Agricultural History Review, Volume 68 Part 2 (2020), pp. 238–256

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. 

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