Being able to control your life and how you live is something most people desire. Whether someone is born rich, poor, or homeless, they can grow up and change their life. Citizens living in the United States today have the ability to change social classes. But this was not always the case. In the Middle Ages, power and equality were much different than they are today. Social orders, “the structures, institutions, and practices which maintain ‘normal’ ways of relating and behaving,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_order) were taken to extremes in the Middle Ages. Because of the social orders and rules that the people of this time had, their freedom was taken away and they were stereotyped.
During the period of the Middle Ages, “feudalism was the law of the land.” The upper noble class controlled the lower class. This government consisted of kings, lords, peasants, and the leaders of the church. Life for peasants, or serfs, was extremely hard. Approximately 90% of the people living in the Middle Ages were peasants, which means that mostly everyone was treated harshly, and the majority of the population did not have many rights. Peasants who were not free lived on the land without paying any money because they worked for the lord to earn their stay. They could not get married without their lord’s permission. If they tried to escape, they could be caught and put in stocks. Imagine being in a stock for two hours, two days, or event two weeks. Boys were sold as slaves, and girls were sold as maid servants, or even worse, by their own families. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS8za4eBPVQ) Most people do not want to live this way, and if the majority of your population is, that means that only a few select members are controlling everyone else. This is not a fair or just way to rule a society or government, and it is seen as a problem in the Middle Ages. (http://library.thinkquest.org/10949/fief/hifeudal.html)
Three classes, or orders, were prevalent in the Middle Ages: those who pray (the monks and priests), those who fight (the nobles and knights), and those who work. The people of this time lived in a life of inequality. You were born, lived, and died in this situation. “Whatever position in life you were born to, that was where you belonged.” This class system was of staggering extremes. A human life was measured in pounds, shillings, and pence, and if someone was murdered, the price of their death was determined by their social class. Your class was as much a part of you as was the color of your skin, and it was literally in your genes. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS8za4eBPVQ) This stereotypical and categorized way of living was not a fair way to govern the people of the Middle Ages.
In the United States today, equality is our ideal. Freedom and the right to live a happy life is what was granted to the citizens of the United States hundreds of years ago by our founding fathers. The Declaration of Independence, written on July 4, 1776, states, “We hold these truths to be self evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..” (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/declare.asp) This is a very different theory than that which was known in the Middle Ages. The Declaration of Independence also declares our rights and the freedom that citizens of the US have. It states in its First Amendment that citizens have the freedom of speech, press, religion, the right to assemble, and the right to petition the government. (http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/about.aspx?item=about_firstamd) These are the rights that all people should have. The citizens of the United States had them, but people living in the Middle Ages did not.
The social orders of the Middle Ages robbed most of the population of their freedom and their own way of living. Today, it is seen that the US has been productive with allowing its people to have their own rights. The people in the Middle Ages could have lived much better lives than they did, but instead many lived lives in inequality where their freedom was taken and they were stereotyped.
Works Cited
"The Feudal Structure of the Medieval World." Web. 23 Apr. 2010. <http://library.thinkquest.org/10949/fief/hifeudal.html>.
First Amendment Center. Web. 23 Apr. 2010. <http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/about.aspx?item=about_firstamd>.
"Inside the Medieval Mind-POWER-Pt.1." Youtube. Web. 23 Apr. 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS8za4eBPVQ>.
"Social Order." Wikipedia. Web. 23 Apr. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_order>.
Yale Law School. Web. 23 Apr. 2010. <http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/declare.asp>.
Picture Source:
Wikimedia Commons. Web. 23 Apr. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Us_declaration_independence.jpg>.
