The Black Plague
Directions: Read the following article on the origins, spread, and results of the Black Plague.
As you read, use the corresponding organizer you just set up on a piece of paper to record
important information in the correct spot.
Europe During the Black Plague- Imagine living in a European city around the
year 1347. The trouble starts with just one whisper. Someone at the market heard of a sickness in the
Far East that sets your soul on fire until it oozes and bubbles out of you in a thick, black, paste. Surely
these are rumors. And yet the stories become more frequent. Tales of entire cities disappearing; of quick
and certain death. Think of the fear slowly closing in on as you realize this horrible disease is coming
closer and closer to your town, and you have nowhere to run. And then, you see the streets empty.
Then, one body. Two. Three. Twenty-six bodies piled up outside your house in just four days. Soon your
town has more corpses than living people. What was causing this terrible disease? Your classmates
think it must be caused by the positions of the stars! But your parents think it is God's way of punishing
humans for being sinful. Doctors have no idea how to treat the bumps and black spots that ravage
victims' bodies- and the Church offers no answers or comfort, either. Worse yet, people begin to turn
on each other. Parents abandon children; husbands turn their backs on their wives. The streets are once
again crowded but it is not the horses and carriages that busy the streets; it is the rotting departed,
paralyzed in their eternal parade to the afterlife. The smell of rotting flesh and infected bodies is almost
as bad as the sound of the screams from those left behind. Then, one morning you wake up to find a
lump the size of a potato on the back of your neck. You can barely raise your head. It is only a matter of
days before your body cannot take anymore. No one is there to remove your body, so you begin to
decompose right there in the bed that you once slept in. The Black Death has won another victim.
The symptoms of the Black Death were gruesome: Tumors covered the body -- some of
them as big as an egg or apple. Purplish splotches also covered the body. Writers tell us that
fevers resulted in crazy behavior -- madmen wandered the streets, shouting wildly. The sick
threw up constantly or coughed up blood. Pus and blood oozed from sores. Once the symptoms
started to appear, the victim was a ticking time bomb and died within days. No one knew what
to do. There wasn't enough space in the graveyards, so the bloated bodies were left in the street
or dumped in rivers. Dogs ate corpses while babies cried hungrily beside their dead mothers.
When all was said and done, about 25 million people died in the epidemic, approximately onethird of Europe's population at the time.
How did the Black Death spread? - The Black
Death moved through Europe astonishingly fast. Take a look
at some of the stops on its path. From Central Asia, the disease
moved along the Silk Road. In 1347, Kaffa, a town in modernday Ukraine that was a trading post, came under attack by a
Mongolian army. When the Mongolians were killed by the
plague, the people of Kaffa at first rejoiced: God had answered
their prayers and punished their enemy. But that celebration
ended when the Mongolians began launching the corpses of
plague victims over the walls of the city, hoping that the smell
of rot would kill everyone in town. The smell didn't kill the
people of Kaffa, of course, but the disease did. Eventually, the
people of Kaffa fled by ship to Sicily, taking the deadly disease
with them to Europe. Once it hit Europe, the Black Death
moved fast, traveling at an average speed of 2.5 miles per day.
From the Mediterranean ports, the disease took two paths: one
through France that eventually made its way to England and
Ireland, and one through Italy that went to Austria and
Germany.
The Black Plague
Written accounts state that the disease was very contagious, and that death occurred
only a few days after symptoms appeared. Other than this, people seemed to have no idea what
was happening. Many felt that God was punishing the earth and that the end of the world was
near. Some believed that Jews were contaminating the water supply. Many doctors believed
that Jupiter, a wet and hot planet, soaked up evil vapors from Earth. And Mars, a dry planet,
ignited the vapors and spread them through the air, which is how Europe got enveloped in a
fog of death. Interesting -- a fog of death. So, how do you cure a fog of death? And how do you
protect yourself from catching it?
Reactions to the Black Death- Because the doctors blamed the Black Death on
an evil, polluted fog, most recommendations to prevent the fever involved avoiding this air.
Fires were a popular method of warding off evil air. Fires were burned at street corners; even
the pope sat between two large fires. People were urged to burn aromatic woods, but other
scents would do as well, including rosemary and fragrant flowers. When they walked, people
took their scents with them, carrying packets of herbs. Some plague-proofed their homes by
putting glazes over the southern windows to block the polluted southern wind. People were
advised not to eat meat and to avoid activities that would open the pores to evil air, including
bathing and exercising. Stranger recommendations circulated as well, including not sleeping
during the daytime and avoiding sad thoughts about death and disease.
Most medieval cures involved bloodletting, which was an attempt to draw poison out of
the body by making someone bleed. And we know some doctors tried to pop and drain the
buboes, or the bumps that would appear on sick people. But many people instead turned to the
church for a cure, praying that God would end the great plague. Religious reactions took two
extreme forms: the rise of the flagellants and the persecution of Jews. The Brotherhood of the
Flagellants had appeared earlier in Europe, but rose up in great numbers in Germany in late
1348. They believed the Black Death was the punishment of God and took it upon themselves
to try to please him. The Flagellants marched barefoot throughout Europe, whipping
themselves with scourges, or sticks with spiked tails. Huge crowds gathered to watch the ritual
beatings, complete with songs and prayers for God's forgiveness. The Flagellants were also
anti-Semitic, but they weren't the only ones. While anti-Semitism was already on the rise in
Europe, it reached a fever pitch when many came to believe that Jews were poisoning the wells
and causing the Black Death. Christians burned Jews at the stake or set buildings filled with
entire communities on fire. Some Jews responded by setting their own homes on fire before the
angry mobs did it for them. Others converted to Christianity on the spot to save themselves.
While the attacks on Jews were widespread throughout Europe, some of the highest casualties
were in Germany. Few Jews were left in that country by the time the plague ended.
Effects of the Black Death- By 1352, the Plague had loosened its grip. Europe's
population had been hard hit, which had an economic impact. The workforce had been
destroyed -- farms were abandoned and buildings crumbled. The price of labor skyrocketed in
the face of worker shortage, and the cost of goods rose. The price of food, though, didn't go up,
perhaps because the population had declined so much. The Black Death did set the stage for
more modern medicine and spurred changes in public health and hospital management.
Frustrated with Black Death diagnoses that revolved around astrology and superstition,
educators began placing greater emphasis on clinical medicine, based on physical science.