Were they free to go elsewhere? Could they without the transportation to make it? How many died while doing so? How could they afford it or afford something like a bike or a boat? Did they even know other places existed and what was there? It probably wasn’t the best life either.

There’s more than way to be slaved to a place, if you don’t make “money”, or can’t move elsewhere because various reasons. You’re not free.

You’re not looking at this broad enough. You’re too fixated on yourself. The rose colored glasses some people have of the past is just astounding.

And without money, what are you? A slave, you contradict yourself in your own statements. Every community has a currency of some sort, everyone’s time is valued, or you are the textbook definition of a slave dude.