Take yourself back in time to around 1348. It’s a scary
time to be alive, for everyone is fearing this disease they’re calling “The
Black Death”. You hear news that a boy down your road has died and they blame
it on the plague. The slightest altercation with an infected person can spread
the disease to someone nearby. Everyone’s in fear knowing this Black Death
won’t stop until millions have died. Days later your father is near death. The
disease started by giving him bumps under his arms and groin area, then turned
his skin black from the fingertips up his arms. When the bumps finally burst, it
spread the Black Death to the rest of your family and everyone who was in
contact with you at the time. The town didn’t know what to do with the surplus
of dead, plague ridden bodies. They started digging trenches and large holes to
dump the bodies in, but the smell couldn’t be covered by dirt. You’re terrified
you’ll be next but there’s nowhere to go to escape your diseased town, but
people still tried. Unaffected Fathers, sons, and mothers abandoned their ill
loved ones all around you to keep themselves healthy and alive. All of Europe
was in panic trying out new medical practices to find a cure, but all were
found as a helpless attempt. Questions were left unanswered, like what caused
this horrible disease and how can it be stopped? Was it God’s punishment for
all the sins of the world? People knew very little on what to do or how their
medieval medical practices wouldn’t help the problem. Years later this epidemic
is still taking lives today, but is there a way to stop the bubonic plague once
and for all?
The Black Death hit Europe, after hitting China, Russia
and India, when twelve Genoese trading ships came in at the port of Messina. People boarded
the docked ships only to find dozens of dead or dying men (Black Death,
A&E Television Network). Trying to help these men was the
worst thing they could have done because being in contact with them spread the
plaque to millions. No one, at the time, knew how easily this disease could be
spread, and no one expected it to take as many lives as it did. Taking one-third
of Europe’s population after the plague “ended”. Later finding out that he men
on the ships had contracted the illness from the rats onboard the ships, then
the fleas that were on the rats. It was a bacteria called Yersinia pestis,
which is found mainly on rodents and can be contracted by a rat or flea bite (Plague
(Black Death) causes, Symptoms, signs, Treatment, History). “Within 3 to 7 days
of exposure to plague bacteria, you will develop flu-like symptoms such as
fever, headache, chills, weakness and swollen, tender lymph glands” (Plague, Black Death causes, Symptoms, Signs, Treatment, History). Many were in panic
once learning of the plague reaching the ports on through the country of
Europe. People left their homes in hope of escaping before their family became
infected, or even left their sick loved ones behind. Healthy mean, woman, and
children stared clear of the sick as best they could and doctors weren’t
allowing visits from the sick in hopes they could be cured. “Many people fled
the cities to the countryside, but even there could not escape the disease: It
affected cows, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens as well as people” (Black Death,
A&E). This caused shortages of food for the people of
Europe and caused even more panic through towns, now adding starvation into the
widespread panic. People known as “Plague doctors” wore huge, beak like masks,
long sleeve shirts and pants to try to help dying patients. They came up with
ways to “cure” the Black Death before it had the chance to kill the next family
or even town using many methods. “To treat the sick they did bloodletting,
leeches and toads were used every day, but this was not effective” (History of
Black Death and The Plague Doctor).
The Black Death had a large social effect on people
during this time. “People abandoned their friends and family, fled cities, and
shut themselves off from the world. Funeral rites became perfunctory, and work
ceased being done” (A Look at the Social and Economic Effects of the Plague,
Bright Hub Education). It was very dangerous to continue working and producing
the necessary supplies needed throughout the country. They desperately needed
people to work to get the goods they needed. Through there was at least one
positive outlook for the serfs during this horrible time. “The demand for
people to work the land was so high that it threatened the manorial holdings. Serfs were no longer
tied to one master; if one left the land, another lord instantly hired them.
The lord had to make changes in order to make the situation more profitable for
the peasants and so keep them on their land” (Social and Economic effects of
the Plague, Bright Hub Education) “After so many
people died, serfs were free to move to other estates that provided better
conditions and receive top pay for their work. Landowners, desperate for their
labor, often provided free tools, housing, seed and farmland” (A Look
at the Social and Economic Effects of the Plague, Bright Hub Education). People
feared the plague and let it run their lives in the moment. No one worked, no
one cleaned, and daily chores such as tending to farms were at a halt.
Gravediggers stopped digging and bodies filled in trenches around towns. Blaming
Jews for the disease saying things like they were poisoning water wells in
Christian towns even though plenty of the Jewish minority families were hit
just as hard by the Black Death. “Thousands of innocent Jews, who had also suffered from the plague, were
slaughtered in dozens of European communities” (A Look at the Social and Economic
Effects of the Plague, Bright Hub Education). Jewish families were in even more
terror then the rest of the country, trying their best to escape the Plague and
the Christians out to kill them.
