Terms of Labor: Slavery, Serfdom, and Free Labor

Throughout recorded history, labor to produce goods and services has been a central concern of society, and questions surrounding the terms of labor—the arrangements under which labor is made to produce and to divide its product with others—are of great significance for understanding the past and the emergence of the modern world.

For long periods, much of the world’s labor could be considered under the coercive control of systems of slavery or of serfdom, with relatively few workers labori...