What do serfs do all day?

While they were tending to their lord's fields, serfs also had their own chores to do. They raised vegetables and herbs, and maybe fattened a pig, for their own meals. Serfs provided for nearly all of their own daily needs. They made their own clothes from scratch, starting right from the sheep.

What do serfs do for a living?

Serfs were the poorest of the peasant class, and were a type of slave. Lords owned the serfs who lived on their lands. In exchange for a place to live, serfs worked the land to grow crops for themselves and their lord. In addition, serfs were expected to work the farms for the lord and pay rent.

What tasks did serfs do?

Serfs engaged in heavy labor and did all farm work. Some of their responsibilities were to raise livestock, build and care for buildings, made clothing, cut wood, etc. They received nothing for their work and did not have any rights to do anything that they wanted.

What was the daily life of a medieval serf?

Daily Life of Medieval Serfs

Medieval Serfs had to labor on the lord's domain for two or three days each week, and at specially busy seasons, such as ploughing and harvesting, Medieval Serfs had to do do extra work. The daily life of a serf was dictated by the requirements of the lord of the manor.

How many hours a week did serfs work?

One day's work was considered half a day, and if a serf worked an entire day, this was counted as two "days-works."[2] Detailed accounts of artisans' workdays are available. Knoop and jones' figures for the fourteenth century work out to a yearly average of 9 hours (exclusive of meals and breaktimes)[3].

Life as a Serf in the Middle Ages - Medieval History - See U in History

What was the daily life of the peasants and serfs like?

For peasants, daily medieval life revolved around an agrarian calendar, with the majority of time spent working the land and trying to grow enough food to survive another year. Church feasts marked sowing and reaping days and occasions when peasant and lord could rest from their labors.

How long did peasants work a day?

Peasant in medieval England: eight hours a day, 150 days a year. Life was far from easy for peasants in England in the Middle Ages, but their lot did improve after the Black Death when available land and average wages increased.

Why life as a serf was hard?

Medieval Serf Working Life

The daily life of a medieval serf was quite hard. They commonly had to work for three days every week on the land of their master and usually did ploughing and harvesting.

How did serfs get food?

The serf provided his own food and clothing from his own productive efforts. A substantial proportion of the grain the serf grew on his holding had to be given to his lord. The lord could also compel the serf to cultivate that portion of the lord's land that was not held by other tenants (called demesne land).

Did serfs eat lunch?

A typical noon meal consisted of stew made with cabbage, onions, peas and turnips, seasoned with a bone or perhaps a bit of meat. Male serfs worked in the fields most of the time. However, they were obligated to work part of the time for the lord of the manor.

Do serfs get paid?

The usual serf (not including slaves or cottars) paid his fees and taxes in the form of seasonally appropriate labour. Usually, a portion of the week was devoted to ploughing his lord's fields held in demesne, harvesting crops, digging ditches, repairing fences, and often working in the manor house.

How long did a serf work?

The most important function of serfs was to work on the demesne land of their lord for two or three days each week.

What did peasants do for fun?

Despite not having modern medicine, technology, or science, peasants still had many forms of entertainment: wrestling, shin-kicking, cock-fighting, among others. However, sometimes, entertainment could be certainly weird and downright bizarre.

How many holidays did serfs have?

Schor writes, “All told, holiday leisure time in medieval England took up probably about one-third of the year. And the English were apparently working harder than their neighbors. The ancient règime in France is reported to have guaranteed fifty-two Sundays, ninety rest days, and thirty-eight holidays.

What time did serfs wake?

Although the serfs' The serf daily life starts off by waking up as an early as 3am. After they will eat breakfast, which was usually pottage. Working in the fields was than their main job. This includes reaping, which is cutting crops for harvest, sowing, ploughing, haymaking, threshing, hedging and more.

What do peasants do in the morning?

Peasants would start the day with a small breakfast and proceed to work in the fields or land by sunrise. Breakfast was likely a bowl of thick stew with ingredients like peas, carrots, onions, oats, and herbs, called pottage.

What did peasants do for work?

Most medieval peasants worked in the fields. They did farm-related jobs, such as plowing, sowing, reaping, or threshing.

Did serfs have time off?

There were labor-free Sundays, and when the plowing and harvesting seasons were over, the peasant got time to rest, too. In fact, economist Juliet Shor found that during periods of particularly high wages, such as 14th-century England, peasants might put in no more than 150 days a year.

How did a serf make money?

In most serfdoms, serfs were legally part of the land. If the land was sold, they were sold with it. Serfs worked in their lord's fields. They sometimes did other things related to agriculture, like forestry and transportation (by both land and river).

What does serf mean in slang?

Serf definition

A person in bondage or servitude. noun.

Did peasants drink milk?

Peasants tended to keep cows, so their diets consisted largely of dairy produce such as buttermilk, cheese, or curds and whey. Rich and poor alike ate a dish called pottage, a thick soup containing meat, vegetables, or bran.

Did peasants drink water?

Many books and articles have repeated the notion that water was so polluted during this period that medieval men and women would only drink wine, ale or some other kind of beverage. However, there is plenty of evidence that people regularly drank water.

What clothes did serfs wear?

Most farmers were not free, but rather were serfs. They were required to stay with the land and had to work several days a week for the lord of the manor. There were some free peasants, but most did not leave their lord. Because they were poor, their clothing was usually rough wool or linen.

What does a serfs house look like?

Peasants and Serfs Homes: Peasants homes were usually one room huts, made of logs held together with mud, with thatched roofs. There was a hole in the roof for the smoke to get out so people could cook inside. Homes had little furniture, perhaps a three-legged stool and beds made of straw covered with a leather toss.