People
kept diaries to explain the epidemic that was taking place during the time of
the Black Death. A plague victim says, “One
citizen avoided another, hardly any neighbor troubled about others, relatives
never or hardly ever visited each other. Moreover, such terror was struck into
the hearts of men and women by this calamity, that brother abandoned brother,
and the uncle his nephew, and the sister her brother, and very often the wife
her husband. What is even worse and nearly incredible is that fathers and
mothers refused to see and tend their children, as if they had not been
theirs” (The Black death, 1348, Brother Abandoned Brother). These stories were
written by the sick and dying to the ones fortunate to survive. Every story passed
down, even the worst and unbelievable, were surprisingly true. It’s hard to
hear or even imagine what it might have been like for the people in Europe
during the Black Death in 1348. “The
plight of the lower and most of the middle classes was even more pitiful to
behold. Most of them remained in their homes, either through poverty or in
hopes of safety, and fell sick by the thousands. Since they received no care
and attention, almost all of them died. Many ended their lives in the streets
both at night and during the day; and many others who died in their houses were
only known to be dead because the neighbours smelled their decaying bodies.
Dead bodies filled every corner. Most of them were treated in the same manner
by the survivors, who were more concerned to get rid of their rotting bodies than
moved by charity towards the dead” (The Black Death, 1348, Mass Burials).
The plague slowed its course around
1666 when the city of London burned to the ground starting a new city with
clean streets to be rebuilt (The great Plague 1665). Even after the fire the
plague hasn’t completely disappeared, “It can still be found in Africa, Asia,
and South America. Today, plague is rare in the United States. But it has been
known to occur in parts of California, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico”
(Vyas, 1) “Plague was first
introduced into the United States in 1900, by rat–infested steamships that had
sailed from affected areas, mostly from Asia. Epidemics occurred in port
cities. The last urban plague epidemic in the United States occurred in Los
Angeles from 1924 through 1925. Plague then spread from urban rats to rural
rodent species, and became entrenched in many areas of the western United
States. Since that time, plague has occurred as scattered cases in rural areas.”
(CDC, Plague) The last cases in the United States were in 2015 where four
people died of the plague. Now a heath care provider will exam the infected
patient and take tests such as a blood culture, culture of the lymph nodes and
a sputum culture. “Antibiotics such as streptomycin, gentamicin, doxycycline,
or ciprofloxacin are used to treat plague. Oxygen, intravenous fluids,
and respiratory support
are usually also needed.” (Vyas, 1) Much like how they isolated the diseased
during medieval times, they are kept away from others now. “People with
pneumonic plague must be kept away from caregivers and other patients. People
who have had contact with anyone infected by pneumonic plague should be watched
carefully and given antibiotics as a preventive measure.” (Vyas, 1)
Camus,
a philosopher who lived in the mid 1900’s, didn’t believe there was a meaning
to life. Camus didn’t even believe in religion. Strong Christians in the
medieval time of the Black Death questioned their God and blamed the Jews for
the epidemic. They couldn’t believe their faith would let something as terrible
as watching families be taken out day by day happen with what seemed to be no
end. The epidemic caused revolts in small towns that were forgotten by the
rulers that were supposed to care and help their people. If Camus was alive to
witness the Black Death he would most likely be pleased to see the Christians
during the time question what they strongly believed their whole lives and lose
their faith and he’d agree with the people who disagreed with the way a
government treated them.
This
epidemic killed more than “50 million in the 14th century” not
giving anyone a chance of survival (The Black Death). Now a days the epidemic
isn’t as threatening. We now know what caused the plague, how to prevent it, and
what we need to do to help cure the diseased person. No more blaming the Jews,
questioning your faith, or drinking your own urine twice a day.
Citations
History.com Staff.
“Black Death.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2010, www.history.com/topics/black-death.)
“History of the Black Death and the Plague Doctor.” Plague Doctor Masks,
plaguedoctormasks.com/history/.
“A Look at the Social
Effects of the Black Death.” Bright Hub Education, 11 Sept. 2012, www.brighthubeducation.com/history-homework-help/88775-social-effects-of-the-black-death/.
Vyas, Jatin. “Plague.” MedlinePlus
Medical Encyclopedia, medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000596.htm.
Johnson, Ben. “The Great Plague 1665
- the Black Death.” Historic UK, www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/The-Great-Plague/.
“Plague.” Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
4 Jan. 2018, www.cdc.gov/plague/maps/index.html.
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