Black Death by Chloe Vasquez

Posted: June 13, 2012 | Author: chloevasquez | Filed under: 8C - The Black Death | 1 Comment

what were its effects?

very high fever this would include the victim getting very hot very easily in the head and red in the face. another symptom is extreme delirium this includes the victim getting very upset at nothing or even getting very excited for no reason at all and in a very dangerous way putting others in harm’s way. The third symptom was vomiting this include the victim devouring what they had eaten either the previous day/s or the current day. This next symptom was muscle pains this includes the victim having loads of pains in the muscle this pain was  so intense that the victim couldn’t even move around normally. Another symptom was bleeding in the lungs so this symptom sort of relates to one of the previous symptoms vomiting, as the victim is vomiting blood is shooting out at the same time another way for the victim is to violently cough. This symptom was one of the weirdest symptoms this was being super aware the thing is that they lose sence of their position and sence of direction but at the same time they are super aware of what is going on around them. This is one of the last symptoms of the ‘BLACK DEATH’ this symptom included the victim’s body swelling up in four main places neck, armpits, legs and groin. This is the last but probably most important symptom of the ‘BLACK DEATH’ this symptom included red dots appearing all over these dots would appear any time and anywhere these dots were quite painful they usually appeared black or purple or even both.

as shown below

How it spread-

The black death was a disease that people caught. The fleas had bad  bacteria and they travelled in the fur of rats, when the fleas took blood from  rats and humans they transferred the disease from people who had the black death. The fleas and rats were the cause of  the disease the black death.

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The Black Death

Posted: June 12, 2012 | Author: christinew23 | Filed under: 8C - The Black Death | 1 Comment

How did  people try to deal with the Black Death?

People believed that this disease comes from bad smells in the air that we breathe in. Medieval doctors give their patients some flower or herbs to sniff. Doctors also gave them ideas such as burning pine and lemon leaves or to carry pouches filled with herbs or camphor. Some doctors also suggested sniffing human waste. Many plague doctors though that this disease could excrete though sweat, they  suggested drinking hot drinks to the patients.Attaching leaches to patients to bleed them or cut open the black lumps to remove the bad blood was an idea giving to patients from doctors. So they applied leaches to patients in order to get rid of the bad blood. However, leeches did not know the difference between bad and good blood; therefore, they suck out the good blood as well as the bad blood. They even believed that church bells ring and cannons are fired in the hope that these noises might cure people.

Black death is not a major problem anymore. However, in the 1300s the black death killed nearly one-third of Europe. There are about 1ooo to 3000 cases of Plague each year now, according to the World Health Organization. This disease mainly come from Middle East, China, Southwest and Southeast Asia. Medieval doctors didn’t know that much about bacteria and medicines. But now doctors know much more and came up with many new things. Medieval streets was disgusting . Streets now days are much cleaner and there is no sewage on streets anymore. People have became more cleaner and more smarter, therefore black death is not as dangerous as it was before. Doctors before didn’t have a cure, but now they invented something to cure this disease. Therefore Black Death is not a  big problem anymore.

How did the Black Death start?

People back then thought God made the Black Death to punish them. However, this is not true. The black death started because of how unhygienic they were. The streets were disgusting and revoting. There was human wastes everywhere. People back then did not know much about hygienic. They were unclean and had no idea what bacteria can do to them. There was rats everywhere and no one cared. This kind of behaviour caused the Black Death to start.

Why do Victims smell so bad?

Victims had  a foul odor, which smelled terrible right before they died. Because of their bad smell “Pocket full of posy” Rhyme was made. In this poem it said that scented posy flowers were stuffed in their pockets to cover the smell. They had bad breathe which is what mainly caused them to smell so horrible. Another reason was because plague causes hemhorraging of the lungs , then death. The smell also comes from human waste that is everywhere on the streets. They dumped human waste everywhere. Medieval people didn’t have baths often and they didn’t brush they teeth. Foul Odor did cause them to stink a lot. Rotten organs, infection on skins and lungs was the sign for foul odor.

