How Did Peasants Living Conditions Differ From Living In The Middle Ages

Imagine after a hard day of work you settle into an uncomfortable straw bed ridden with lice and other bugs. Modern plumbing, sewage, electricity, etc. are just some of the unpleasantries that peasants dealt with during the Middle Ages in Europe. Peasants lived in houses called crucks with straw mattresses being their only furniture. Holes in the wall, were so called windows, they did not have glass. The walls were made of mud, which was a good insulator in the winter, however, the walls retained heat in the summer too, making the living space very hot in the summer months. The roof was a thatched straw roof, which contributed to bugs in the peasants' living space. Clearly, their living space was not very hygienic, due to the building materials and lack of plumbing and sewage systems. However, they took pride in their dwellings keeping the floor swept, and having organized gardens. As for their diet, it was a very simple fare consisting of bread, porridge, vegetables, and a little bit of meat. The land was their livelihood and also nourished them, so if natural disasters occurred, it could mean starvation. Peasants would grow crops, and gardens that included fruit trees, nut trees, corn, wheat, beans, radishes, carrots, etc., sometimes, wealthier peasants owned a cow for dairy. They worked long hours with no chance of mobility in society. Moreover, peasants leased land from lords and then had to pay a tax on the land they leased. They only had …show more content…
Basically, this was just a ploy to use peasants as cheap labor again, but in a different environment, the unsafe urban factories. The peasants lost access to their former leased land, which landowners “enclosed”. They were promised a better work environment, but again their work conditions were extremely harsh at the factories as they were when they worked the land