The Black Plague Dbq

“Father abandoned child, wife husband, one brother another, for the plague seemed to strike through breath and sight. And so they died. And no one could be found to bury the dead, for money or friendship.” This was how Agnolo di Tura described the plague in 1350. Citizens of European towns felt they could not even trust their own family, afraid that the plague would catch simply through being near each other. This horrible sickness broke family ties and friendships through its destruction of entire cities and even countries. The black plague changed how people thought of each other, warped social constructs, and even forced some to commit horrible acts, such as the becchini. The becchini were a group of lower class men, usually sick with the plague themselves, that would cart bodies out of homes and bury them. But some of these men turned to despicable acts such as rape and murder, simply because those who were sick did not have the strength not fight them off. This group instilled fear in Europeans as the story …show more content…
In Florence, Italy, on of the biggest marketplaces in the country, many of the shops and factories were forced to shut down, which meant prices skyrocketed from shortages, leaving nearby cities and villages starving. To try and keep factories running, businessmen would offer larger wages and hire more of the lower class. This inevitably caused more inflation because suddenly the lower class had more spending money and sellers raised their prices accordingly. Hyperinflation was one of the biggest problems during the years the plague swept Europe, because it left some families to die from starvation, not disease. While the plague was an awful pandemic that took many lives, it did improve the lives and futures of the lower class, as their wages were permanently raised and the standard of living went up for all classes in the years after the