What was the Black Death Cycle

The black death have a cycle. This cycle shows how a victim gets this disease and how it dies.  People back then did not know about this disease, they simply believed that this disease came from bad smells. This is one of the reasons why so many people got this disease. However, doctors had found on cure to this disease nowadays.

The Black death Cycle starts with flea drinks a infected rat’s blood. Then the flea carries the bacteria and it multiply in the flea’s gut. The flea’s gut gets clogged with bacteria. The flea stay with the rats until it die. The flea then bites a human, and the human will be infected. At last the Human gets sick and would die eventually.

If only people back then would be a bit more cleaner than the Black Death would not have happened.

This shows the sick patients

 a whole view of the diorama

 a rat that caused many people sick

 some herbs that made the room smell better

fire to keep the place warm

Bibliography 

http://www.infoplease.com/cig/dangerous-diseases-epidemics/bubonic-plague.html

http://www.myhealthnewsdaily.com/2064-people-catch-plague.html

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080803000226AAMnVBe

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101118111218AAbKJlD

Christine Wang 8C- Black Death

Enjoy 🙂

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The Black Death – by Glenda Xu

Posted: June 12, 2012 | Author: glendaxchubbybunnyzzz | Filed under: 8C - The Black Death | 3 Comments

What was the Black Death?

The Black Death was one of the most terrible plagues that have wiped out many people during 1347 – 1351. It was very dangerous and contagious and has killed around one-third to one-quarter of Europe’s population at that time. The Black Death was a name given to a disease called the bubonic plague which was name after buboes. The Bubonic Plague was called ‘The Black Death’ because one of the reactions of getting the disease was blackening of swelling lumps around the neck, under the arms and on the inner thighs. There were many symptoms of The Black Death such as painful swelling (buboes), very high fever, vomiting, back pain and soreness in arms and legs.
The disease was passed to humans by fleas infected from unclean rats which were cause by bad hygiene and sanitation from people. People back then didn’t know anything about hygiene. People used to dispose their chamber pot’s contents out the window and onto the street. All the rubbish and human wastes covered the streets and no one bothers to clean it up. People would just wait for nature to rain and wash it away.
Victims during ‘The Black Death’ had no idea what had caused the disease; neither did the physicians in the Middle Ages. People thought it was God punishing them for something they did wrong during their lifetime.

Where did it come from?

The Plague first started in eastern parts of China. It was then spread by the fleas on the rats that were boarding on the ships for trade on trade routes to Europe. People on trading ships also caught the sickness from the disease. It was then spread to parts of Southern Asia by trading routes. Merchant ships brought it to Sicily, near Italy. Once in Italy, it then spread throughout the rest of Europe and top parts of Africa.
The Black Death has followed the trade routes and provided access to all corners of the known world. The increase amount of trade routes used has made the disease spread to many different countries around the world.

Why did it come to an end, only to reappear from time to time again in later years?

It came to an end because people started to realize that it came from bad hygiene. They started cleaning up their mess and soon the rats were gone as well as the plague.
There was little found but the Black Death reappearing from time to time again in later years but some people might have still carried the disease that caused them to spread it again. The disease continued to spread occasionally across Europe in 1369, 1374-5, 1379, 1390, 1407 and so on until as late as 1722. It didn’t strike across Europe with the force it did then.
People nowadays still carry the disease but very few.

The Black Death Doctors

Back then in the Middle Ages, the doctors had limited knowledge and didn’t know what really cause the Black Death. Doctors also believed in witchcraft and superstitious stuff as well. They tried their best to cure the disease but they didn’t have much success. Most people died even though the doctors tried to cure them.
The doctors wore a black long robe covering all exposed skin, leather gloves and a broad-brimmed hat, worn low on the head and boots. They also wore a mask covering the whole head with a long beak filled with pleasant smelling oils, herbs or perfumes in the tip to make the bad smells of people with the disease go away. They would wear this so they won’t catch the disease.

What did the Black Death doctors do to get rid of the disease?

