Teonna Guilbeaux
Mrs. Martinez
English IV, First Hour
Essay
5//1/16
The Black Death Many plagues have struck the world in the most terrible way, but the most remembered one is The Black Death, or the Bubonic Plague. The Black Death started in the 1340s. Although it felt like a century that the plague lasted, it only lasted about ten years ending in the 1350s. It started in Europe when 12 Genoese trading ships went through the Black Sea, then docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. When the ships docked, an abundance of rats fled the ships and went to the city; the rats had fleas on them that had the disease and when the fleas bit the people the people contracted the horrifying disease. The fleas started to bite the people …show more content…
The best advantage was that it showed the people how disease spread and how important hygiene was. If the disease would not have spread and killed a lot of people, than they would not have learned how important it was to wash hands, bathe regularly, and to keep the streets clean. The plague also caused a surplus of jobs, and consequently a rise in wages. It also caused an overabundance of jobs. With a lot of people dying it made for more jobs that people could work, letting more people have the opportunity to …show more content…
"We see death coming like black smoke,a plague which cuts off the young,a rootless phantom which has no mercy on fair countenance. Woe is me of the shilling in the armpit. It is seething, terrible, wherever it may come …....It is of the form of an apple, like the head of an onion. A small boil that spares no one...." (“Imogen Corrigan”). The rats stayed alive because the streets were not very clean, so the rats could survive and multiply. Although the Black Death killed a large part of the population, it allowed for an improved culture. (“Marks, Geoffrey J”