His Paper

THE BLACK DEATH

Kaitlin McGoldrick
Western Civilization I
October 7th, 2012

During the 1300s, a plague epidemic swept through Europe ruining everything in its path. Not a soul knew this horrible disease was about to turn their world upside down, but when it did there was no turning back. There was no getting back to their normal lives when this disaster hit. To me this is one, if not the most, terrible plague epidemics to hit the European countries. This horrible epidemic was called the Black Death. Researchers have spent decades studying and searching for answers. One answer they came to find was that this exact plague alone was responsible for killing over a third of the population. Europeans all over reacted and responded in so many different ways. Most did not know how to take the fact that their lives will never be the same after this pandemic swept through, and then some considered this a new beginning, a way to start over fresh and change their lives around. To understand the Black Death a little more, one might need background information. The name “Black Death” is a recent name that was recently given to this horrible epidemic. The original names for the Black Death were “The Great Mortality” or “The Pestilence.” The name “The Black Death” came from a mistranslation of the Latin word ‘atra’ meaning both ‘terrible’ and ‘black’[1]. Around October 1347 the Black Death reached Europe in Caffa and Constantinople parts of the Black Sea. Citizens that were waiting on 12 Genoese trading ships, which were to be docked at the port, first discovered the disease. To the citizens surprise most of the men on the ships were dead, and those that were still alive were deathly ill. The men were told to be suffering with a high fever, unable to eat and what they could keep down they threw it back up. They were delirious from all the pain and suffering, and scariest of all they were all covered in mysterious black boils that had blood and pus oozing out of them on their necks, in their armpits, and in their groin area. They soon worsened and began coughing up blood, and the ones that were alive died within the next few days.[2] Thinking that if they sent the ships back out to harbor the rest of the citizens would be safe from this horrific plague, but little did they know it was too late.[3] Over the next two to three years the plague spread rapidly all over Europe. Before the Black Death hit the population during the early 1300s was approximately 70-100 million, but the after affect is extremely shocking. We are led to think that the plague caused around 25-60 million European deaths alone. This is not including all that was killed in the east where the disease first started. In my own personal opinion if I was a historian I would have to research why the sick people were sent back to sea after having citizens in contact with them. You would think that they would at least try to help, and maybe try to find cures. But I could also see it from the people’s perspectives, I would not want to be getting in contact with these sick men if I knew there was a possible chance I could lose my life. I do not think that people during this time period had the capability to think about the outcome. The outcome being you have already been in contact with these ill men, and not only are you at risk of getting deathly sick, but you’re at risk of putting tons of other people in the same position. Before they knew it the disease was spreading like wildfire, and the people had no idea what to think. The healthiest people could go to bed at night thinking that they were going to wake up and be just fine, but most of them never even had the chance to wake up. They soon realized that sending those ships back out to sea did not help them at all. People were dying off left and right and no one seemed to know why. No one, not even the doctors during this time could figure out why this was happening. Eventually, the doctors came to the conclusion that the reason everyone was getting sick and dying was a punishment, and they thought that it was a punishment from God. The doctors and the people started to believe that God was punishing them all for the sins that they had committed.[4] Logically, we know today that the theory of “God’s punishment” was not the reason that all those people were getting sick and dying. Some people even blamed the Jews for causing the plague; they thought that they were trying to destroy Christians, even though the Jews just like the Muslims and any other race were dying of the disease. The Jews themselves were accused of poisoning the Christians wells, and this convinced the Christians that this was the reason they were sick. There was no possible way for them to have caused this, but the Christians did not believe that and ended up just killing in large numbers without a second thought. The bottom line with the Jews was that no matter how insane the situation might have seemed to them, they were still being treated horribly and killed. Then there were some Europeans that had themselves and other convinced that the alignment of the planets caused the outbreak. The bottom line was that no one during this time was equipped enough to deal with such a terrible outbreak. There was more to it, and it took a while for them to realize it. In the beginning when the ships were docked at the Sicilian port with all the sick men on it, they not only brought back sick men but they brought back with them the reason all the people with severely sick and dying. To the men on board it was not an unusual passenger on ships, it was the black rat; also known as the ship rat. Thinking nothing of it, the human passengers on the ship just let it go and thought nothing of it. They knew that this “harmless” rat was not