Ahliyah Williams

Dr. Hinks 

Fri July 5

Help Received: Ahliyah Williams References

 

“In The Wake of The Plague”

 

Plague (/plãg) defined as a contagious bacterial disease characterized by fever and delirium. Cases of plagues go as far back as in Egypt in the story of Exodus. The most historical and known plague to the knowledge of humans was the Black Death. Plagues are usually contracted from a rodent or flea. It can be contracted by bites or even feces from the animals. The plague can be both caught very easily and treated if detected early. The Black Death is one of the most known plagues go in the books as the deadliest and most devastating plagues in European history. 

 

How was life before the Black Death? Life was full of sin and the economics was at an all-time low. No one had no idea that death was literally creeping at everyone’s door. Dr. Ibeji stated, “Life in Britain in the fourteenth century was ‘nasty, brutish and short’, and it had been that way for the peasantry since long before the Black Death”. Before the deadliest plague, life for Europeans in the early 14th century was what I would say was uncivilized. Overpopulated and sickly, the lower class population was most affected by the plague due to unsanitary living conditions and overpopulation in one place. It did not just affect the poor though. The Black Death had no preference and affected even people of royalty. One example was the Queen of England, Joan. 

 

What caused the Black Death? People had many theories of what caused the Black Death. One of the theories being that people believed God was getting back at the people who acted upon sin, which during that time everyone sinned greatly. Another theory was the case of the Plague at the Siege of Caffa in 1346. The Mongols threw infected dead bodies over large walls to the Europeans which caused the spread of the plague. The real scientific causes of the Black Death was a bacterial disease spread from fleas and transmitted by rats to humans. Ships carrying cargo also carry rats not only infecting people on board, but also the people in the places that the ships stopped at. The Black Death was also known as the Bubonic Plague because it left black bobos on people infected. 

 

The plague had a huge effect on society and changed even how life is now in some ways. People had to change the way that they considered life. Loved ones affected by the plague were abandoned by their family because of the fear of the healthy family getting the plague. Priests stop seeing and praying for sick people and many people lost their faith. Money became a huge advantage for people because people with money were able to flee from infected places while the poor stayed and died. People were known to try to cover up the smell of death by with anything they could find. Piling bodies on bodies, 60 percent of Europe’s population died from the plague, more than the three world wars combined. New trade routes and an emerging economy are two ways that can influence the spread of another infectious disease.

 

In conclusion, the black plague was an Ebola- like- virus with because of the speed that it spread. The plague isn’t a newly introduced disease. Being seen in ancient Egypt. Life before the Black Death was full of sins and unsanitary conditions. Sin believed to be one of the causes of the Black Death from Gods raft. Unsanitary conditions were actually the real cause of the spread of the Black Death. Historical events such as the Plague at the Siege of Caffa was another theory to how the Black Death. There have been multiple plagues, but the Black Death was the deadliest plague known to this day. No one is sure if a Black Death type plague will come back in this modern era, but with the more knowledge that we learn about the Black Plague in the early 14th century, the more prepared we can be for a new one following. 



 

References 

 

(2014). Historyextra, Your 60 Second Guide To The Black Death. 

(2011). Dr. Ibeji. BBC. Black Death: Political and Social Changes. 

(2005). History Today. Ole Benedictow. The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe Ever.