Masters writing the rules: how peasant farmer MPs in the Swedish Estate Diet understood servants’ labour and the labour laws, 1823–1863
Uppenberg, Carolina LU
(2020)
In Agricultural History Review
68(2).
p.238-256
- Abstract
- Peasant farmers made up one of the four estates in the Swedish parliament, the Diet of the four estates, from late medieval times up until the introduction of the two-chamber parliament in 1867. Affiliation to the estate of the peasant farmers was based on landholding. Landholding also entitled peasant farmers to employ servants. Peasant farmers thus played a double role: as masters of servants and as lawmakers of the Servant Acts that regulated the relationship between masters and servants. In this article, minutes from the peasant farmers’ estate are analysed to understand their position on servants and servants’ labour, through a study of debates concerning compulsory service, hiring date, treatment of sick servants, and chastisement of... (More)
- Peasant farmers made up one of the four estates in the Swedish parliament, the Diet of the four estates, from late medieval times up until the introduction of the two-chamber parliament in 1867. Affiliation to the estate of the peasant farmers was based on landholding. Landholding also entitled peasant farmers to employ servants. Peasant farmers thus played a double role: as masters of servants and as lawmakers of the Servant Acts that regulated the relationship between masters and servants. In this article, minutes from the peasant farmers’ estate are analysed to understand their position on servants and servants’ labour, through a study of debates concerning compulsory service, hiring date, treatment of sick servants, and chastisement of servants. The results challenge the dominant interpretation of rural servanthood being part of the life-cycle by showing how peasant farmers identified antagonistic class differences between themselves and their servants. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/a74f525d-01b7-42e0-8c18-1951feb1a82a
- author
- Uppenberg, Carolina
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2020
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Agricultural History Review
- volume
- 68
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 19 pages
- publisher
- BAHS - British Agricultural History Society
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85105605711
- ISSN
- 0002-1490
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- a74f525d-01b7-42e0-8c18-1951feb1a82a
- date added to LUP
- 2020-06-30 11:03:20
- date last changed
- 2022-04-18 23:20:30
@article{a74f525d-01b7-42e0-8c18-1951feb1a82a,
abstract = {{Peasant farmers made up one of the four estates in the Swedish parliament, the Diet of the four estates, from late medieval times up until the introduction of the two-chamber parliament in 1867. Affiliation to the estate of the peasant farmers was based on landholding. Landholding also entitled peasant farmers to employ servants. Peasant farmers thus played a double role: as masters of servants and as lawmakers of the Servant Acts that regulated the relationship between masters and servants. In this article, minutes from the peasant farmers’ estate are analysed to understand their position on servants and servants’ labour, through a study of debates concerning compulsory service, hiring date, treatment of sick servants, and chastisement of servants. The results challenge the dominant interpretation of rural servanthood being part of the life-cycle by showing how peasant farmers identified antagonistic class differences between themselves and their servants.}},
author = {{Uppenberg, Carolina}},
issn = {{0002-1490}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{238--256}},
publisher = {{BAHS - British Agricultural History Society}},
series = {{Agricultural History Review}},
title = {{Masters writing the rules: how peasant farmer MPs in the Swedish Estate Diet understood servants’ labour and the labour laws, 1823–1863}},
volume = {{68}},
year = {{2020}},
}