Short answers, pulled from the story.
Serfdom was a condition of debt bondage that bound a person to the land they tilled, creating a legal status distinct from both slavery and freedom. Unlike slaves who could be bought and sold as individual commodities, serfs were tied to the soil and moved only when the land itself changed hands.
The system emerged from the collapse of the Carolingian Empire around the 10th century, filling the labor vacuum left by the decline of slavery in Western Europe. The word itself evolved from a general term for servant to a specific legal designation by the 17th century.
The transition was often sealed through a ritual known as bondage where the individual placed their head in the hands of the lord. In the 7th century, an Anglo-Saxon Oath of Fealty formalized this commitment, making it a lifelong and hereditary obligation.
The Russian Empire's over 23 million privately held serfs were not freed until an edict by Alexander II in 1861. This occurred more than two centuries after the abolition of serfdom in Western Europe.
Serfdom was formally abolished on the 4th of August 1789 during the French Revolution, though feudal rights persisted in some regions until the 1790s. Prussia declared serfdom unacceptable in its General State Laws in 1792 and abolished it in 1807.