Freilassungsbrief des Johann Hermann Weymann
Signed by Clamor Adolph Theodor von dem Bussche, this letter legally granted the emancipation of a German serf named Johann Hermann Weymann in 1762. In one notable line, von dem Bussche proclaimed “freyheit; urkundlich meiner eigenhändigen”, or “freedom; documented by my own hand”. To peasants such as Weymann, this freedom signified economic mobility and protection from oppressive feudal obligations. Despite centuries of revolts and abolition movements, serfdom remained an entrenched facet of rural life in central and eastern Europe well into the eighteenth century. Such an institution posed a serious problem to Enlightenment thinkers, whose ideas of personal liberty and self-determination stood in stark contrast to the realities of feudalism. In an attack on serfdom in Franche-Comité, Voltaire demanded ”the complete abolition of this last trace of barbarous centuries” (O’Rourke, 424). However, attributing the changes in rural life to the Enlightenment is a very urban-centric approach that, in many ways, discounts the dramatic land reforms and developments of the rural economy. Indeed, peasants participating in this “agricultural enlightenment” would fundamentally transform the rural landscape for centuries to come.
O’Rourke, Shane. The Emancipation of the Serfs in Europe. In David Etlis. The Cambridge World History of Slavery (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Freilassungsbrief_Weymann.jpg
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