Similarities Between Serfs And Peasants

739 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Chapter 13 the rise of the middle ages

A Short Passage To The Adversities of Serfs & Peasants

Three social classes faced many adversities in the middle ages. Serfs and peasants were the ones considered the lower class during medieval times. Adversities are unfavorable circumstances; adversities can also mean misfortune, hardships, or difficulties. Being considered the lower class, the serfs and peasants had multiple adversities such as lack of nutritious food, little education, poor lifestyle, and women's hardships facing them each day.
To start, the peasant families in the middle ages often got nutritious food. The family periodically got a choice of meat and a variety of vegetables. Dining on little nutrients was normal for the family and luxuries were a distant dream. After …show more content…

The average serf and peasant home founded was normally located on a small area of land, owned by the upper class, who were the lords. As the text states in the passage, Serfs and Peasants text 3: “Blast to the Past”, “...the average kid’s house was located on a small plot of land often owned by a wealthy lord. The floor was covered with straw … In the summer, the rank odor of sheep, cow, and horse dung dominated the home. It didn’t help that farm animals such as pigs lived inside the house!” (1,5) Poor living was normal for the serfs and peasants in medieval times. But life wasn’t much easier, the bathroom was located behind the home so the smell didn’t get more preferable. The toilet was pitted in the back of the home, but luckily they didn’t have to wash up there. For example, in the same passage Serfs and Peasants text 3: “Blast to the Past”, “...was a hole dug outside near the back of the house, and moss, grass, and leaves were used as toilet paper. … Streams and ponds served as bathtubs during warm weather. During the winter, water for bathing was heated over the fire.” (1,6) Since nothing served as shampoo and conditioner or any kind of soap, serfs and peasants reeked and woefully the women had to wash the clothes if she had

Show More
Related

  • Olaudah Equiano

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    I can now relate hardships which are inseparable from this accursed trade. Many a time we were near suffocation from the want of fresh air, which we were often without for whole days together. This, and the stench of the necessary tubs, carried off many.

    Read More

  • Poverty In The Glass Castle, By Jeannee Castle

    1369 Words  | 3 Pages

    They were often forced to steal the clothes from the store because of not having money to buy new clothes. “I would create a ruckus to distract the clerk while Mom hid a dress under a raincoat she would be carrying on her arm “(Walls, 70). The authors’s life as a kid was different as compared to other kids. She just had three dresses and so had to wear them two or three times each week. She use to look pretty dirty because of the worn clothes. “They called me poor and ugly and dirty, and it was hard to argue the point “(Walls, 87) but like Erma said, “ Beggars can’t be choosers “(Walls, 82), she had no choice than to wear those dirty clothes. There were times, when they didn 't care about their health. "Mom, that ham 's full of maggots," I said. "Don 't be so picky," she told me. "Just slice off the maggoty parts. The inside 's fine “ (Walls, 106). Thus, this clearly shows how poverty left them no choice but to eat the ham full of

    Read More

  • The Feudal System In Lanval By Mari De France

    1719 Words  | 4 Pages

    The importance and job of each class fail to function optimally. The castles were rooted economically in the countryside which was intimately connected with the villagers. These villagers were the “social and economic units of rural Europe” (147) which illustrates the importance of the various classes in medieval Europe. Undermining the lower social classes will cause political and social upheaval as they collectively dominate the economic force in the feudal system. Few individual commoners mask the

    Read More

  • German Peasant Revolts of 1524-1526

    911 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the reasons the serfs led an uprise against the government in the early 1520s was a wanting for economic equality. In a letter written from a Count to a Duke, describes the attacks the peasants were planning and executing in which they attacked the houses of the nobility (Doc 11). The peasants started with the most wealthy individuals and stealing possessions from wealthy areas (like consuming all that was available in the monasteries) and then continued to attack other rick noblemen is descending order of wealth. This systematic approach of attacking the wealthy, and the wealthiest first, shows the dislike by the peasants for the economic system at the time. In addition, in an article written by peasants, called Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants, the peasants demanded better compensations for the services they provided their lords (Doc 2). They believed that they were being severely underpaid and were suffering conditions almost equal of that to a slave. They believe that they are simply demanding what is, in their opinion, just. On another instance, in 1525, in a letter written to the Archbishop of Wurzburg by an unknown source, the peasants demand a wealth redistribution (Doc 8). Lorenz Fries, the chief advisor to the Archbishop, discusses that the secret lett...

    Read More

  • DBQ On The Middle Ages

    615 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Feudalism was a political, economic, and social system in which nobles were granted the use of land that legally belonged to the king” (Doc. 1) "Social" life in the Middle Ages was the only kind of life people knew. Whether nobility, craftsperson or peasant your life was defined by your family, your community and those around you (OI). “The Church protected the Kings and Queens (OI).” “The King is above Nobles, Nobles above Knights, and the Knights are above serfs (Doc.1).” “ Nobles provides money and knights. Knights provide protection and military service (Doc. 1).” Social network, your village and your local nobility, was your family (OI).” “From the moment of its baptism a few days after birth, a child entered into a life of service to God and God’s Church (Doc.3).” “Every Person was required to live by the Church’s laws and to pay heavy taxes to support the Church (Doc.3).” “In return for this, they were shown the way to everlasting life and happiness after lives that were often short and hard (Doc. 3).” In conclusion, this is what it was like in the Middle Ages from a social

    Read More

  • Domestic Life of Peasants in the Middle Ages

    1403 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Middle Ages, three distinctive kinds of peasants existed: the serfs, slaves and the freemen. However, the majority of the peasant society consisted of the serfs (Gilberts para. 1). Serfs made up only half of the population for peasants in the 14th century, but during the mid-11th century, an astounding ninety percent of peasants, in distinct areas, were attributed to serfs. A serf was under the command of his lord and had to abide by his rules (Singman 8). He then contained absolutely no political rights (Gilberts para. 2). Alike the serfs, slaves were permitted to be sold and purchased, but, in fact, buyers of serfs did not have full ownership over them (Singman 8). If a serf happened to flee and stay hidden and unrestricted for a total of one year, he could then declare himself a freeman (Gilberts para. 2). Freemen were, indeed, permitted to roam around at liberty and own tiny pieces of land (Gilberts para. 1).

