Devastation of the Black Death

Monte’ Atkinson
English 112-07
Ms. Suchanec
26 April 2013
Rough Draft The Black Death was undoubtedly one of the most devastating diseases that occurred during the middle ages. The Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague, was s worldwide epidemic that caused the death of more than 20 million people throughout Europe. The plague killed over a third of the entire population. However, I will include two book sources and two articles. Authors Jerrold Atlas, Barbara Tuchman, Graham Twigg, and Jill Claster will break down the plague piece by piece. It has been described as the worst natural disaster in European history. The Bubonic Plague scattered rapidly causing outbreaks in the economy, social structure, and both rural and urban areas. The Bubonic Plague or otherwise known as the Black Plague spread extremely fast by both humans and animals. There was great population loss. A third of the population of Europe died from the outbreak. In many European cities population had descended up to 50 percent or more. In 1346, rumors of a plague that started in China and spreaded throughout Asia, Persia, Syria, Egypt, and India reached Europe causing India to depopulate. The Bubonic Plague is carried by black rats and spread by humans by the fleas that infested them. Humans carried this disease, so this gave them the opportunity to pass the infected disease through the air. “Dogs and cats fell like the rest” showing how the plague killed everything and was not restricted to humans (Tuchman 688). The rapidity of the disease spreaded and the lack of reports of numerous dead black rats suggested that other diseases may also have been occurred (Atlas 250). These animals have fleas that are infected with the plague bacteria. People may get exposed to the bacteria from flea bites or from direct contact with an infected animal. As a result of the Black Death, the plague that afflicted Europe in 13-49, as many as half the population died and less than half the work force remained in certain cities. During the 13th century, winters were very harsh with reduced of harvests. New technological, such as, the heavy plough and the three-field system were not as effective in clearing new fields for harvest. Food shortages and inflating prices were a fact of life for as much as a century before the plague. The poor lived not in hovels (A small, miserable dwelling), but in tall stone buildings which were terribly over crowed. They slept on straw pallets with a log for a pillow. Many people lived in dirty unhealthy conditions without clean water, bathrooms. The most likely people to catch the plague were these people, who live in poor areas of large towns. Most major cities were quickly forced to dig hundreds of graveyards where the dead could be buried. Many towns and villages lost almost their populations and some were completely wiped out. Survivors from the villages and towns would run away to other regions, spreading the disease even further. Larger towns fell drastically as their workforces and merchant classes either died or fled. Urban populations recovered quickly, in some cases within a couple of years, through immigration from the countryside because of increased opportunities in the cities. Rural population though, recovered itself slowly, for peasants left their farms for the cities (Twigg 55). When a person becomes infected with the bacteria that cause Bubonic Plague, the bacteria begin to multiply within the lymph system. After two to six days, symptoms can occur, such as, appearances of buboes in the groin, vomiting, headaches, fevers, and rashes. “The symptoms were not the same as in the East, where a gush of blood from the nose was the plain sign of inevitable death; but it began both in men and women with certain swellings in the groin or under the armpit. They grew to the size of a small apple or an egg, more or less, and were vulgarly called tumors. In a short space of time these tumors spread from the two parts named all over the body. Soon after this the symptoms changed and black or purple spots appeared on the arms or thighs or any other part of the body, sometimes a few large ones, sometimes many little ones. These spots were a certain sign of death, just as the original tumor had been and still remained (Tuchman 683).” “Depression and despair accompanied the physical symptoms and before the end death is seated on the face” showing how people would get defeated by the disease mentally and physically, so they knew they would die (Tuchman 683). The formation of buboes was normally preceded by fever, chills, and general muscle aches. Internal bleeding in the later stages formed the black spots/boils under the skin, from hemorrhaging, that gave it the name Black Death. Death was normally occurred about a week from infection. The Bubonic Plague also had devastating effects on the economy during the Late Middle Ages. With the drastic population decrease, the production of food and goods also decreased. This allowed peasants farmers to demand high wages and increase the prices of their produce. People abandoned their friends and family, fled cities, and shut themselves off from the world. “Some felt that the wrath of God was descending upon man and so fought the plague with prayer.” The economy underwent low and extreme inflations. Even the church made huge profits by forcing fees on funeral services that were in high demand at the time. The upper class were the ones who suffered the most because they were the ones who owned huge farmlands and they were forced to pay higher wages and prices on everything that came across to them. The ultimate effect of the Black Death was to change the economy from self-regulating to government controlled, even if the government could not enforce the laws effectively. Suddenly, workers and their goods were in better position for negotiation. “The economic performance, was … profoundly altered in this period (Twigg 171)”. The Black Death affected religion in numerous ways. New religions formed, such as, the Flagellants in Europe. “The Flagellants believed that the Black Death was a punishment from God and sought to get back into His good graces by harming themselves, in the form of whipping to represent Jesus suffering (Claster 330).” Some upper class men joined flagellant groups that traveled from town to town and engaged in public displays of penance and punishment. They would beat each other with leather straps while the town’s people looked on. “For 33 days, the flagellants repeated this ritual three times a day, and then they would move on to the next town and begin the process over again (Atlas 255).” Several classes of antibiotics are effective in treating Bubonic Plague. People potentially infected with the plague needed immediate treatment and should be given antibiotics within 24 hours to prevent death. Individuals who are suspected of being exposed to plague should be treated immediately. The plague held a massive mortality rate between 30 and 40 percent. Victims and doctors had no idea what had caused this disease. “Patients who are suspected of being exposed to plague should be treated immediately with Streptomycin, Gentamicin, and Chloramphenicol, Tetracycline, or Fluor quinolones (Claster 528).” In conclusion, the social, economic, and psychological consequences of the Black Death were devastating and widespread for the European society during the Late Middle Ages. For instance, social mobility was rampant, the economy was crumbling especially for the lower and middle classes, and the psychological instabilities resulted with mass depression, shock, and panic. However, the Renaissance showed significant advances despite the impact of the Bubonic Plague. For example, the healing public had a more optimistic viewpoint on life, believed in individual importance, and pushed for a secular philosophy in politics and life.