer enslaved
free men · freedmen · citizens · yeomen · freeholders
bondmenmasters
Those with dominion
lords · slaveholders · owners · enslavers · slaveowners