The doctors did these things to try to cure the disease. One of the things they did was to telling sick people to sit near the fire. This was one of most common things they used back then. They would also tell the victim to sleep on one side and then turn the other. They also told the patients to eat a lot of fruit and green vegetables but it wasn’t that successful and usually just helped the patient just to fight off the illness. Also, they use leeches or place cups over the buboes to suck out the blood. Sometimes they would do something painful to get rid of it and it was popping or cutting the buboes. This will allow the disease to leave the body. To the cuts they made on the skin, they would put an ointment made of clay and violets on it. It was extremely painful for the patients.

The feudal system

The feudal system was made up of 4 classes, the peasants (free serfs and those bound to lord for life), Sub-Tenants (knights and lesser clergy), Tenants-In-Chief (lords and bishops) and the Monarch (The King).

Monarch – Was the top of the Feudal system and was also in complete control under it. He owned all the land in the country and can choose who to lease the land to. He also gave land and other privileges to the Tenants-In-Chief.
Tenants-In-Chief – Pledged their loyalty, money and prayers and provided fully equipped knights to serve for a term in the Monarch’s army. They gave their land and other privileges to the Sub-Tenants. They were allowed to create their own system of justice.
Sub-Tenants – Guarded property of Tenant-In-Chief and protected him and also offers to fight and pray for the Monarch. They allocated spare land to the peasants. They also kept s much land as they want to and gave to rest to the peasants.
Peasants –Was the lowest of the feudal system. They worked in the land of the Sub-Tenants and Tenants-In-Chief and paid taxes in the form of crops. They had no rights and were often mistreated and poor.

How did the Black Death affect the feudalism?

When the Black Death came to Europe and killed almost one-third to one-quarter of its population, it had affected the feudal system. It caused shortage of manpower to work the fields and the lords faced severe labor shortages. This gave advantage to the serfs, who now began to demand higher wages in return for work. They wanted to improve their lifestyle by getting richer and better treated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

• http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/black-death.htm
• http://historymedren.about.com/od/theblackdeath/a/death_defined.htm
• http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320Hist&Civ/chapters/06PLAGUE.htm
• http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/middle-ages-doctors.htm
• Humanities alive history 1 (level 5) for Victorian Essential Learning Standards – Textbook
• http://maskwerks.tripod.com/id8.html
• http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_some_treatments_doctors_used_for_the_black_death

Hope you like it! 🙂

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The Black Death

Posted: June 10, 2012 | Author: robertsoncait | Filed under: 8C - The Black Death | 9 Comments

The Black Death

-Caitlin Robertson 8C

How did the Black Death affect Europe?

 There were about four million people in England in 1348 before the Black Death came. After the Black Death, the population cut to only about two and a half million left. One in three people probably died. Amongst priests, the death rate was even higher because they had to visit those who were dying. It was very hard to find enough people to take over take over their jobs. Many churches did not have services because they did not have priests.

 Food during the Black Death-

 The Black Death had a huge impact on Europe. Fields went unploughed as the men who usually did this, were sick with the Black Death. Harvests would not have been brought in as there were basically no workers. A lot of animals perished during this time as well, this was not because they had the Black Death, it was because that many of the workers had the Black Death, so they were either trying to fight it off, or they were dead.

 Because there was less food because of the workers, whole villages would have faced starvation. Towns and cities would have faced food shortages as the villages that surrounded them could not provide them with enough food. Grain farming became less popular, this kept towns and cities short of such basics as bread. One consequence of the Black Death was inflation the price of food went up creating more hardship for the poor. In some parts of England, food prices went up by four times.

 How did the peasants respond to the Black Death?

 Those who survived the Black Death believed that there was something special about them – almost as if God had protected them. They took the opportunity offered by the disease to improve their lifestyle.

 Peasants could demand higher wages as they knew that a lord was desperate to get in his harvest. So they used this power against the Lords, to get richer and better treated.  If they felt as if they could get a better deal somewhere else, with another Lord, then they would often move there if they could.

Why is it not a problem today?

We tend to assume that this is not a present day disease, however this not true. The answer to whether the disease is with us today is Yes, but very few. About 10 to 20 people contract the each year in the USA. Our main defence against the disease is hygiene. Our modern sewage systems and Public Health organisations keep this plague controlled better. It was more of an issue in the middle ages because of the unhygienic sewers. Back then, the streets were full of rubbish and waste, and of course that attracted rats, and with the rats, disease.