    Read More

  • Shogunate Japan

    804 Words  | 2 Pages

    The bottom part of the society included the peasants which made up 85% of the population, the peasants was divided into sub-classes, and these sub-classes involved the farmers, craftsmen or artisans and merchants (Hackney, 2013). The highest ranking of the peasants were the farmers, farmers who owned their own lands were ranked higher than those who did not. After the farmers, there were the craftsmen or artisans. The craftsmen or artisans worked word and metal and some of them became well-k...

    Read More

  • Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin

    1494 Words  | 3 Pages

    A main factor in the storyline is the way the writer portrays society's attitude to poverty in the 18th century. The poor people were treated tremendously different to higher classed people. A lot of people were even living on the streets. For example, "He picked his way through the hordes of homeless children who congregated at evening, like the starlings, to look for the most sheltered niche into which they could huddle for the night." The writer uses immense detail to help the reader visualise the scene. She also uses a simile to help the reader compare the circumstances in which the children are in. This shows that the poor children had to live on the streets and fend for themselves during the 18th century. Another example involves a brief description of the city in which the poor people lived in. This is "nor when he smelt the stench of open sewers and foraging pigs, and the manure of horses and mules" This gives a clear example of the state of the city. It is unclean and rancid and the writer includes this whilst keeping to her fictional storyline.

    Read More

  • Feudal System Dbq

    436 Words  | 1 Pages

    The person's class status in the feudal system affected their social status in the Middle Ages. The serfs provide services and food when the knights needed it.

    Read More

  • Medieval Food Essay

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    The interesting thing about this is that the poor were generally healthier than the rich because they could not indulge as much and the cheaper stuff was better for people. Rich Poor -White or wheat breads -Rye, oat, barley, bean, or pea bread -Beef, pork, mutton, game, and poultry -not much beef or pork -Not much dairy, eggs, vegetables, or -a lot of dairy, eggs, fruit vegetables, fruits, and fish -wine or ale -little or no wine, ale and water -Daily: -Daily: -2-3 lbs. of bread -2-3 lbs.

    Read More

  • The Wild West in the 1800s

    383 Words  | 1 Pages

    Sanitary conditions in the West were practically non-existent. In the cities, horse manure covered the streets. Housewives emptied garbage, dishwater, and chamber pots into the middle of the city streets where free-roaming pigs devoured the waste. The pigs left their urine and feces on the streets. It was not easy to wash clothes. Many people had clothes splattered with manure, mud, sweat, and tobacco juice. Privies, or necessary houses were often to close to the homes with a very noticeable odor on hot and/or windy days. If a family had a kitchen, all the members washed at the sink each day, without soap, rubbing the dirt off with a coarse towel. Eventually, many cold bedrooms had a basin, ewer (pitcher), cup, and cupboard chamber pot. Bed bugs and fleas covered many of the travelers’ beds. “Isaac Weld saw filthy beds swarming with bugs.” These insects followed the travelers, crawling on their clothes and skin.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between French Revolution And American Imperialism

    756 Words  | 2 Pages

    Living and working conditions were terrible. Frederick Engels described these conditions in The Conditions of the Working Class in England stating,"... restless and noisy activity of crowded streets is highly distasteful ... the weakest, who are in the vast majority, succumb most abject poverty... poverty is found hidden away in the alleys close to stately homes of wealthy... the streets themselves are usually unpaved and full of holes... [covered ] with animal and vegetable refuse... Neither gutter nor drain the refuse accumulates in stagnant, stinking puddles. Ventilation in the slums isn't adequate...

    Read More

  • Sanitation and Plagues of Elizabeth?s England

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Elizabethan times, living conditions of an everyday townsman was quite indecent. Elizabethan’s lived in houses that were extremely close to one another, which made it quite easy to disregard such a necessity to keep the streets and living surroundings clean. People threw all of the waste outside of their windows, which included, their feces, dead cats and dogs, and also kitchen waste. Eventually, when it would rain, the rain would wash all of the rancid waste into local waters.

    Read More

  • The Middle Ages

    1210 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Medieval Period, life was either very great or very bad, according to your class. Only 2 classes existed during this time: the nobles, such as kings and knights who lived inside the castle, or the peasants, such as working-class people who lived in often unspeakable conditions. The peasants treated the nobles with the utmost respect, for if they didn’t, then the nobles could have them beheaded. (Sanders, p 34). The nobles were almost always the ones who owned land, and the peasants worked on this land in exchange for a small portion of it, in a sense, rented out in exchange for the labor. Peasants often worked 16-hour days as long as they could see into the nighttime and got very bad nourishment. The noble was not interested in the health of the peasants working on his land, as there was a significant supply of others who were very willing to take his or her place.

    Read More

  • The Anglo-Saxon Period

    1754 Words  | 4 Pages

    Everyone in the age would always wear extremely modest clothing. The common garment for a man was the robe gathered at the waist, completed by hose and soft sandals. The same was for the woman, except their dress extended to the feet. The most common materials used to make clothing were linen and woolens, though...

    Read More

More about Similarities Between Serfs And Peasants

Open Document