The Black Death: how plague spread along trade routes, and what changed after

Grade 7 Social Studies Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   England after the plague (cards A to C; summaries in our words). Card A, a note on King Edward III's ordinance of 1349, in our words: historians estimate England lost a third to a half of its people in 1348 and 1349. The ordinance said that healthy workers under 60 with no land of their own had to work for any employer who asked, at the wages paid before the plague. Employers must not offer more, and workers must not ask for more. A statute of 1351 repeated and tightened these rules. Card B, a wage record from Oakfield, an invented village, to show the idea: a day's farm work was paid 1 penny in 1346. In 1350 laborers there asked for 2 pennies a day, and the lord's steward wrote that few men could be hired at 1 penny. Card C, the rising of 1381: thousands of villagers from Essex and Kent marched to London. Historians list a poll tax and the labor laws among their complaints. Most surviving accounts were written by chroniclers who disliked the rebels.

2. 1.

   Which chain does card A support, Ari asks?

   • Food prices rose after the plague, so the king ordered pay to be raised
   • Workers were lost, the rest asked more, and the king fixed old pay
   • Employers asked the king for higher pay for scarce workers
   • The king fixed old pay, and that is why many workers were lost
3. 2.

   Whose interests did the ordinance of 1349 mainly protect, Bo asks?

   • Employers and workers alike, because the law applied to both of them
   • Children of landowners, who would inherit their parents' land sooner
   • Employers, who would pay no more than the old wages
   • Workers, who could now ask for more pay than before
4. 3.

   A student says, "Card B shows the ordinance failed across England." How strong is that claim, Esme asks?

   • Strong: laborers asked for 2 pennies, so the law failed in many places
   • Strong: card B is a real record of Oakfield, so it applies to the whole of England
   • Weak: card B is an invented village, so it cannot show England as a whole
   • Weak: an invented example is of no use at all, even for showing an idea
5. 4.

   Card B: a day's pay was 1 penny in 1346, and laborers asked for 2 pennies in 1350. If pay rose from 1 to 2 pennies, by what percent would it rise, Jun asks?

   • 1 percent
   • 200 percent
   • 100 percent
   • 50 percent
6. 5.

   A student says, "The plague alone caused the rising of 1381." How strong is that claim, Milo asks?

   • Strong: card C says the rebels named the plague as their one complaint to the king
   • Weak: the plague was too far back in time to matter in 1381
   • Weak: card C lists a poll tax and labor laws, so more than the plague mattered
   • Strong: the plague led to the labor laws, so it explains the whole rising
7. 6.

   Suppose records show pay kept rising after 1349 even though the ordinance forbade it. What would that suggest, Noah asks?

   • Workers had left the villages for good, so no one worked the land
   • Employers hired at higher pay, so the law did not hold wages down
   • The rising of 1381 had already happened, so employers feared more risings
   • The law worked well, because pay stayed at the old level in each village
8. 7.

   How might a landowner and a laborer each see the ordinance, Pia asks?

   • A landowner may see it as a shield against rising pay, and a laborer as a lid on pay
   • A landowner may see it as a lid on pay, and a laborer as a shield against rising pay
   • Neither would care, since the law did not apply to them
   • Each would see it as fair, because the law applied to both
9. 8.

   Why might the ordinance list who had to work (healthy, under 60, no land of their own), Ren asks?

   • To raise money for the king from workers over the age of 60
   • To say which workers the law applied to, so the work would be done
   • To honor the families who had lost relatives in the plague
   • To let workers choose which employer they would work for each year
10. 9.

    How do card A (a law) and card C (the rising) fit together, Tala asks?

    • They are unrelated, since one is a law and the other is a march
    • Card C shows that card A by itself caused the rising of 1381, with nothing else
    • A is a labor law, and C lists labor laws as a complaint: one tension
    • Card C shows the labor laws were repealed after the rising of 1381
11. 10.

    A new document shows poll tax records for Essex villages in 1381. How does that affect card C, Zee asks?

    • It backs the poll tax as a complaint but does not rank causes
    • It shows the poll tax was the sole cause of the rising in Essex
    • It shows the labor laws did not matter to the rebels of Essex
    • It makes card C false, since card C does not mention records