Essay On Black Death

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Black Death: Effects on the Peasants A devastating widespread disease that resulted in about 75 million deaths was known as the Black Death. The disease came from fleas that came off of rats that were commonly found in towns and cities. The fleas would bite the victims, injecting them with the disease. Fleas and rats could be found almost anywhere but they were mainly aboard ships of all kind. This is how the Black Death made its way through European ports. This disease could also be spread through the air from person to person. According to one doctor “instantaneous death occurs when the aerial spirit escaping from the eyes of the sick man strikes the healthy person standing near and looking at the sick” There was no medical knowledge to help the people neither cure nor stop the disease. This sent all of Europe in a panic and changed many of their lives forever. The Black Death arrived in Europe in 1347 by sea. After a long journey through the Black Sea, 12 trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. When the ship arrived, the majority of the sailors were either dead or deathly sick. The sailors were trying to fight the fever off. They weren’t able to keep any food down and were all in terrible pain. They were covered from head to toe in black boils that oozed both blood and pus. The Sicilian authorities demanded to get the “death ships” out of the harbor but it was too late, the disease had already begun spreading. The Black Death affected the peasants in several ways. The disease killed everyone and anyone it reached, regardless of their age, religion, or beliefs. The people began to question what God’s purpose was and wondered why he would send such disaster and harm to their towns and cities. The peasants alread... ... middle of paper ... ... mercy or fair countenance. Woe is me of the shilling in the arm-pit; it is seething, terrible, wherever it may come, a head that gives pain and causes a loud cry, a burden carried under the arms, a painful angry knob, a white limp. It is of the form of an apple, like the head of an onion, a small boil that spares no-one. Great is its seething, like a burning cinder, a grievous thing of an ashy colour. It is an ugly eruption that comes with unseemly haste. They are similar to the seeds of the black peas, broken fragments of brittle sea-coal and crowds proceed to end. It is a grievous ornament that breaks out in a rash. They are like a shower of peas, the early ornaments of black death, cinders of the peelings of the cockle weed, a mixed multitude, a black plague like halfpence, like berries. It is a grievous thing that they should be on a fair skin. (Streissguth 62)

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