What Benefits have come from the Black Death?

The black death was the cause of the peasants revolt
and many other riots that helped shape our world

Before the Black Death struck in the 13^th century, the streets and the cities were overcrowded with people, animals and rubbish. But after the plague left in the 1350’s one third (25-50 million) of Europe’s population had died out.  Although this is only a rough guess and it is not known exactly how many people died, thousands of mass graves have been uncovered all through Europe and England filled with countless bodies of plague victims. Despite the fact that millions of people were wiped out by the Black Death, many benefits have come from it such as better doctors and a wider understanding of medicine and diseases. In the middle ages, Doctors had more faith in magic and religion and most did not believe that science could help cure an illness. But after the Black Death struck more people started becoming interested in diseases and medicine and if it wasn't for that, doctors today might still be using frogs and poisons to cure diseases. The Black Death also completely reshaped the way England and the world worked and was the cause of the peasant’s revolt.  During the middle ages peasants worked long hard hours and acquired very little money. Many died while they were working and most could not earn enough money to feed their families which resulted in them having to steal to support them. But after the Black Death, the surviving workers earned more money as the lords were short of labourers to work for them.This also resulted in more machinery  being invented to make up for the lost workers.The Black Death was destroyed in England in 1350 after a massive fire burnt down most buildings, rats, fleas and bodies but made recurrences through history although none were as bad as the first and most people were now aware on what needed to be done to stop it from spreading.  

The children's nursery rhyme
Ring a ring a Rosie is based on
the Black Death   

The popular children’s nursery rhyme Ring a ring a Rosie is also based on the Black Death, although many people argue with this. The first verse, Ring a ring a Rosie stands for the red, ring shaped rash victims would get in the first few day of catching the disease, a pocket full of posies is the flowers and herbs people would carry around in their pocket to keep the plague away (paragraph 2, How did fourteenth-century living conditions and the state of medical knowledge leave the population defenceless against serious disease?), atishoo, atishoo is the victims sneezing and we all fall down is when they would finally die. The American version replaces  atishoo atishoo with ashes ashes which refers to the cremation of bodies.                                                                                    

This you tube clip interrupts the lyrics of Ring a ring a Rosie  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaspFUkcPjo

How did people attempt to deal with the disease?

Many people believed they could be cured by plague doctors
or magician

When the Black Death struck Europe and Asia for the first time during the 1300 hundreds, the people of the time were alarmed and horrified as they had never seen a disease spread so fast and become so devastating. As explained before in the last paragraph there were thousands of cures available but unfortunately barley anyone of them worked. Because antibiotics, modern day medicine and hospitals weren't around people had to create their own cures and hope they would work. Many people started turning to churches and Priests as they believed the plague was Gods punishment upon them for doing wrong and some extremists would even whip themselves in the centre of town begging for gods forgiveness. Unfortunately this would not only have been extremely painful but this only spread the disease to more people because of the open wounds. During this time most normal doctors did not treat the victims of the plague instead a “plague doctor” would.  Plague doctors were hired by cities or town to treat victims who had the disease.  Most plague doctors were not actually doctors as they would take the job when they were trying to start their careers as physicians or surgeons, some had even been fruit sellers before they became plague doctors. One of most commons methods plague doctors were taught to do was make small cuts on their patients or put leaches on them to release blood as they believed a plague victims’ blood was full of poison.  Heavy fabric overcoats with glass eyes , big shoes, leather hats , leather gloves and a long cone shaped beak filled with herbs, mint leaves, rose petals and other strong smelling plant life was worn by most plague doctors as protective wear and a long wooden cane was used to examine the patients without actually touching them.  The beak contained strong smelling plants because most people (including doctors) believed it was bad smells that  caused the disease;however we now know that it was fleas that caused the Black  Death.

A plague doctors protective wear 

Some of the  cures that people came up were very unpleasant and  sometimes even harmful  and none of them would be  used these days. Some of them included drinking mercury or arsenic (deadly poisons), wash yourself with  urine but not water (plague doctors advised their patients not to bath in water), or rub your wounds with a live chicken.  Thousands of Jews were also killed as a cure after it was claimed they caused the Black Death. Some of the causes and cures of the black death can be seen in this you tube clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUw8FWtiigA

sources
http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/black-death.htm
http://issworldhistory.forumotion.net/t2182-strange-cures-for-the-black-plague

How did fourteenth-century living conditions and the state of medical knowledge leave the population defenceless against serious disease?

The streets during the time of the black death
were dumping grounds for sewerage, rubbish and
 plague ridden bodies. 

14th century living conditions were very different to the way we live today.  During this time people did not know about germs or how diseases form and spread. Because of this many people including doctors believed that it was caused by foul smells or even other people such as the Jews.  The inhabitants of cities and towns saw the streets as dumping grounds and would throw all of their rubbish, scraps and raw sewage out the window. The people of that time didn't realise that it was the rats and the fleas causing the plague so they continued to throw their waste outside giving the rodents a source of food. Most families lived in a small dirty box shaped house along with other families and their animals which is a good reason why the disease spread so fast. Labourers worked all day in fields or with animals such as pigs or cows and did not even think to take a bath or change their clothes which is what we now consider to be unhygienic. There were many “cures” however which just made things worse most of the time. Priests and religious groups blamed the citizens and claimed it was Gods punishment to them for doing bad things.  The doctors of the time and people who believed they were magic created cures that didn't help such as carrying sweet smelling herbs around in your pocket or not bathing or exercising.  Although there were thousands of cures, barley any of them worked and by the time the plague had left Europe, one third of the continents population had died.  

This Horrible histories you tube clip explains what the plague was like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA6nij1kdjE

sources
http://dnausers.d-n-a.net/cbs/pages/bdth/life.htm
http://academic.mu.edu/meissnerd/plague.htm

What was the Black Death and why did so many people die from it?

The Black Death struck nearly every part
of the human body 

The Black Death was a nasty disease that was spread by fleas and black rats during the middle Ages. It began around central Asia in approximately 1333 and spread to Europe in 1347 beginning in Sicily Italy. After years of being carried back and forward by traders and travellers who would pick up the disease and take it back to their homes with them, it finally made it to England in 1348 and reached London a few months later . The Black Death started off as painful swellings called buboes (as in the bubonic plague) under the armpits or on the legs, neck or groin.  The buboes would start of red and change to dark purple or black (hence the name the Black Death). Victims would also vomit , get very high fevers, have muscular pains, become delusional and have bleeding in their lungs which is why most people died from the disease. Nearly all victims would die within 2 to 4 days. The plague also created a strong need to sleep which became fatal to most victims as they never woke up.During 1348, when the black death was at its peak in Europe, a man called Giovanni Boccaccio who was living in Florence Italy at the time, described what he saw the black death as. this is a shortened version;

"The first signs of the plague were lumps under in the groin or armpits. after this, livid black spots spots appeared on the arms, thighs and other parts of the body. Few Recovered and almost all died within three days". To read the full version of what Boccaccio described the plague as go to: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plague.htm.

A map detailing the origins of the black death in
Asia and spreading to the world

The children's television show Horrible histories also describes some symptoms of the Black death as a song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KHlIWpyJrQ

A timeline of the Black Death
 http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/timeline-of-the-black-death