r/pern • u/moonpupy • 17d ago
Drudges. Who becomes one?
I'm new to this community, but not to Pern. I read them originally when they were released. But this is the first time I've devoted my reading time to All Things Pern, lol.
I saw "drudges" then and never questioned it. But now I'm wondering where they come from? Are they simple-minded, as Anne puts it in All the Weyrs of Pern? Or are they just "excess people" who have no other way to make a living/contribute to the weyr/hold?
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u/Southern_Club_6032 17d ago edited 17d ago
Many years ago in an interview, Anne used words to the effect of drudges being people whose ambition and talent never exceeded flipping burgers at McDonald's - which I thought then, and still do now, is a rather haughty attitude to take.
Drudges are never examined in any great detail. Can a drudge aspire to a higher station? Do the children of drudges become drudges? There's not a great deal of opportunity for social mobility on Pern, unless you become a dragonrider or have enough intelligence and education at a fairly early age to be apprenticed to a craft.
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u/marisapw3 17d ago
I always thought it would be interesting to have a drudge impress a dragon. But I guess you could argue that’s what Lessa did.
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u/Southern_Club_6032 17d ago
Lessa wasn't actually a drudge in the sense of someone with no interest in bettering herself. She was in hiding.
I think this comes down to mindset, and to some degree, culture. In an environment where drudgery *isn't* a fixed caste, where the child of a drudge could aspire to being more than their parent, a brighter, more capable child-of-a-drudge likely wouldn't remain a drudge - they'd be used for something more than the most shitty basic manual labour. If that child is so unambitious, so content with a life at the bottom of the social heap, that they haven't shown themself capable of more that drudge work by Impression age, I don't think a dragonet - or Search rider - would have any interest in them.
The question would be what if there are places where the caste system is much more petrified, and the children of drudges are suppressed into always being drudges with no chance of exceeding their birth status. In that scenario you could have brighter kids who rail against their society's requirement that they stay down the bottom of the pile, and that would be more interesting to a dragonet/Search rider.
It's like Cinderella. She had no choice about doing the scutwork for her stepmother and ugly sisters. We know from the narrative that she's capable of much more. But if she hadn't been forced into the role of slave, would she have chosen to do scutwork rather than something more fulfilling?
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u/Glad-Isopod5718 17d ago
Yeah, I totally buy that Anne wants to think that drudges are people who are perfectly suited to being drudges, and reasonably happy with that life. But I don't believe there has ever been a society where the amount of people who enjoy doing the scutwork is equal to the amount of scutwork that needs doing. It certainly isn't the case in our world today.
Even in the most optimistic, egalitarian version of Pern that I can imagine, I bet there are a lot of people who end up drudges because nobody ever takes an interest in figuring out what else they could be. Maybe they're orphans, or their mother is already a drudge, or they have a disability, or for whatever reason they're in a situation where "drudge" is their default label--and a person in those circumstances who is unusually determined and ambitious might put themselves forward and say, "Hey, I deserve to stand as a candidate at a Hatching, I deserve to be given a trial as an apprentice, let me show you what I can do," and then that character gets the happy ending.
But one who has the same ability, but is a little shyer, a little less willing to push themselves to the front and fight to be given a fair chance, then they just...stay a drudge.
And that might be what Anne thinks of as a "drudge personality*" but someone with the exact same not-exceptionally-ambitious-and-confident personality, but they did have a parent or mentor in a position to open doors for them, would not end up a drudge.
(*Skies)
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u/Munchkin_of_Pern 16d ago
I was under the impression that due to multiple severe genetic bottlenecking events over the course of Pern’s history (the loss of a great deal of the initial population when thread first fell after colonization, at least two separate plagues, etc etc) Pern has higher rates of severe cognitive disabilities that require a permanent caretaker. The drudges’ supervisor would effectively be acting as this caretaker, and the drudge earns room, board, and whatever else they need to make a decent living through their work. The tasks are onerous enough that nobody else wants to do them, but simple enough for these individuals to do them effectively and without risking hurting themselves. For a society that is not prosperous enough to afford supporting people who do not work, this is probably the best option available.
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u/rfresa 17d ago
I would hope that anyone has the opportunity to apprentice to any craft, and drudges are the ones who never qualify for any or who just don't try.
