How Did The Black Death Affect The Western World

The Black Death is one of the common names for the horrendous plague that swept through most of Europe in the 14th century AD. It is a common belief that this disease was carried by rats and transmitted from person to person by being in close proximity to an individual who was infected by this deadly plague. Millions of Europeans were affected during this troublesome time and the epidemic left Europe drastically changed. The Black Death had a lasting effect on the Western world and created hardships for the people who survived the aftermath of this horrible illness that swept the continent.
In his book, The Burdens of Disease: Epidemics and Human Response in Western History, J. N. Hays expresses that the Black Death was one of the most severe
Many, if not most of the families that remained were broken. Because so many lives were lost during the plague, it can be assumed, as Dyer argues, that each family had lost at least one member to the Black Death. Many other families came near to the point of being eradicated entirely leaving only a few to stay behind to bury their loved ones. Burying the dead became the primary task of those who had survived. There are records of survivors and their surprising organization, order and display of their ability to cope amid the trials they were facing. New cemeteries with communal graves were opened because there were so many bodies for those left behind to bury. There are individuals who argue that some people survived the Black Death because they became immune and adapted to the plague, thus not becoming ill. This notion that the plague did not have an effect on them is argued particularly in an article by Samuel K. Cohn. Another trial that the survivors of the epidemic endured was the struggle of landowners because they had lost many of their workers to the Black Death, leaving them under-staffed and facing a decrease in the value of their goods because there was less demand for their produce and crops. The decrease in the value of goods made land less expensive for peasants who had previously not been able to afford land, increased the wages for peasants, and decreased the need to meet the traditional requirements to work in certain jobs, so more of the peasants who had previously had less desirable jobs could work in better occupations therefore allowing them to create better lives for themselves than prior to the plague’s spread in the years of 1347 –