Celem artykułu jest próba rekonsktrukcji pojęcia „pan”, jakie ukształtowało się i funkcjonowało w wyobraźni środowiska wiejskiego pod koniec XIX w. Podstawą do badań są: listy chłopów-emigrantów do Brazylii i Stanów Zjednoczonych z lat 1890–1891, korespondencja ukazująca się na łamach czasopisma „Gazeta Świąteczna” wydawanego w Warszawie od 1881 r., pamiętniki chłopskie oraz dane etnograficzne zebrane na ziemiach Królestwa Polskiego na przełomie XIX–XX w.

A Master in the Eyes of a Peasant in the Kingdom of Poland in the Second Half of the 19th Century

The aim of the article is to reconstruct the notion of a “master”, which was shaped and functioned in the minds of peasants in the end of the 19th century. The research is based on: letters of peasants who emigrated to Brazil and the USA from the years 1890–1891, letters published in “Gazeta Świąteczna” [The Holiday Gazette] published in Warsaw since 1881, peasants’ diaries, and ethnography data collected in the Kingdom of Poland at the turn of the 20th century.

The aim of the article is to reconstruct the notion of a “master”, which was shaped and functioned in the minds of peasants in the end of the 19th century. The research is based on: letters of peasants who emigrated to Brazil and the USA from the years 1890–1891, letters published in “Gazeta Świąteczna” [The Holiday Gazette] published in Warsaw since 1881, peasants’ diaries, and ethnography data collected in the Kingdom of Poland at the turn of the 20th century.