On other estates the serfs' compulsory labor was commuted for a quitrent.
Sonya, Natasha, Petya, Anna Mikhaylovna, Vera, and the old count were all hugging him, and the serfs, men and maids, flocked into the room, exclaiming and oh-ing and ah-ing.
Assisted no doubt by their judicial control, the Eupatridae also tended to become sole owners of the land, reducing the original freeholders or tenants to the position of serfs.
But she was good to all, not even forgetting the serfs.
Thus by the law of 1861 more than forty millions of serfs were emancipated.