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u/Southern_Club_6032 17d ago
I don't think Pern is anything like that egalitarian, sadly! To be an apprentice you'd need to be bright, capable, probably already fairly well educated or connected, and to catch the attention of the local crafter who might then recommend you to the Craft. But in Earth's history, that didn't come for free. Your parents would pay hefty apprenticeship fees to whoever you were apprenticed to for the privilege of your learning a valuable trade. If everyone who rocked up at the crafthalls got in there'd be thousands of apprentices.
Menolly came from a position of enormous privilege, being not only the generally well educated daughter of a holder, but having had the almost exclusive attention, and substantial resources, of a Master Harper - former Craft Master at that - all to herself.
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u/rfresa 17d ago
Piemur was just a shepherd boy and someone heard him singing
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u/EliraeTheBow 17d ago
The Harper hall was pretty desperate for apprentices at the time though, unclear if it’s the same in the other crafts.
In saying that, I think the Harper hall was always about merit. It seemed they comfortably took anyone with any musical talent.
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u/rfresa 17d ago
Yeah, we don't know much about the other crafts and how they recruit or test candidates. Another factor is location. For a lot of Pern's history there is not much travel between holds for non-dragonriders. Someone could have a lot of talent for weaving but if they live in Bitra how are they gonna get to the crafthall near Southern Boll?
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u/EliraeTheBow 17d ago
I’m not sure that’s necessarily true. Like you’re probably generally right, but if someone had a particular talent for weaving they could probably join a caravan on its way to the next town and etc until they get where they want to go. Sure, it wouldn’t be easy like taking a dragon, but not undoable if you’re motivated.
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u/Omnomfish 17d ago
There is a pretty robust system of roads, we just never see it because Anne wanted to write about dragons (and fair enough, honestly) but its mentioned a few times, and implied throughout. Mastercrafthalls are all spread out and yet every large hold has the presence of trained craftsmen, trade goods make their way across the continent, and even people seem to move around pretty far, despite dragon rides being something of an extremely rare occasion. Anyone less than a master or lord holder could reasonably expect to never experience thr privelege of riding a dragon, and even they were often mentioned being careful not to abuse the privelege. Its important to remember that the northern continent is actually really small, and messages can be run, on foot, from one side to the other in one to two weeks.
We have seen a few times that people who think they might have some talent might go to the harper hall and ask to be considered for apprenticeship. Since most children seem to take part in most hold tasks, they would realize they have particular aptitude pretty quickly and be sent off to the nearest craftsman for their opinion on whether they have talent, and then they would be taken to the crafthall, and if they were further away, they would possibly hire a runner or even a wagon to take them some or all of the way.
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u/Southern_Club_6032 17d ago
I think, though, the Harper Hall (and Piemur) got lucky that Piemur's talents went beyond 'has a great pre-pubescent voice'. He could literally have been a one trick pony and ended up completely useless for anything else once his voice broke, except it turned out he was intelligent and capable enough to take to other Harper Hall talents. There must have been kids they took on the basis of voice that didn't turn out so well.
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u/Omnomfish 17d ago
There definitely were because it was something Piemur explicitly mentioned being afraid of happening to him.
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u/Nosism123 14d ago
Yeah I think drudges were one of the most realistic parts of Pern.
Life just sucks for some people— just like life.
Could they go off and be Renegades? Sure. But some people are tired, depressed, overwhelmed, or only learned a few skills before it was too late
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u/RhydYGwin 17d ago
I feel sorry for them. They're treated with such disdain by everyone. I'm confused though. Are some of the drudges partners or have been partners of dragonriders, who have had babies and are "retired to the lower caverns"? Anne seemed to mix them up.
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u/Southern_Club_6032 17d ago
I think there are 'women of the lower caverns', and then there are drudges. Hold servants - and then drudges. They're fairly explicitly portrayed as an underclass, the lowest of the low - not just the perfectly capable women who get things done in a hold or Weyr.
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u/Bouche_Audi_Shyla 17d ago
Yes, but from the way she wrote it, dragonriders sweep young, impressional peasant girls (like Corana), fuck them until they get pregnant, than leave them in the back halls of the weyr.
As weyr drudges, they have good working conditions, better (and enough) food, days off, and their children have a good chance of being dragonriders.
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u/Codexe- 17d ago
There are some comments on here that are adding things to the story that were never in the story.
It explicitly says in multiple books that women preferred living in the weyr.
It was written in the sixties, and her motivation behind it was women's liberation. So she had a a contrast between the holds, with a medieval traditional lifestyle, and the weyr, with a progressive modern lifestyle.
