Barbara Tuchman 's "The Plague" (rpt. In Santi V. Buscemi and Charlotte Smith, 75 Readings Plus 10th ed. [New York: McGraw Hill, 2013] 32-44) recaptures approximately every significant detail of the sinister disease, formally known as the Bubonic Plague or The Black Death that attacked the world in the mid 14th century. Unlike common infirmities found in the 21st era, such as AIDS or HIV, the bubonic plague killed nearly one-third of the earth 's population in five short years. What makes this disease more horrific than any other are its death-rates, the corruption it brought to governments, churches, and families worldwide, and the way it made many believe it was the end for humanity.
What brought most fear amongst the people who suffered through the black death was the mortality rate. This plague spread across the eastern hemisphere like a wildfire, taking out every being that crossed its path. Due to the disease being able to enter the body through both the bloodstream and respiration, the infected population nearly doubled by the minute. As described in a Welsh Lament, the plague was "death …show more content…
After multiple worker riots in Florentine due to bankruptcies and crop failures, the revolt of Cola di Rienzi drove Rome into Anarchy. People discontinued working and went home to their families because they believed there was no future since the plague was attacking everywhere. Families were separated and destroyed. Survival came before anything else, parents would leave their children and vice-versa. Agnolo di Tura, a chronicle writer in Siena wrote "Father abandoned child, wife husband, one brother another " (36). The same went for the church. "even priests did not come to confession" (36). The dead were tossed out like trash without prayer or mourn. In the midst of all this chaos it was easy for the common man to live in constant fear of
What brought most fear amongst the people who suffered through the black death was the mortality rate. This plague spread across the eastern hemisphere like a wildfire, taking out every being that crossed its path. Due to the disease being able to enter the body through both the bloodstream and respiration, the infected population nearly doubled by the minute. As described in a Welsh Lament, the plague was "death …show more content…
After multiple worker riots in Florentine due to bankruptcies and crop failures, the revolt of Cola di Rienzi drove Rome into Anarchy. People discontinued working and went home to their families because they believed there was no future since the plague was attacking everywhere. Families were separated and destroyed. Survival came before anything else, parents would leave their children and vice-versa. Agnolo di Tura, a chronicle writer in Siena wrote "Father abandoned child, wife husband, one brother another " (36). The same went for the church. "even priests did not come to confession" (36). The dead were tossed out like trash without prayer or mourn. In the midst of all this chaos it was easy for the common man to live in constant fear of