In the map shown above, all of the yellow parts are where the Black Death has been reported in different counties. The red is the regions where the plague had occurred in animals, such as rabbits & rats etc.

As you can see, the Black Death hasn’t completely gone, but it is less dangerous, as there is now suitable medication for it.

My Questions & Answers

What were the signs of having the black death day by day?

 If you were unlucky enough to have the Black Death, then you were most likely to die. The disease in a body that had the Black Death was too big for the body to properly get rid of before they died. After they caught the Black Death, they only had about a week at the most to live before they died, the average time of death was 2-4 days after it was caught. That amount of time was not enough time for the body to make enough white blood cells to help fight off the disease, such as big as the Black Death.

 There are two types of the plague. One type infects the bloodstream, causing the buboes and internal bleeding, and was spread by contact. The pneumonic type infects the lungs and is spread by respiratory infection. Either one, was life threatening.

 The first steps for having the Black Death were having an awful head ache and a very high fever. The person would very often feel dizzy, and very sick. Vomiting would be very common in the first day or two as well. Bad coughing and shortness of breath was also another sign shown early on.

 The fingers and toes of the sick, would go black and pussy. The actual nail would go black as well, it looked a bit like terrible frost bite. (This is how the Black Death got its name, from the blackness on the toes and fingers.) By this stage, the person would be aching almost all over the body. By this stage, terrible looking ‘buboes’ appeared all over the body, (otherwise known as plague tokens) Some people believed that you had to drain the puss and blood from these, and then you would be healed, because “the disease was in the buboes.” This hardly achieved anything though.

 The sick’s armpits got swollen up as well. This is because the disease made all of the glands swell up, so anywhere that you had glands, swelled up. By this time, it was very noticeable that a person had the Black Death if they showed all of these symptoms.

Cures and medicine-

Here are some popular treatments that people tried, from surgery to witchcraft.

Vinegar and water treatment If a person gets the disease, they must be put to bed. They should be washed with vinegar and rose-water. The they should rest, and not get out of bed.

Lancing the buboes The swellings associated with the Black Death should be cut open to allow the disease to leave the body. A mixture of tree resin, roots of white lilies and dried human excrement should be applied to the places where the body has been cut open.

bleeding The disease must be in the blood. The veins leading to the heart should be cut open. This will allow the disease to leave the body. An ointment made of clay and violets should be applied to the place where the cuts have been made.

Diet We should not eat food that goes off easily and smells badly such as meat, cheese and fish. Instead we should eat bread, fruit and vegetables.

sanitation The streets should be cleaned of all human and animal waste. It should be taken by a cart to a field outside of the village and burnt. All bodies should be buried in deep pits outside of the village and their clothes should also be burnt.

Pestilence medicine Roast the shells of newly laid eggs. Ground the roasted shells into a powder. Chop up the leaves and petals of marigold flowers. Put the egg shells and marigolds into a pot of good ale. Add treacle and warm over a fire. The patient should drink this mixture every morning and night.

witchcraft Place a live hen next to the swelling to draw out the pestilence from the body. To aid recovery you should drink a glass of your own urine twice a day.

How did the disease spread?

The Black Death came to Europe on a trading ships from the east, it was thought that it came from China. People thought that it was the end of the world because there was so much disease, droughts and earthquakes at one time. In Revelations it says that God would send diseases that would wipe out the earth. This is why they thought that the end was near.

The rats that were on the ships, carried the fleas that had the Black Death. The rats carried the fleas who had the disease on them, the rats caught the disease from the fleas. When the ship arrived on shore, many of the rats would have died from the disease. But the fleas which were carried from China, (or another country with the disease) then jumped on to the people. Once they got bitten, they caught the Black Death. Once a human who came in contact with someone who had the Black Death, it was very likely that they would catch the Black Death as well.

What did people do with the dead?

This diorama displays a frightful, yet common scene during the Black Death in Europe. Europe’s streets were not pleasant streets to be during that time, it was full of rubbish, rats, disease and a foul smell to add to the ‘charm.’