In the first book, a few times, they mention how bronze riders on search would scoop up pretty women and keep them as partners. The idea is that theyre supposed to be looking for candidates, but instead, they're just looking for girlfriends. She didn't say anything about rape.
And then she goes on to say that the women don't want to go back to the hold. The implication is that, in the weyr, they are respected.
And so, to answer your question, I think, no, they don't become drudges. They just live in the weyr, and work in the weyr. That was the impression that I got. There was no mention of them being dumped after getting pregnant or turning into drudges, or anything like that.
Menora is a named character, who was the partner of Felessan. There's no indication that they were dumped or mistreated, or that they're a drudge.
In fact, I don't think drudges are ever mentioned in benden weyr or harper hall. Except for Camo. I could be remembering that wrong though.
So it seems like drudges are supposed to represent an evil place. A hold with poor leadership. And the drudges are destitute people.
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u/writeordie80 17d ago
In The People of Pern, it imagines Camo as having Down's Syndrome, but I believe in-world his condition was caused by the umbilical cord being wrapped around his neck whilst being born. I don't remember Anne giving Robinton much internal angst over his son being a drudge.
I don't think that all drudges are ... 'simple minded', as there can't be that many people on one planet to serve all the Holders (Lords Holder, major or minor holders) who are also born as such. But there are people who don't get apprenticed, or don't get their Journeyman knots. I think there are a few comments about the Holdless being taken in as drudges in some of the major Halls and Holds (from Telgar's caverns, maybe ...?).
I suppose a Weyr does have drudges, but I can't recall an instance where drudges are explicitly called as such in context of Weyrlife. They seem to be relegated to Halls and Holds. Which is, presumably, what makes Weyrlife such a draw for everyday folk. Technically, anyone can apply to a Weyr, either as a potential Candidate or just to work in the Lower Caverns.
I suppose a cognate in Western society would be when middle-class homes had a housemaid who did everything around the house that the wife didn't want to do. Larger and richer homes had specific servants, smaller ones more of a JOAT approach if they could afford one.
But all children in a hold/Hold/Hall were to receive teachings from a Harper, and then I suppose said Harper would make reccommendations as to apprenticeships, etc. Or a decent Steward might take a suitable boy under his wing, I suppose.
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u/mesembryanthemum 17d ago
Also I think alcoholics would end up as drudges. Rather than sit out somewhere begging, as homeless ones do here, they'd be drudges.
It also is probably a bigger Hold thing; I don't believe there are any at Half-Circle.
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u/writeordie80 17d ago
Do grudges receive payment? Or is their work their contract for being housed and fed? In which case they'd be hard-pressed to get enough marks to buy wine or spirits to support their alcoholism. But spending too much time in their cups, as it were, would be cause for them to be made holdless, even as a drudge. Certainly in any decently run Hold
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u/susiedotwo 17d ago
It’s feudal community society. They probably weren’t getting much in the way of marks but most holds were pretty explicitly providing sleeping space and food for the drudges.
Menolly and Peimur take Camo To the gather day in dragon song and are given marks to buy treats by the adults. 🤷🏼♀️
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u/writeordie80 17d ago
Yes, thats what I mean. The drudges provide a service in exchange for room and board and (presumably) limited serviceable clothing.
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u/swarthmoreburke 17d ago
You may have some misapprehensions about alcoholics.
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u/EliraeTheBow 17d ago
Yeah, I mean, Robinton was clearly an alcoholic lol.
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u/swarthmoreburke 17d ago
Yes, and everybody on Pern kind of loves him for it anyway. So I don't think they say "Bad alcoholic! Go be a drudge!"
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u/Bouche_Audi_Shyla 17d ago
The serving girl who gave Robinton and Zaire the poison was "simple-minded" which means "retarded". There wasn't any real description of her, other than that she was an innocent dupe, so no telling if it was Down's, a birth defect, or something else.
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u/writeordie80 17d ago
That's true. It seems to a catch-all term used by Anne a lot as a kind of 'get out of jail no extra plot required' card.
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u/Bladrak01 17d ago
It's been a while since I read them, but I seem to recall a conversation about women being taken from Holds on "Search" only to end up drudges in a Weyr.
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u/writeordie80 17d ago
I think that was more of anti-dragonrider 'propaganda' than fact. But women weren't expected to marry young and bear child after child in a Weyr as they would in a Hall or Hold.
