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
   • The king fixed old pay, and that is why many workers were lost
   • Employers asked the king for higher pay for scarce workers
   • Workers were lost, the rest asked more, and the king fixed old pay
3. 2.

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

   • Strong: card B is a real record of Oakfield, so it applies to the whole of England
   • Strong: laborers asked for 2 pennies, so the law failed in many places
   • Weak: an invented example is of no use at all, even for showing an idea
   • Weak: card B is an invented village, so it cannot show England as a whole
4. 3.

   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?

   • 200 percent
   • 1 percent
   • 50 percent
   • 100 percent
5. 4.

   The ordinance came in 1349, the statute in 1351 and the rising in 1381. How many years from the statute to the rising, Kira asks?

   • 32 years
   • 30 years
   • 2,732 years
   • 40 years
6. 5.

   Why must the accounts of the rising on card C be read with care, Luz asks?

   • Chroniclers who disliked the rebels wrote most, so the rebels' side may be missing
   • They are too short and too few to be used as evidence of any kind in a study
   • Most were written long before 1381, so they cannot be describing the rising itself
   • Most were written by the rebels themselves, so they may leave out the other side
7. 6.

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

   • Weak: the plague was too far back in time to matter in 1381
   • Strong: the plague led to the labor laws, so it explains the whole rising
   • Strong: card C says the rebels named the plague as their one complaint to the king
   • Weak: card C lists a poll tax and labor laws, so more than the plague mattered
8. 7.

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

   • Employers hired at higher pay, so the law did not hold wages down
   • Workers had left the villages for good, so no one worked the land
   • 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
9. 8.

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

   • To honor the families who had lost relatives in the plague
   • To say which workers the law applied to, so the work would be done
   • To let workers choose which employer they would work for each year
   • To raise money for the king from workers over the age of 60
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
    • Card C shows the labor laws were repealed after the rising of 1381
    • A is a labor law, and C lists labor laws as a complaint: one tension
11. 10.

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

    • 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
    • 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