Peasants' Lives Were Extremely Hard and Unpleasant

Introduction- Traditionally peasants’ lives are seen as being extremely hard and unpleasant. To decide whether this hypothesis is true I will investigate the following aspects of their lives: work, housing, clothing, food, entertainment and authority. I partly agree with the hypothesis (the hypothesis being “Peasants’ lives were extremely hard and unpleasant”) as a peasant’s life was an awful one for the three hundred years before the Black Death. However, a peasant’s life then improved significantly because of it, and this is the matter I will be addressing throughout this piece. Whilst recognising that the quality of peasants’ lives varied depending on their status and occupation, in this essay I will focus on changes in a peasant’s life in general, before and after the Black Death.

Work - Work was mainly farming the Lord of the Manor’s furrow strips of land, which the peasants had to plough one day a week all year round. To do the ploughing they used oxen on the strips, which were approximately two hundred and twenty-two yards, this was extremely hard work. The other work they had to do was weeding, hay-making, ditching, repairing and mending, which they did two days a week (all year round) and five days at harvest time. Also they had to do harvesting and carting on the Lord of the Manor’s land. But after the Black Death the peasants did less work/farming days, per week, all year, if they didn’t get the pay they wanted or they didn’t like the hours. Along with this their pay increased from two shillings to ten shillings.

The hypothesis is true as before the Black Death the work was “extremely hard and unpleasant” for the peasant, especially harvest time when they had to work practically all week. But after the Black Death the work got better for the peasant as their pay improved substantially and they could call the shots, to decide when they wanted to work and for what pay.

Housing - Before the Black Death most peasants lived in huts made of wattle and daub, with no windows, topped with a thatched straw roof. Two families and cattle (to provide warmth) would occupy the hut. Inside there was only one room, with a big fire in the centre. This gave the hut a very smoky atmosphere, as there was no chimney. After the Black Death, thanks to their higher wages, a family of peasants could afford to have their own much larger hut, which might have one or two windows and perhaps two rooms.

The hypothesis is fairly true as peasants’ housing before the Black Death wasn’t good as two families often shared one room, but conditions improved afterwards.

Clothing- The men wore tunics and short woollen trousers. The women would wear long gowns, with sleeveless tunics underneath and would cover their heads with a veil and wimple. Both men and women wore stockings and leather boots with wooden patens. In the winter