The Bubonic Plague: The Black Death

The Black Death was an outbreak of the plague that effected countries such as China, England, and many other European countries in the mid fourteenth century. Though most of this outbreak was caused by the bubonic plague, there were other forms of plague that effected residents that lived during the Black Death. This outbreak of the plague ended up killing anywhere from twenty-five to fifty percent of these countries populations over the course of a few decades. For this reason, the plague turned out to be not only one of the deadliest disease epidemics that has ever been seen in the modern world, but also effected Europe on a spiritual and laborious level. Starting in Asia, the Black Death was first seen in China in the 1328 outbreak and …show more content…
While the citizens of England knew all about the plague and were terrified of it, there was no stopping what was about to happen. The plague entered England in its’ summer months around June or July through a port town known as Bristol. The people of Bristol were living in excruciatingly tight quarters at the time and it helped the bacteria spread rapidly. Once the disease was spread throughout Bristol, it made its’ way into other large cities such as London and had the same devastating death toll. “In the next eighteen months, between around 20 and 40 percent of the English population died” (Black Death, n.d.). Included with that twenty to forty percent that died across England, 20,000 of the nearly 70,000 inhabitants in London were deceased. London was much like Bristol where it was terribly overpopulated and the residents were living in extremely tight quarters. “There is no doubt that the bad habits of the local populations, that included throwing human waste into the streets, sharing polluted water and the freedom of pigs and livestock to graze in the city, all contributed to an environment that provided the perfect breeding ground for a disease” (Newman, n.d.). This fact alone is the main reason that the disease was able to spread so …show more content…
There were many peasant deaths due to the bubonic plague and peasants were the ones that were tending to the fields and harvesting the crops. Along with that, the peasants that were left alive after the Black Death had a sense of entitlement. They thought that because they had survived, they were “special” in the eyes of the Lord and had a greater purpose. It is seen in the late fourteen century that a sort of peasant revolution started as they were demanding a higher wage along with better living conditions while working for the land owner. In 1381, many peasants gathered together to initiate what is now known as the Peasant’s Revolt. In the summer months of that same year, particularly June, peasants from around England rose up and started to rebel against the land owners they worked for, as well as, the government altogether. There were killings and massacres of lawyers and other rich men in some of the large cities. As a result, the land owners that the peasants were working for became scared into treating their workers more properly out of fear that they would revolt again. There are many aspects of the Black Death that are still arising today, including how the bacteria laid dormant for hundreds of years before reappearing. Many loose ends are starting to be tied up in reference to the rapid outbreak of the plague, but there are some mysteries.