# Fortunately, peasants are human beings

Late 17th C. attitudes towards peasants:

> It is true that peasants are human beings, but they are somewhat less
> refined and are coarser than the others. One only has to observe their
> behaviour and their gestures to see how easy it is to distinguish a
> peasant from someone with manners … Their odious way of speaking and
> behaving is obvious to everyone … When they eat, they don’t use
> cutlery but thrust their hands straight into the bowl … It might
> almost be said that peasants should be treated like dried cod: they
> are best when they have been given a full load of work to do, for then
> they are disciplined and regimented. The peasant always wants to be
> master, if his master allows him to give himself airs and graces. No
> one knows better how stubborn the peasants are than he who has lived
> among them for a long time. And one thing is certain, no amount of
> just saying the right thing will change a peasant, the only thing that
> he understands is firm language supported by threats of corporal
> punishment.

(From [The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648–1815](isbn:9780713990874), by
Tim Blanning, pp. 186–187.)