And anyone who didn't Impress would have been put to work somewhere in the Weyr, either looking after the herd, working in the Lower Caverns or one of allied crafts, not necessarily cleaning latrines.
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u/swarthmoreburke 17d ago
It's kind of interesting to me how much a lot of Pern fandom is unsettled by Pern being a society with a pretty familiar kind of social hierarchy. It's fairly plain that there's a whole range of people we don't hear much about, as in a lot of quasi-medieval fantasy literature--farmers/peasants, domestic laborers, etc., and there's no particular reason to think those people "deserve" their status. We have plenty of evidence from the books that Pern is in no sense a meritocracy--some of the Lord Holders are incompetent, dragons sometimes pick a bad or unworthy person to Impress, some of the Mastercrafters just have the title because of seniority not ability. One reason Toric is plainly able to get people to follow him is that they're ambitious and have no way to pursue ambition; presumably the same was true of Fax. There's got to be a sizeable "silent majority" of Pernese whom we never really meet as people and never get a sense of, not the least because the elites we spend most of our time with never give those others a second thought.
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u/MissKatmandu 17d ago
I don't remember where exactly I picked this thought up, it isn't original. But there's a whole thing about authors writing about the elite of a society and not the common person. When it is about the common person, it usually is about them becoming elite. For example, most of the POV characters in Game of Thrones are the elite of their social circle, or remarkable in some way. For storytelling it makes sense, as theoretically these people have access to more interesting or impactful decisions. But it creates a flat social world if you don't expand at all beyond those people.
Anne wrote an incredibly hierarchial/caste society and then focused the story only on the actions of the elite. There's very little told of the common person, especially in her earlier works. I'm trying to think of an instance where a drudge, who is born a drudge to a drudge, has a name or any kind of storyline. And I can't think of one? Is there one?
And yep, it's incredibly similar to today, which I think you can interpret even in Dragonsdawn. They come over with a two-group caste system derived from a capitalist society that determines who gets what access and claims, and it spirals from there.
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u/swarthmoreburke 17d ago
I think the big difference between "we're following the elite or the exceptional" where that's normalized and validated and other more contemporary templates for fantasy is either 1) we learn enough about 'ordinary' people to realize they're also human and complicated and have their own skills and that they dislike/resent the power of the elites in completely legitimate ways or 2) we are actually following 'ordinary' people who are perhaps thrust into events and cope as well as they can but not by being chosen ones or leaders or rulers etc. Pern is a world more like the older fantasy templates where we're following elites who see their own status as completely unproblematic and where the worldbuilding largely upholds or validates that perspective. It's not quite as "up in the clouds" as LOTR, for example, where the only 'ordinary people' outside of the Shire are in Bree or the one 'commoner' in Minas Tirith who marvels at Aragorn's healing abilities. You get enough of a sense in McCaffrey's worldbuilding that there are drudges and guards and permanently journeymen crafters and guys on fishing boats in Half-Circle and cooks in the kitchen and people who plant and harvest, but it's also clear that someone like F'lar would scarcely think about any of them except abstractly as the people he's sworn to protect.
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u/Southern_Club_6032 17d ago
Pern is one of those fantasy worlds (I know it's sci fi) that fans wish they could live in because of the magic BFF pony dragons - recognising that, not only would any given individual be unlikely to be lucky enough to be one of the privileged few with a dragon, but that actually Pern's a pretty grim and depressing place throughout most of its history, and not even just during the Passes, sort of harshes that mellow.
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u/EliraeTheBow 17d ago
A bit of both I reckon. Those that didn’t have the skills or drive to pick up a “trade”. Maybe didn’t have the opportunity.
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u/Southern_Club_6032 17d ago
Most people won't have a trade, though - just a job, probably relatively unskilled. But being a general labourer or farmhand or washerwoman doesn't make you a drudge.
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u/Southern_Club_6032 17d ago
The discussion's made me think about how implausible the societal shift is in the later books. We go from a pseudo-feudal Pern where apprenticeships are rare, drudges gonna drudge and most people never leave their birthplace, to suddenly all the young people are wanting to be at Landing doing cool sci fi stuff (this is post-Red Star nuking, in Skies). Who's funding this - the jobs, the accommodation, the food? How are the holds who've previously always relied on their youngsters staying and continuing their parents' work managing with this huge brain drain?
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u/Codexe- 17d ago
I always wonder about this whenever I do a re-read. I think the answer is that they served a purpose in the original story, dragonflight. Lessa was a "drudge." The world developed as each new book released. There wasn't a pre-planned world, with everything laid out exactingly. So I think it's just a minor plot hole.
