True or False: The Black Death helped weaken serfdom in parts of Western Europe.

The story behind the answer

The pandemic of 1347–1351 killed a third to half of Europe’s people, creating a severe labor shortage. With fields empty and rents unpaid, surviving peasants could demand better terms: higher wages, reduced labor dues, and the right to move for work. Many lords commuted compulsory labor into cash rents, undermining the manorial system. Attempts to force wages back down—like England’s Statute of Laborers (1351)—often failed or sparked resistance.

This new bargaining power fed social unrest, including the Jacquerie (1358) in France and the English Peasants’ Revolt (1381), which pressed for an end to feudal burdens. The result in much of Western Europe was a gradual erosion of serfdom. Notably, the pattern wasn’t universal: parts of Eastern Europe moved toward tighter peasant bondage in the later “Second Serfdom.”