going to bother them. But little did they know it was not the rats that were about to turn their world and the rest of Europe’s upside down. They rats had fleas on them that the sailors were not aware of. These fleas had a bacteria in them that stopped their stomach’s up and every time the flea would go to eat it would regurgitate the bacteria right back onto the body that it was feeding on. The bacteria were known as Yersinia pestis or Y pestis. The flea would use the rat as a host to live off of. In this case it wasn’t necessarily the rat that was causing the plague. The fleabite would kill the rat and lay their eggs within the fur of the dad rodent. Therefore the fleas multiplied in millions, and they began to not only use rats as hosts, but humans as well. The Y Pestis was known to manifest three different types of plagues: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemia. They each showed different symptoms even though they each originated from the same type of bacteria that came from the flea itself.[5] They each begin with the simple fleabite, but formed into different situations. If you were one of the people that had the Bubonic plague then unlike the others you might have been a one of the more lucky ones. Over the course of six days you would begin to get the boils in the areas mentioned above, along with a fever, chills, and delirium. Chances of you surviving from the Bubonic plague was higher then any of the others. The second type of plague that the bite could cause was Pneumonic plague this was a little more serious then the Bubonic plague. In this case the bacteria could enter the lungs and cause internal problems. The person affected by this would soon begin to cough up blood, and also could experience the symptoms that a person with the Bubonic plague would face as well. Death for these victims was a lot sooner then a week or so, it was more like within the next 48 hours. The last and most definitely the worse type one could come down with was the Septicemic plague, this one was not as common but it was still an issue. The bite itself would cause the bacteria to go straight to the blood. Having infected blood is one of the most dangerous things possible. People that would come down with this type were dead within in the next 24 hours. All three types of plagues were dangerous and no one wanted to be affected by any of them. It really did not matter which one you contracted you could have been dead the next day. Who would have ever thought that a small insect, one that is so hard to see could cause such a large epidemic, and kill as many people as it did? A large amount of people lost so many others that were close to them. If you were a child during this time and was lucky enough to have survived the plague or not have contracted it at all, you would have most likely lost one, if not both of your parents. Same for if you were a parent and had children, you would have been lucky to have at least one of your children still alive when this epidemic was over. There eventually was so many deaths that Europe had no idea what they were going to do with all the dead bodies. People were dying in large amounts. As stated in the beginning over one third of Europe’s population was killed, and many were left extremely unhealthy and sick for long periods of time. After so many contracting the plague and so many dying from it at the same time, they eventually just ended up digging big holes in the ground and they would throw the bodies in there. If you were poor during that time period you were one of the first ones to go into the hole, and then they would basically take the dirt that was dug up to make the hole and cover you up with it. In some occasions dogs would dig you up and just drag the dead carcass around town.[6] Because mostly everyone was sick during this time they lacked workers to help them get rid of the bodies. Most of the time if you had gotten a little better from being sick you were either forced to help or one might have volunteered to help burry the bodies. If you were well, you were told to keep as far away as possible. They believed that once you had already contracted the disease you were immune and you could not get it again. In the midst of this terrible epidemic each European had their own way of taking in things. Most Europeans did not know how to act during this time. Lots of them were still convinced that this was God’s way of punishing them, so they prayed. They thought in their minds that if God could bring this upon them; he could easily take it away. To them they believed that praying was the only option they had. But then just like in any situation you had the other group, opposite then the ones talked about above. Large amount of Europeans rebelled. They picked the weakest time to do some of the most terrible things. Prostitution, gambling, rape, violence, and other major sins became an issue. We are led to think that the Europeans that rebelled figured while everyone is at the weakest point in their lives, it was their chance to get away with anything; and in most cases, they did. If they were to get questioned about their actions they would simply blame it on God’s wrath. In the end they all begin to question God’s existence, they could not believe that the man that was supposed to protect them and take care of them would bring such a horrible situation upon them. Most started questioning the churches, they did not know how the people that lived so right and have done all the right things could be dying like they were. This caused a small turn out within the churches. It seemed that everyone soon began to rebel against something. Therefore like in many other situations like this one, along with the rebellions and the deaths came lost of consequences.

