Bubonic Plague Essays: The Light Of The Black Death

The Light of the Black Death

The Black Death, a pestilence of despair and darkness, ravaged Western Europe from 1348-1350. The Black Death is also known as the “Black Plague” or “Bubonic Plague”, as the main symptoms of the plague were the blackening of the buboes, or, bubbles on the skin. However, despite all the dark thoughts, there was a revolution within the plague that gave Medieval Europe hope for a better future. This was due to the fact that the Black Death affected the society of the time in numerous ways. It changed things religiously, economically, socially, and scientifically. The feudal system suffered, the middle class grew, as did the economy. Likewise the plague also had a powerful effect on the worlds of science and medicine.
Most infected civilians lasted anywhere from a short twenty-four hours, to the two day mark. “There were so many dead that Londoners had to dig mass graves (large trenches for many bodies)” (Britannica 450). The cities reeked of death and rot from the decomposing corpses left on doorsteps to be picked up and buried by the unlucky few designated with the task. “So many were dead that new jobs for the living were created to pick up the dead” (Thompson 22). The Plague era was a mentally traumatizing time for the citizens and it showed, “many were reported as “possessed” as time progressed on, paintings especially depict the abuse of said people” (Perry 345-46) Whole villages faced starvation and food shortages, not even the surrounding towns had enough food to give out of pity. Crops died due to lack of attention and bad conditions, along with most agriculture. The lords who lost their man power to the disease lost most of their farming and suffered economically. The loss of workers severely affected all parties in the Western European culture. Inflation in living costs and made everyone’s life harder, along with the plague ravaging on, by 1349, most business had suffered to death, and the feudal system had no peasants to support the hierarchy. The Black Death of 1348 was undeniably a tragedy that affected the daily lives of Western Europe civilians to such an extent, that it changed the ritual ways of
These realizations resulted in massive shifts in societal actions and perspectives. “The Black Plague also had drastic effects on the economy during the Late Middle Ages. With the drastic population decrease, the production of food and goods also decreased. This allowed peasant farmers to demand higher wages and increase the prices of their products. Likewise, skilled workers could charge more money, since they no longer has as much competition assuming there was work” (Perry 317). This allowed the economy to grow and flourish after such desolate times and led to the fall of the Feudal