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 humansSource 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 daysSource 1, continued

Ring Around the Rosie

Ring around the rosie

A pocketful of posieHush-a, hush-aWe all fall down.------------------------“ring around rosie”

= skin rashPosie = flowers to

fight infectionFall 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 …

• 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 Weymouth in Dorset

2 •People left villages; disease spread over large area of county to cities

3 •Weather turned cold

3 •Floods, snow, earthquakes

(C) Factors of sanitation and hygeine

3 Towns were crowded

3 Sewage ran down streets; manure piled …

Sources

1. Bishop, Morris. The Horizon Book of the Middle Ages. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1968.

2. “The Black Death in Weymouth & Portland, Dorset.” Weymouth & Portland Borough Council. 2005. 12 Nov 2006. www.weymouth.gov.uk/main.asp?svid=769

3. Peters, Stephanie True. Epidemic! The Black Death. Tarrytown, NY: Benchmark, 2005.

4. “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