Due to all the deaths and all the rebellions that the plague caused there was lot of consequences to go with it, consequences that changed the medieval society forever. There were economical consequences, political and social consequences, and of course spiritual consequences. The society itself never recovered from all the problems, but some of these consequences could have helped more then making things worse. Because of all the deaths that the horrible plague caused the population of course dropped in great numbers. This caused a low amount of laborers within the workforce. Therefore the wages and the prices rose. This was not only an economical consequence but a social consequence as well. Having the wages raised for the work that was being done caused the peasants to gain some political power and move up in society. This was because they really did not have anyone else to do the work, so they were forced to pay a good amount to the ones that could do the work. There were cases when the government tried to freeze wages or keep them lower, but that ended up in another rebellion by the peasants. This was a boost for the peasants like stated above, this was another way for them to get to start their lives over and live it a little better then before. Another economical consequence had to do with the drop in the population as well. Because of all the deaths the land of the deceased eventually grew up and given over to pasturing or the land that the people could not keep up with due to lack of help was also given to pasturing. This helped out with the cloth and wool industry. This also caused more jobs for the peasants, and really benefited them. It was not only economical consequences that changed society, but religion and society itself caused consequences. I talked about before there became less and less people that believed in God. They all began questioning God and the fact that this disease killed so many people. They had no idea why any of their prayers for healthiness and other requests had not been answered. For the most part there became more and more people relying on individual religions and spirituality. They thought that they made it through this epidemic without God that they could basically go through life without him. They turned against churches and God to seek another being that had helped them get through. In the end all Europeans lived in fear that they would be hit by another horrible plague like the one that killed many. Due to the Black Death European society was never the same. This epidemic caused so many problems within society and made most Europeans have second thoughts about the way they were living life and who they were putting trust in. Not many Europeans knew how to react to such a horrible incident. The ones that were lucky enough to survive had a insane story to tell their up coming families. But for the ones that had to suffer the horrible plague itself was unlucky and unfortunate. The Black Death was such a terrible disease it caused way to many problem within Europe and hopefully now that the world has advanced in modern science and medicine no one will ever have to go through the horrible experience that the Europeans did in the 1300s.

Bibliography

Benedictow, Ole J. “The Black Death” History Today 55.3 (2005): 42-49

Black Death,” The History Channel Website,

Mee, Charles L., Jr. "How a Mysterious Disease Laid Low Europe 's Masses." The Earliest Civilizations Through the Reformation. Ed. Robert L. Lembright. 16th ed. Vol. 1. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Contemporary Learning Series, 2012. 119-23. Print. Western Civilization.

Rosenhek, Jackie. "Doctors of the Black Death." Doctor 's Review. N.p., Oct. 2011. Web. . .

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[1] Benedictow, Ole J. “The Black Death” History Today 55.3 (2005): 42-49
[2] “Black Death,” The History Channel Website, http://www.history.com/topics/black-death
[3] “Black Death,” The History Channel Website, http://www.history.com/topics/black-death
[4] Ibid, “The History Channel Website”
[5] Mee, Charles L., Jr. "How a Mysterious Disease Laid Low Europe 's Masses." The Earliest Civilizations Through the Reformation. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill (119-123)
[6] Benedictow, Ole J. “The Black Death” History Today 55.3 (2005):42-49

Bibliography: Benedictow, Ole J. “The Black Death” History Today 55.3 (2005): 42-49 Rosenhek, Jackie. "Doctors of the Black Death." Doctor 's Review. N.p., Oct. 2011. Web. . [6] Benedictow, Ole J. “The Black Death” History Today 55.3 (2005):42-49