The One Thing Medieval Peasants Had Better Than Us
Life was no bed of roses for medieval peasants. They lived in cramped quarters, lacked many amenities we take for granted, performed backbreaking work, sanitation was abysmal, and they were exploited by the nobility. They often had to worry about famine, plague, and war. However, we might envy them one thing: they worked fewer hours than us and had way more vacation time. The modern perception of medieval peasants is often one that views them as exploited, downtrodden, brutalized, oppressed, and overworked minions. To a large extent, peasants back then were, indeed, exploited, downtrodden, brutalized, and oppressed.
Peasants were placed at the bottom of the social pyramid as a lower caste that had fewer legal rights and protections than the nobles and clergy above them. Moreover, a significant chunk of the fruits of their labor went to support their social betters. A European medieval peasant might have been reduced to the status of an outright serf, bound to the land and unable to leave without the proprietor’s permission. A peasant might be required to put more time and effort to tend an aristocrat’s fields than his own. However, when it comes to whether peasants were overworked, then, well – as it turns out, not so much. As seen below, modern Americans put in longer hours, with fewer holidays and vacation time, than medieval peasants.
