The Black Death
EXPLAIN THIS!
Plague Vocabulary (from video)
• Black Death, also called Bubonic Plague,
The Pestilence, or The Plague
• Pandemic
• Yersinia Pestis
• Mongols, Genovese
• Buboes and acral necrosis
• Boccaccio
• Flagellant
• Amelioration of the peasants
YOUTUBE: The Black Death
History Teachers use Gwen Stefani’s
Hollaback Girl to explain this pandemic:
Oo-oo Fleas on Rats!
A longer documentary:
History’s Turning Points: AD 1347
The Black Death
What was the Black Death?
Synonyms (for research purposes)
• The Plague
• The Bubonic Plague
• The Pestilence
___________________________
Reading from Source 1:
Bishop, Morris. The Horizon Book of the Middle Ages.
Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1968.
BIG Questions:
How have people explained this
pandemic?
How did it spread so fast and so far,
so quickly?
YOUR QUESTIONS:
• How did people of the Medieval Times
explain it? What were some of the
medieval accounts?
• How do Scientists explain it?
• How does Social Studies (that is,
Geographers and Historians) explain it?
• How can Mathematicians help us to
understand it?
What was the Black Death?
• October 1347
• 12 Italian ships returned to Messina from
Russian Crimea
• Sailors were dying on board
• Townspeople ordered ships to leave
• Residents fled, spreading Plague
• Spread through Sicily to Italy & France
Source 1
What was the Black Death?
• Bacilli in fleas’ stomachs blocks normal
feeding
• Tries to feed on black rats
• Infects rat with bacilli
• Also feeds on humans
Source 1, continued
Yersinia pestis (Y. pestis) bacilli
Today, some historians and doctors dispute the
long-held theories about rats and fleas
What is the Black Death?
• Plague bacilli in human bloodstream settle in lymph
glands
• Result in hemorrhages in blood vessel walls
• Dark patches on the skin
• Tongue turns black
• Swellings (buboes) under arms, in groin
• Death usually in 3 days
Source 1, continued
Ring Around the Rosie
Ring around the rosie
A pocketful of posie
Hush-a, hush-a
We all fall down.
-----------------------“ring around rosie” =
skin rash
Posie = flowers to
fight infection
Fall down = die
The Black Death moved in waves …
The Black Death in Dorset
• June 1348: came first to England by port of
Weymouth in Dorset
• People left villages
• Disease spread over large area of county to
cities
• Rats and fleas “thrived in unsanitised
conditions”
• Source 2
What is the Black Death?
• Dirty towns with rats got the worst of it
• Doctors and priests couldn’t do anything
• Animals got sick too
• Society changed as people left their friends,
family, work, homes
Source 1, continued
The Black Death in Florence
Life in the Towns
• Crowded with people and houses
• Animals roamed streets and lived with
families in winter
• Streets had no room, poor lighting, and
sewage running down them
• Animal manure and garbage were
common sights – smelly
• Flies, rodents, etc.
• Source 3
Epidemic: The Black Death
• People blamed many things:
• Foul air
• A look from someone who was sick
• God’s anger
• Lungs infected – bacteria spread with
sneezing
• Finally, millions died of the Black Death
• Source 3: Peters
Other problems …
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Weather turned cold
Floods, early snows, late frosts. earthquakes
Less fertile land, crop failures
Diseased and dying animals
Less food and items for keeping warm
Wars
Famine, sickness
More rodents
• Source 3: Peters
Who or what to blame?
• Things celestial, terrestrial, or miasmatic, that
is, vaporous (*as in the foul vapours from a
swamp)
• Winds, swamps, lack of sun
• Filth, dead bodies
• Indulgence – foods, sins
• Planetary movements
• Cripples, nobles, Jews …
• Source 4: Encyc of P & P
(A) Medieval Explanations
3 •People blamed many things: foul air, a look
from someone who was sick, God’s anger
4 •Things celestial, terrestrial, or miasmatic,
that is, vaporous (*as in the foul vapours
from a swamp)
4 •Winds, swamps, lack of sun
4 •Filth, dead bodies
4 •Indulgence – foods, sins
4 •Planetary movements
4 •Cripples, nobles, Jews …
(B) Geographic Explanations
1 •October 1347: 12 Italian ships returned to Messina
from Russian Crimea
1 •Spread through Sicily to Italy & France
2 •June 1348: came first to England by port of
2
Weymouth in Dorset
•People left villages; disease spread over large area of
county to cities
•Weather turned cold
3
3 •Floods, snow, earthquakes
(C) Factors of sanitation and hygeine
3 Towns were crowded
3 Sewage ran down streets; manure piled …
Sources
1.
2.
Bishop, Morris. The Horizon Book of the Middle
Ages. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1968.
“The Black Death in Weymouth & Portland,
Dorset.” Weymouth & Portland Borough Council.
2005. 12 Nov 2006.
www.weymouth.gov.uk/main.asp?svid=769
3.
4.
Peters, Stephanie True. Epidemic! The Black
Death. Tarrytown, NY: Benchmark, 2005.
“Black Death.” Encyclopedia of Plague and
Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present.
George Childs Kohn, Ed. New York: Checkmark,
2001.
Works Cited
Bishop, Morris. The Horizon Book of the Middle Ages. Toronto:
McClelland and Stewart, 1968.
“Black Death.” Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From
Ancient Times to the Present. George Childs Kohn, Ed. New
York: Checkmark, 2001.
“The Black Death in Weymouth & Portland, Dorset.” Weymouth
& Portland Borough Council. 2005. 12 Nov 2006.
www.weymouth.gov.uk/main.asp?svid=769
Peters, Stephanie True. Epidemic! The Black Death. Tarrytown,
NY: Benchmark, 2005.
THE END