ors. Between the Anglo-Norman baron and
the Anglo-Saxon laborer, or "villain," there was a great gulf fixed. The
antipathy of an antagonistic and conquered race to its conquerors was
intensified by years of oppression and wrong, and the laborer cherished
a burning desire to break the bonds of thraldom in which most of the
poor were held.

By the laws of the feudal system, the tenants and laborers on the
property of a baron were his "villains," or slaves. They were divided
into two classes;--the "villains regardant," who were permitted to
occupy and cultivate small portions of land, on condition of rendering
certain stipulated services to their lord, and were therefore considered
in the light of slaves to the land; and the "villains in gross," who
were the personal slaves of the landowner, and were compelled to do the
work they were set to perform in consideration of their food and
clothing. Besides these two classes a third had recently come into
existence, and, owing to various causes, was fast increasing in extent
and importance,--that of free laborers, who worked for hire. This class
was recruited in various ways from the ranks of the "villains in gross."
Some were manumitted by their dying masters, as an act of piety in
atonement for the deeds of violence done during life; but by far the
greater number effected their freedom by escaping to distant parts of
the country, where but little search would be made for them, or by
seeking the refuge of the walled towns and cities, where a residence of
a year and a day would give them freedom by law. The citizens were
always ready to give asylum to those fugitives, for they supplied the
growing need for laborers, and enabled the cities, by the increase of
population, to maintain their independence against the pretensions of
the barons.

The condition of the "villain" was bad at the best; and numerous petty
acts of oppression in most instances increased the bitterness of his
lot. Himself the property of another, he could not legally hold
possessions of any kind. Not only the land he tilled, and the rude
implements of husbandry with which he painfully cultivated the soil, but
the cattle with which he worked, the house in which he lived, the few
chattels he gathered around him, and the scanty store of money earned by
hard labor, all belonged to his master, who could at any time dispossess
him of them. The "villain" who obtained a livelihood by working the few
acres of land whi