In the Middle Ages, new forms of exploitation slowly replaced slavery, such as serfdom, whose term (lat.servus, slave) designates the condition of dependence of a farmer who binds him to the land on which he resides and to a master. This condition concerns men or women who do not enjoy personal liberties, they belonged to a gentleman and were bound to the gleba, or to the land they cultivated (peasants). Its origin goes back to the last centuries of the Roman Empire, when a class of farmers was created, still legally free.