Serfdom in Russia Great, businesses began to send serfs into those areas in an attempt to harvest their large amount of untapped natural resources Tsar Alexander I wanted to reform the system but was thwarted in this ambition. New laws allowed all classes (except the serfs) to own land, a privilege that had previously been confined to the nobility. Russian serfdom was finally abolished in the emancipation reform of 1861 by Tsar Alexander II. Scholars have proposed multiple overlapping reasons to account for the abolition, including fear of a large-scale revolt by the serfs, the government's financial needs, evolving cultural sensibilities, and the
USS Southerner (1861) she was used as a transport during the reduction of Fort Hatteras and Fort Clark on the 28th and 29th. She presumably foundered sometime before 11 October 1861. USS Southerner (1861) USS "Southerner" (1861) was a schooner purchased by the Union Navy to be used as a sunken obstruction in the waterways of the Confederate States of America. She was part of what was called the "stone fleet". "Southerner" – a Chesapeake Bay schooner – was purchased by the Union Navy at Baltimore, Maryland, on 13 August 1861. The vessel was laden with stone and towed to Hampton Roads. On