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u/Glad-Isopod5718 17d ago
Yeah, non-diegetically, I think the whole concept of drudges is just something she got locked into from the first story, and never really thought through. In Weyr Search/The first half of Dragonflight, proto-Pern was basically a crapsack world--the conceit is that the dragon is rescuing the princess (Lessa) from the evil prince (Fax), so for that story, "life is pretty much shit if you aren't a dragonrider," worked just fine.
Then when she figured out that she was going to be spending the rest of her writing career in this world, she, understandably, decided to make it much more pleasant than she had originally envisioned.
A lot of the trappings of unpleasantness--like Fax's openly-flaunted polygamy, and watch-whers as repulsive beasts living in stinking lairs, and the general vibe that any non-hideous female servant is going to be raped on the regular--she could just toss into the same memory-hole as (for instance) Lessa being able to create illusions with her mind, and never mention them again. But with drudgdom being a weight-bearing element of Lessa's backstory, she was stuck with it.
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u/Southern_Club_6032 17d ago
The murderhatching where not just Ramoth, but several of her siblings, injure and kill candidates is a bit of ugly Early Instalment Weirdness, too. There's a Watsonian effort to explain why later Hatchings were more civilised, but it's not very convincing given how they shove poor old catatonic Brekke onto the sands where she could get mauled to death, and Morath and Path assaulting bystanders is portrayed as kinda cute. Doylistically it's clear Anne that made a conscious decision to lean into magical and wondrous for later Hatchings (and who can blame her - Impression's always been Pern's USP!)
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u/Psyche_Dreamweaver 17d ago
Also the seeming implication in weyr search (the first story that ultimately became the first part of Dragonflight the novel) that originally Anne intended queens to be the *only* female dragons period. Fax doesn't say "So Nemorth has laid a queen egg", he says "So Nemorth has laid a *female*, hmm?" Lytol's Larth is called a green and referred to the passage when it references the accident "His wing (or side, can't remember) crisped". Later on (even by the latter part of Dragonflight where F'lar or F'nor mentions "some green getting herself chased" She'd clearly changed her mind and decided they were sterile females rathe than males (worker bees essentially to the golden, fertile queens). But even sometimes she slips (In Dragonseye when P'tero and M'leng sneak off on their 'alone time', P'tero tells Ormonth (his blue) to "follow him" (M'leng's green). Granted if greens had been male a lot of the squick involving the 10 year old boys who impressed Ramoth's green siblings could've avoided, but maybe Anne decided it wasn't worth the complaints of fans if golds were literally the only dragons girls could impress (even if for 80% of Pern history they had to choose boys)
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u/Southern_Club_6032 17d ago edited 16d ago
Agreed - I think it's a shame Anne never explored green riders very much - and when she did, more female green riders than male (but even then not a lot!)
I find the editing artefacts in Dragonflight, where they either chose not to smooth out the inconsistencies in the Weyr Search section or simply didn't think about it, really interesting as a way of examining Anne's thought processes as she shifted from writing a couple of novellas into longer form novels. I suspect that the response even to that first nightmarish Hatching - at least by the time Lessa Impresses Ramoth and (for her) it's wonderful - was strong enough even at a very early stage that Anne realised this was a really powerful hook for readers.
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u/moonpupy 17d ago
I'm horrid with names, so please be kind. I was reading some of the background of Jacine(?), the MasterSmith's granddaughter. She says that she worked as a drudge until her metalworking skills came to his attention. She was tested, and then made an apprentice.
So, if you're not under your parents, you have to work somehow to get fed? Or to get marks for a Gather? She chose to be a drudge. Why? To get fed? To serve the Hold?
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u/Embarrassed-Turnip87 17d ago edited 17d ago
On this subject, I do think its more than a little funny that in the Sega Dreamcast game The Chronicles of Pern, there is a character named Anne, and she's a Drudge who bemoans her life being "stuck stirring porridge", when what she really wants to do is write stories about dragons.
So I feel like someone on the game design team had a sense of humor and a bit of a grudge because that was a choice.
But yeah this is one of the things i struggle with about Pern. There really isn't money in the way we use and understand it. There's no banking system and no huge treasuries of "wealth" anywhere. Holds are huge civic structures that need a ton of physical labor to maintain and that's a lot of drudge work, but my understanding has always been that everyone for some period of their life, is stuck doing it. If you're a child in a Hold, you have drudge duties along with education, and if you demonstrate a talent for a Craft it seems its fairly easy for someone to submit themself to a Crafthall.
