The Black

Death
 Key questions
There are 3 questions that will be asked
during the course of the lesson;

1. What is the “Black Death”?

2. What caused the Black Death?
3. What were the consequences?
 Where did the Black Death
come from?
• Originated in Mongolia’s Gobi desert

• Moved along the Silk Road to Black Sea

• Bacteria carried by fleas, lived on black rats

• Major trade/commercial cities were good hosts

• Sicily in 1347, England 1348, culminating in Russia 1352

• Unstoppable Force
What were the symptoms of the plague?
 What caused the plague?
The question that you are probably
thinking is this;
Q: Who or what caused the Black
Death?

A: This is your answer!

The Oriental Rat Flea!

 How was the plague
transmitted?
We now know that the most common form of the Black
Death was the BUBONIC PLAGUE! This disease was
spread by fleas which lived on the black rat. The fleas
sucked the rat’s blood which contained the plague
germs. When the rat died the fleas jumped on to
humans and passed on the deadly disease.
 Types
PNEUMONIC
•Attacked the Lungs
•Caused fierce coughing & sneezing fits
•Chest pain, Bloody sputum

SEPTICEMIC
•Rarest and Deadliest
•Traveled thru bloodstream
•Black spots beneath skin
•Victims choked on own blood, Excruciating Pain!

BUBONIC
•Most Common
•Egg-sized swellings (buboes)
•Neck, armpits, groin (dark blisters)
•Headaches, Weakness, Nausea/Vomiting
•Severe Fever and Delirium
9
What did people think at that time?

• Ignorance Surrounded Cause and Cure

• Europeans were Frantic
Blame
• Alignment of Planets (astrology)
• Infected Clothing, Humans
• God’s Wrath aimed at Sin
• People of certain cultural or ethnic groups
Cures/Remedies
• Pomanders
• Mixture of Molasses & Chopped Snake
• Repentance
• Flagellants
Consequences for Population
No one was safe but the poor in Italy were
particular at risk to the Great Mortality due
to:
•Lack of food caused by flooding & famine
•Homelessness because of earthquakes
•Cooler than normal weather forcing many to
life in crowded, dirty small rooms
•By 1400 half the population of Europe had
died.
•Cities suffered the most and bodies were left
to rot in streets or buried in mass graves.
•Those who survived often had no family or
friends left and moved to cities to find a way
to make money.
 Economic Consequences
• Shortage of laborers rising wages for
peasants and artisans
• Valuable artisan skills disappeared
• Oversupply of goods  prices dropped
• For the living, standard of living rose!
• Landlords stopped freeing their serfs serfs
revolting and leaving the land
• The oppressed demanded fairer treatment
 Religious Consequences
• Church lost prestige, spiritual authority, leadership
• Promised cures, treatment, and explanations
• No answers to the people
• Revolt against the church
• Severe shortage of clergy – functioned as nurses and
consequently died.
• The church targeted other religious groups for
persecution – had killed Jesus and brought sin to the
world
 The Children
Ring a-round the rosy = rosary beads give you God’s
help
Pocket full of posies = used to stop the odor of
rotting bodies through to cause the plague
Ashes, ashes! = the church burned the dead when
burying became too laborious
We all fall down! = dead
 And Now?
• The bubonic Plague still exists
• Quite common among rodent
populations
• A cure is known today – but
the disease moves very
quickly
• The Plague is still with us

Hythe Ossuary, remains of

victims of the Black Death
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5q-PIN3KSE