The plague raised peasant status by making labor scarce and lords poorer

Evidence

Yet the Black Death, so terrible in scope for the population at large, not only reconstituted the ecological balance but raised the status of peasants. Labor was now scarce, and the surplus labor that had been paid by unfree peasants to the landlord was not as plentiful, resulting in a decrease in living standard for the lords. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 270

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Labor scarcity after the plague embittered lord-peasant relations rather than easing them — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 165; Demographic collapse paradoxically improved peasant livelihoods while deepening lord-peasant bitterness

Broader Connections

• Demographic collapse paradoxically improved peasant livelihoods while deepening lord-peasant bitterness #expands (0.95)
• Labor scarcity after the plague embittered lord-peasant relations rather than easing them #contradicts (0.85) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 165