The Black Death: A Plague with No Mercy
Many have heard of the great plague or black death; however, most do not know the true horror that surrounded it at the time. In 1346, the second known pandemic, The Black Plague, began and by the time it was through in 1353, 80-100 million people had been victim to it. In this paper, societal factors as well as responses and effects will be examined. In addition to the historical aspects, the effects of the Black Death will be examined and applied in today’s light.
As for societal factors that contributed to the epidemic, war and famine contributed to its spread. Since agriculture could not keep up with an increase in population as well as cold winters and rainy summers. As a result, poverty and famine occurred and people living in filthy overcrowded cities were perfect catalysts for the spread of a pandemic. As for war, since rats were carrying the plague, soldiers traveling on rat infested ships from country to country were becoming infected and spreading it wherever they went.
Responses to the initial spread of the black death were similar to how they tend to be today. At first people thought nothing of it and considered themselves safe. However, as soon as people realized the true severity of it, responses ranged all over the place. Since the time period was the 1300s and people were very religious, people assumed it was a big sin to blame for the pandemic. As a response, people started becoming as pure as possible and cleaning things up (no prostitutes, no swearing, etc.). More so, people would whip and murder themselves and each other to try and imitate Christ’s suffering as a sacrifice for an end to this big sin, or the plague. Outside of religion, some turned to men of medicine, which, in retrospect, was completely unsuccessful. As the film showed, even the most “successful” doctors of the time had no idea what he was dealing with. Doctors alike turned to obscene methods such as bloodletting with leaches as well as strange oils and clothes to cure the infected. People soon realized this was of no use. One final method used as a reaction to the plague was quarantine. In reality, had quarantine been used successfully, it would have worked. However, there was never true quarantine since many people still entered and exited areas once infected, continuing to spread the plague.
The overall effects of the black plague were an obscene decrease in the population at the time. Aside from that, the impact it had on society was a huge amount of fear, and in turn discrimination. Since many people turned to religion and medicine, both which produced no results, they were becoming fearful. Due to this fear, they began to blame the plague on certain groups of people such as the Jews or Christians. Depending on the location of the plague and therefore the cultural minority, one or the other would be blamed.
Relating the black plague to today, we now have a better idea on plague transmission. Knowing that the Bubonic plague was transmitted through a zoonotic source (rats) we can expect that today in other animals as well. More so, knowing that the pneumonic plague was transmitted through bloody spit, we can now better prepare for diseases spreading from the immune system. Knowing both these transmitters, we can prepare accordingly in our society to both sources.
Many people don’t know the plague re-emerged in Madagascar in the 1900’s and reached epidemic levels after 2009. Social factors that were involved in this re-emergence were rural houses being infected with many contagious rodents like prairie dogs, squirrels, mice, and rats. In addition to these vectors, domesticated animals such as dogs and cats, can also be to blame for spreading this. In Madagascar, they experienced a fatality rate of 23% for the pneumonic plague.
References
Sherman, I.W. (2017). The Power of Plagues (2nded.). Washington, D.C.: ASM Press.
PowerPoint: The Price of Being Sedentary
In class handouts