In towns and cities people lived very close together and they knew nothing about contagious diseases. The people didn’t get rid of the bodies properly sometimes, and this helped to spread the disease still further as those who handled the dead bodies did not protect themselves in any way. The filth that littered streets gave rats the perfect environment to breed and increase their numbers. More rats meant more disease! The rats enabled the disease to spread very quickly and the filth in the streets of our towns and cities did not help to stop the spread of the disease.

While a person came to collect the dead with a cart,  a person or two from the family of the dead person would come out of the home carrying the dead body, and place it on the cart with all of the others. A lot of people didn’t like this, because it wasn’t respectful to the dead, but there was no other way to do it.

This is the scene that my diorama showed. The cart is full of people with nasty sores on the people’s skin, proof that they had the Black Death. The houses painted in the background of the diorama, is what the houses looked like in the time of the Black Death.

What happened after-?

Once all of the bodies had been collected, the cart was usually very full, and wouldn’t have been a pretty sight either. The bodies were then thrown in to a mass burial or grave, away from the towns. A big hole was made, then all of the bodies were dumped in a pit all together. When the pit was full, it got covered.

What the people thought?

This is part of a recount told at the time of The Black Death, describing what the plague looked like.

‘We see death coming into our midst like black smoke, a plague which cuts off the young, a rootless phantom which has no 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 lump. 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. It is a grievous ornament that breaks out in a rash. The early ornaments of black death.’

This was written by a someone called, Jeuan Gethin, who died in April 1349.

The Black Death terrified people. They would do just about anything to try to get rid of the disease that was in their body. They would do things desperate as sitting in a sewer to try to drive away the disease with the smell, they would also put leeches on their sores and hope that the leeches would suck out all of the bad blood.

5 Facts-

-The Black Death was in Europe from 1347 to 1351, when it was at peak.

-Virtually nobody suspected the ever-present rats and fleas.

-It returned many times during and after the Middle Ages.

-7500 victims of the disease were dying every day.

– People thought that God was punishing them, especially the children, as they were dying more.

It was because they were sinful children, so God was sending his wrath down upon them.

Bibliography-

 http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/black_death_of_1348_to_1350.htm

 http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/black-death.htm

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/cures_for_the_black_death.htm

http://www.historytoday.com/lara-marks/black-death

http://www.william-shakespeare.info/bubonic-black-plague-modern-day.htm

http://staff.bbhcsd.org/vendelc/black_death.htm

http://www.deathreference.com/Bl-Ce/Black-Death.html

Black Death Diorama

Caitlin Robertson 8C

This diorama displays a frightful, yet common scene during the Black Death in Europe. Europe’s streets were not pleasant streets to be during that time, it was full of rubbish, rats, disease and a foul smell to add to the ‘charm.’

In towns and cities people lived very close together and they knew nothing about contagious diseases. The people didn’t get rid of the bodies properly sometimes, and this helped to spread the disease still further as those who handled the dead bodies did not protect themselves in any way. The filth that littered streets gave rats the perfect environment to breed and increase their numbers. More rats meant more disease! The rats enabled the disease to spread very quickly and the filth in the streets of our towns and cities did not help to stop the spread of the disease.

With all of these dead bodies hanging around, they needed someone to collect them, and take them away to try to stop the disease from spreading even further. So, someone got the unlucky job of pushing around a cart, and yelling “Bring out your dead, bring out your dead!” A person or two from the family of the dead person would come out of the home carrying the dead body, and place it on the cart with all of the others. A lot of people didn’t like this, because it wasn’t respectful to the dead, but there was no other way to do it.

This is the scene that my diorama showed. The cart is full of people with nasty sores on the people’s skin, proof that they had the Black Death. The houses painted in the background of the diorama, is what the houses looked like in the time of the Black Death.

What happened after-?

Once all of the bodies had been collected, the cart was usually very full, and wouldn’t have been a pretty sight either. The bodies were then thrown in to a mass burial or grave, away from the towns. A big hole was made, then all of the bodies were dumped in a pit all together. When the pit was full, it got covered. Here are some more pictures of my diorama.

I hope that you have learned a lot from this website, and that it was interesting. Thank-you for reading it! 🙂

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