Few inquiries of social interest better show the progress of the English
people than glances at their condition at various periods of their
history. Here we may trace the rise of the people from rude forms of
civilization, through its various grades, to the blessings of industry
and independence, which have so materially contributed to the character
of our National Life. Commencing with the substratum of these social
changes, we are reminded of the truth of Goldsmith's oft-quoted lines:
"Princes and lords may flourish or may fade,
A breath can make them, as a breath has made;
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroy'd, can never be supplied."
In early times freemen formed a mere section of the people, and the bulk
of the English population were in a servile condition. Some of the
bondmen were captives, or the children of captives; others had been
reduced to servitude by distress, by debts, or crimes; but they were not
all of them absolute slaves, for even amongst the convicts there were
some who were not slaves, but serfs. Now, in acquiring the use of land,
a slave made the first step towards freedom. In this manner a
_thrall-bred_ man became _boor-bred_, and although still a bondman--he
might hope, by good conduct or by the lord's bounty, to rise to the
higher condition of a geneatman, or free farmer, and even to become a
freeman, and a freeholder,--to become the absolute owner of his little
croft.
In Anglo-Saxon times, the political station of a freeman was determined
by his _were_--it was his worth or value; and the _wergyld_ was the fine
paid in compensation of his life. The abolition or disuse of this fine
was an encouragement of liberty, since it removed the strongest mark of
distinction between freemen and non-freemen.
The free or unfree condition of a man descended to his posterity. At the
close of the thirteenth century, many peasants in England were still
affected by the crimes or the misfortunes of their remote ancestors. By
that time there was an end of absolute slavery, and the bondsmen were
all serfs, or the children of serfs.