afflict vs hardship

afflict

verb
  • To cause (someone) pain, suffering or distress. 

hardship

verb
  • To treat (a person) badly; to subject to hardships. 

noun
  • Difficulty or trouble; hard times. 

  • A burden, a source of difficulty that could impose a barrier. 

How often have the words afflict and hardship occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )