Samantha Clark
Timothy Hudenburg
His 101/023N
December 8, 2017
Morality v.s. Mortality: Exploring the Black Plague and Attempts to Prevent its Spread. The Black Death (Bubonic Plague) caused by the Yersinia pestis, a bacterium found in the blood of rats was transferred to fleas which would then pass it on to humans, was one of the largest epidemics in human history. Some historians say it claimed approximately one quarter of the population in Europe and West Asia by the end of the fourteenth century; estimated to be about 24 million people. (Cartwright and Biddiss 24) However areas such as Poland, the city of Milan and the Basque Country remained relatively unaffected and untouched by the plague because of the extreme measures that were taken …show more content…
To prevent further spread their King Kazmiriez quarintiens at their boarders screening people for illness before letting them enter. (53 Zuchora-Walske). In her paper Economics, Social, Geographical… Alice Creviston explores the reasoning why Poland avoided huge outbreak may also have been because of lack of major trade routes from the east. Also having most of the country consisting of farm lands made it difficult for the disease to spread quickly therefor making easer to contain at its borders. These factors could very well have been the reason why Poland was able to avoid many …show more content…
When illness threatens society, envisaging an epidemic in the form of the Black Death allows us to discharge many fears. In normal setting people often add hear to a common law and social norms of morality but when placed in a situation outside of a communities understanding these social norms tend to breakdown. The Black Death was the first epidemic of its kind and magnitude up to this point in human history, which meant that people had yet to understand how it was caused and how to go about preventing the diseases spread. That coupled with the lack of knowledge regarding proper hygiene people began to blame it on other groups of people (the Jews) and come up with extreme ways prevent and hopefully stop the disease. People thought god was angry at them so many of them became Flagellants whipping themselves believing that this extreme form of penance you appease God and he would forgive their sins. However, this would only make them more likely to contract the disease causing most of them to die. Christians believed it was the Jews who caused the plague; in France and Italy rumors began emerging that the Jews had contaminated the wells intentionally trying to poison Christians. This lead to assaults on Jewish communities all over Europe, by the end of the plague in 1351 entire Jewish communities had been eradicated in many places. As the Plague continued to
Timothy Hudenburg
His 101/023N
December 8, 2017
Morality v.s. Mortality: Exploring the Black Plague and Attempts to Prevent its Spread. The Black Death (Bubonic Plague) caused by the Yersinia pestis, a bacterium found in the blood of rats was transferred to fleas which would then pass it on to humans, was one of the largest epidemics in human history. Some historians say it claimed approximately one quarter of the population in Europe and West Asia by the end of the fourteenth century; estimated to be about 24 million people. (Cartwright and Biddiss 24) However areas such as Poland, the city of Milan and the Basque Country remained relatively unaffected and untouched by the plague because of the extreme measures that were taken …show more content…
To prevent further spread their King Kazmiriez quarintiens at their boarders screening people for illness before letting them enter. (53 Zuchora-Walske). In her paper Economics, Social, Geographical… Alice Creviston explores the reasoning why Poland avoided huge outbreak may also have been because of lack of major trade routes from the east. Also having most of the country consisting of farm lands made it difficult for the disease to spread quickly therefor making easer to contain at its borders. These factors could very well have been the reason why Poland was able to avoid many …show more content…
When illness threatens society, envisaging an epidemic in the form of the Black Death allows us to discharge many fears. In normal setting people often add hear to a common law and social norms of morality but when placed in a situation outside of a communities understanding these social norms tend to breakdown. The Black Death was the first epidemic of its kind and magnitude up to this point in human history, which meant that people had yet to understand how it was caused and how to go about preventing the diseases spread. That coupled with the lack of knowledge regarding proper hygiene people began to blame it on other groups of people (the Jews) and come up with extreme ways prevent and hopefully stop the disease. People thought god was angry at them so many of them became Flagellants whipping themselves believing that this extreme form of penance you appease God and he would forgive their sins. However, this would only make them more likely to contract the disease causing most of them to die. Christians believed it was the Jews who caused the plague; in France and Italy rumors began emerging that the Jews had contaminated the wells intentionally trying to poison Christians. This lead to assaults on Jewish communities all over Europe, by the end of the plague in 1351 entire Jewish communities had been eradicated in many places. As the Plague continued to