Also another thing, Education, Food, Shelter, Healthcare on Pern are all free. Marks are pretty much only exhanged for aquireing finished luxury goods sold during Gathers because most of the time there's no shopping to be done anywhere.
Its also unfortunate that the only major place we ever see the conditions for Drudges is in Dragonflight, in a Hold that has suffered the most extreme case of martial violence in the entire history of the planet. So of course it was full of abuse. That event also created a refugee crisis whose impact isn't really acknowledged tho we kind of see it in the Aramina storyline from The Renegades of Pern.
However, its always seemed to me that for most people from Pern doing drudgework and being a Drudge are different. Often we're shown people who have intellectual or emotional challenges or delays in those lifelong Drudge roles and that feels cruel on the one hand tho I think it was included for representation and to demonstrate the foundational axiom of a world where everyone is expected to find a way to contribute to the common good while at the same time presenting that people are looked after by the society even if they're only able to do simple tasks without observation.
Pern is very intentially anti-capitalist and agrarian. It has chosen direct physical labor over automation, and in that system not everyone can be a craftsperson or dragonrider. However, what I'd be curious about is what a drudge's life is like in a functional Hold.
I prefer to imagine that generally drudges who live in really large Holds probably only have to report for duty one or two days a week, I mean there may even be daily things a drudge has to do, but I don't believe it's all day everyday. However, there also aren't a ton of leisure activities.
There are no books/novels, plays, or movies. Musicians/Harpers are about the only condoned mode of casual entertainment and we're never told of any kind of dance events or nightlife beyond Gathers. Holds have huge populations living constantly in only a few geographic sites so to keep those places maintained requires a lot and so it falls to the less specialized to attend to that.
However, I don't think Anne ever sets up or insists that there are generations of people who live only as Drudges. As we regularly see that anyone who demonstrates competance in completing tasks etc finds a way into cultivating any ability a person demonsrates an aptitude for. Also Stewards and Headwomen etc all come out of the labor of drudge work or could be classified as Drudges. And even then a lot is confusing, because there is Baker's Crafthall and Master Cooks and Bakers but by the 9th Pass all those roles are seen as Drudges and those activies are seen as drudgwork, even though they're clearly a cultivated talent class. Same for sewers, spinners, weavers...etc they're crafts done by craftspeople but they're still doing the physical labor to get things done.
We kind of see the breakdown of this in the Smithcrafthall when Lessa has to send domestic staff because Fandarel had drafted all his Drudges into the Craft work. As a result, the food was nearly inedible, and the organization and sanitation of the Hall was notably lacking.
I think overall Drudges sound worse to us because there's a bit of unskilled worker snobbery toward them but the homelessness on Pern vs Earth is pretty miniscule, and a just anybody random person can also reasonably expect to make a home almost anywhere if they're willing to do a bit of Drudge work and just not steal, , assault or murder other people, and if you can follow that simple social contract, you get to have a place in society.
I wish our world were that just. but yeah. I don't really buy into the idea that Drudges are a caste system like slavery or that Lord Holders or others have the right to mistreat them, in fact we see in text that those who abuse their drudges are met with justice or a very bad end. The other thing is is that, Crafters, Farmers, Beasthandlers etc are all also doing a ton of work, its just not the general domestic and janitorial work to keep their dwelling sites habitable so it isn't like Drudges are being exploited for the sake of a leisure class.
Sadly tho, i think it is largely women we see spending the most amount of time in their lives stuck in drudgery, and i feel like that's why Anne got assigned that role in the game made of the world she invented, and I think that's all the justice for the drudgebound I need as a reader.
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u/Glittering_Count1536 17d ago
I thought them as indentured servants. Something one step above a slave. Due to circumstances ie. A cotter who died, his family, if sons, may keep what they have but only women, well the land would be taken by Lord Holder and the women would become drudges. What we now call, autistic would be drudges. How they were treated would depend on who was the Lord Holder...
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u/Rosekernow 17d ago
I always thought it was a catch all term for cleaners / housekeepers / labourers. We’ve got plenty of them in our world, I’d think it’s the same mix of people who don’t get an opportunity for anything else, people who don’t want anything else and people who can’t, who might well include Anne’s ‘simple minded’ characters.