1. The Black Death

2. Who was most likely to survive?
You will follow the story of one group:
A Priest, Monk, or Nun
A townsperson/ burgher
A Trader/Merchant
A Rich Lord or Lady on a manor
A Serf on a manor
What do we know about germs that may have helped us back in the plague times?
Who do you think was at risk?

3. The Clergy You are a Priest, Monk, or Nun
You live at a monastery or a convent
You are required to attend and say mass
You are required to bury the dead

4. The Townspeople You are a burgher
You have a shop that makes leatherworks
You live in an apartment in the city
Your house is close to others in the city, you have no running water, and people throw their trash on the street outside your shop.

5. The Merchants
You spend most of your time traveling from Constantinople to major cities
You have visited many ports
You travel in some bad conditions
You don’t know how clean your ships or goods are
You interact with many people

6. The Lords and Ladies
Near the end of feudalism, you still live away from cities on your manor
You have servants to do things for you and run your errands
You don’t go to town much
You live in the country

7. The Serfs You are poor and live on your lord’s manor
Your housing is shabby
You live in the country
You interact with the town only a little

8. Beliefs about the plague
PRESUMED CAUSES Back Then…..
A. The water? Stop bathing!
B. Cats? Poor London’s mistake….
C. Sin! God’s punishment!
D. The Jews become scapegoat

9. The Culprits

10. The Disease Cycle Human is infected!
Flea drinks rat blood that carries the bacteria.
Bacteria
multiply in
flea’s gut.
Human is infected!
Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into human wound.
Flea’s gut clogged with bacteria.

11. Septicemia Form: almost 100% mortality rate.
The Symptoms
Bulbous
Septicemia Form: almost 100% mortality rate.

12. The Effects:
The patient gets painful swellings in the lymph nodes (beginning in groin and armpits) which ooze blood and pus
These turn black, and eventually the body is covered in black spots
Die 7-10 days later
Accompanied by vomiting, fever, nausea, headache, joint ache

13. Based on the Disease facts…
Do you think you have a high chance of getting sick?
What factors related to your job or role in life may affect your chances?
Are you scared to get the plague?

14. Death Triumphant !: A Major Artistic Theme

15. From the Toggenburg Bible, 1411

16. Medieval Art & the Plague

17. Medieval Art & the Plague
Bring out your dead!

18. Medieval Art & the Plague An obsession with death.

19. Boccaccio in The Decameron
The victims ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors.

21. At this point, most of Europe is Terrified
How did seeing this art make you feel?
Are you hopeful to survive?
Which groups were MOST at risk of catching the plague? Why?

22. Attempts to Stop the Plague
“Leeching”
A Doctor’s Robe

23. Remedies
Doctors would leech wounds- attempt to empty out all “bad” blood
People would carry around posies and flowers in order to ward off the disease
Doctors would wear masks with flowers and herbs in them to ward off the plague
“Ring around the Rosy,
pocket full of posies,
ashes, ashes,
we all fall down”

24. Attempts to Stop the Plague
Flagellanti: Self-inflicted “penance” for our sins!

25. Attempts to Stop the Plague
Pograms against the Jews
“Golden Circle” obligatory badge
“Jew” hat

26. A Little Macabre Ditty
“A sickly season,” the merchant said, “The town I left was filled with dead, and everywhere these queer red flies crawled upon the corpses’ eyes, eating them away.” “Fair make you sick,” the merchant said, “They crawled upon the wine and bread. Pale priests with oil and books, bulging eyes and crazy looks, dropping like the flies.”

27. A Little Macabre Ditty (2)
“I had to laugh,” the merchant said, “The doctors purged, and dosed, and bled; “And proved through solemn disputation “The cause lay in some constellation. “Then they began to die.” “First they sneezed,” the merchant said, “And then they turned the brightest red, Begged for water, then fell back. With bulging eyes and face turned black, they waited for the flies.”

28. A Little Macabre Ditty (3)
“I came away,” the merchant said, “You can’t do business with the dead. “So I’ve come here to ply my trade. “You’ll find this to be a fine brocade…”
And then he sneezed……….!

29. The Mortality Rate
35% - 70%
25,000,000 + dead

30. What were the economic, social, and political effects of the Black Death??

31. Economic Effects Economic Effects – “Golden Age of the Laborer”
- Labor Shortage!
- short Supply of workers so they Demand more pay!
Inflation!
- to pay workers more, producers must raise prices
Collapse of Manor system and “serfdom”
- peasants move in to take available jobs in towns
especially in England and France.
Peasant’s Revolts become frequent
- when officials attempt to set wages

32. Society is changing
Since the church people (priests, nuns, monks) were burying the dead, they usually got sick and died- there were few church people left
People lose faith in the church!
Minorities are persecuted/blamed for the disease
The good news is that after the threat of the plague was lessened, the peasants began to have a better life (they had more land, and more options due to all the people who had died)

33. Your Life What was your life like before the plague?
Based on your career and station in life, how likely was it that you would have died, and why?
If you and your family lived, how would your life have changed after the plague?
After the end of the plague, how had society changed?
How did the church change after the plague?