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Remember
This homework can
NOT be revised
This homework is worth
4% of you final semester grade.
HALF OF YOUR GRADE WILL BE YOUR PARTICIPATION
IN THE ON-LINE DISCUSSION OF THE document , AND HALF WILL BE
THE FINAL PARAGRAPH YOU PRODUCE
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Timing
This homework should take you 1 hour and 55 minutes
to do: 10 minutes to learn the software and register/login with
the system, 50 minutes to read the discussion and make your
8 required comments and another 45 minutes to write the paragrah. |
 This
assignment requires submitting a certain number of comments to
a discussion board (explained below) by certain dates. Pay attention
to these dates:
By Tuesday, 2/17 8:00 PM: At least 4 comments
Between 2/17 and 2/19 @ 10:00 PM: At least 4 additional comments
Paragraph: class time 2/23 by blackboard and can NOT be turned
in late |
This assignment
replicates on-line an activity you've may have done in small groups
in a classroom: working with classmates to analyze a document .
In order that you can work with your classmates on-line (but not
necessarily at the same time), you will need to use a software application
know as HYLIGHTER.
So, first we have
to get you registered on HYLIGHTER.
HYLIGHTER
WORKS BEST IF YOU USE MOZILLA/FIREFOX AS YOUR BROWSER
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I.
Go to http://www.hylighter.com/edu
Once there, look for the prompt "Don't have an account? Click
here to register"
II.
On
the register page and fill in required fields. Enter your JOHN
JAY e-mail address as your username.
BE
ABSOLUTELY SURE TO CHOOSE "INVITEE STATUS" (see RED ARROW)
| YOU
MUST USE YOUR JJ E-MAIL ADDRESS AS YOUR USERNAME |
III.
Once you have registered successfully, log-in. You will see "Black
Death Document" -- choose it.
IV.
(the document
referred to below appears at the end of the assignment)
This assignment consists of two tasks:
Task 1) Understand what the document can
(and can not) tell us about what was happening at the time it was
written. This task you will do as a group using the hyligher.com software
application. Details below.
Task 2) Apply
that understanding to answer the question “How can evidence
in the document be interpreted to demonstrate
the economic impact of the Black Death on Europe.”
This task you will do individually, submitting your response to me
by blackboard
on 2/17.
Details below.
TASK 1
(UNDERSTANDING THE DOCUMENT
)
This first task
requires that your group have good answers to the questions in the
grey box below. In your group, you should collectively come up with
answers to these questions. To do so, you will use the hylighter.com
software. Using hylighter.com, highlight the phrases in the document
that you think answers one of the questions and explain why you think
that phrase (or phrases) does so. You don’t need to submit a
formal response to the questions – but your discussion on hylighter.com
should, in effect, be the answer to these questions.
1.)
half
of your grade for this assignment depends on the quality of
your comments. Making a new insight in your comment counts far
more than simply saying “I agree with Juan.”
.
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| Questions
for Understanding the document
(when making
comments on hylighter.com, you might want to reference these
questions by letter)
A) What specific requirements does the law place upon the population?
Read the whole law before coming to a conclusion.
B) The law
mentions the plague ('pestilence') in the first paragraph. What
does the document say about the connection
between the plague and the problems the law is supposed to correct
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in mind that if the supply of something (or labor) goes
down, its price usually goes up. So, when would you rather
look for work? When there are lots of other people looking
for work or when there was a shortage of potential employees? |
C) Time
is important for one of the requirements the law places upon
commoners; look at this map and
the date of the document
(keep in mind the law was issued in London). Why did this
law appear when it did? What would be significant for the writers
of the law about “some other appropriate year five or
six years ago”?
D) According to the document, who was to be responsible for
enforcing the law?
E) What changes in society does the law reflect? In other words,
in what ways does the law suggest that life is different in
England as a result of the Black Death?
F) In what ways does the law attempt to prevent changes in society?
(think about your answers to “A” and “C”
above) In other words, what does the law seek to restore from
an earlier period?
G) Since the law was issued by the King of England, we can assume
the law reflects the thinking of elites – including their
biases. How might elites view efforts by the poor to improve
their circumstances? Do you see any evidence of elite judgments
against the poor? Look for words that reveal or suggest the
attitude of the nobility toward commoners. Be sure not to
adopt as your own the bias of the elites when writing your answer.
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TASK 2 (Answering the Essay Question)
Paragraph:
due 2/23 by blackboard
THIS
ASSIGNMENT SHOULD BE NAMED:
hussein_sa_6.doc
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In a paragraph of carefully written prose answer the following
question:
How can the evidence from the document
be interpreted to demonstrate the economic impact of
the Black Death on Europe?
Organize your paragraphs around the familiar cl/ev/wa structure. Be
sure to identify each element.
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Hints:
1) Be sure that your claim is an analysis of the document that
responds to the question, NOT a
summary of the evidence/document itself. (it rained last night
= an analysis/claim; the streets are wet = evidence)
2) Keep in mind that if the supply of something (or labor) goes
down, its price usually goes up. So, when would you rather look
for work? When there are lots of other people looking for work
or when there was a shortage of potential employees?
3) Your
response should specify which aspect of the Black Death
produced which impact on the economy for which
reason. So you might want start your response with something
on the order of:
"Aspect
X of the Black Death produced Change Y in Europe's
economy for Reason Z. We can see evidence of this dynamic
in a law passed in 1349...."
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| Document
18 June
1349.
Since a great part of the population, and especially workers
and employees, has now died in this pestilence many people,
observing the needs of masters and the shortage of employees,
are refusing to work unless they are paid an excessive salary.
Others prefer to beg in idleness rather than work for their
living. Mindful of the serious inconvenience likely to arise
from this shortage, especially of agricultural labourers, we
have discussed and considered the matter with our prelates [high-ranking
member of the clergy] and nobles and other learned men and,
with their unanimous advice, we have ordained that every man
or woman in our realm of England, whether free or unfree, who
is physically fit and below the age of sixty, not living by
trade or by exercising a particular craft, and not having private
means or land of their own upon which they need to work, and
not working for someone else, shall, if offered employment consonant
with their status, be obliged to accept the employment offered,
and they should be paid only the fees, liveries, payments, or
salaries which were usually paid in the part of the country
where they are working in the twentieth year of our reign [1346]
or in some other appropriate year five or six years ago. Lords
should have first claim on the services of their villeins or
tenants, although they should retain only as many as they need
and no more.
And if any man or woman, being required to enter employment
in this manner, refuses, and the fact has been proved by two
men of legal standing before the sheriff, bailiff or constable
of the vill(age) where the incident took place, then let the
person be immediately arrested by them or one of them and sent
to the nearest (jail), there to remain in close captivity until
they offer security that they will accept employment under these
conditions.
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