The Bubonic Plague: The Black Death In The Middle Ages

The Black Death is known as one of the most disastrous diseases in human history. It began in the 14th century and it lasted five years, spreading throughout England and Europe quickly. Although the most common name for this disease was “The Black Death”, it also had other names such as “The Bubonic Plague”, “The Great Mortality” and more commonly used in the Middle Ages, “The Great Pestilence”. It was a very contagious disease, killing millions of people in a short amount of time and since there was no cure, it was impossible to control. The disease was brought over in ships and spread so fast to England and the rest of Europe that many people were infected and died before they were even informed about it, symptoms of the Black Death were
They were internal and external, effecting people almost as soon as they were infected. Some people thought they were just coming down with the common cold before realizing how serious their symptoms actually were. Usually the first symptom was internal, the infected ones experienced swellings under their armpit and in the groin. “They were covered in mysterious black boils that oozed blood and pus and gave their illness its name: the “Black Death””, the boils eventually grew into the size of a small apple and were tastelessly called plague-boils. (History.com Staff). External symptoms included getting chills, vomiting, diarrhea and a high-grade fever. Some of the other internal symptoms included terrible muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes and coughing up blood. The coughing was a result from getting an infection in the lungs. The Black Death was also very contagious, an Italian poet named Giovanni Boccaccio described the disease being so contagious “the mere touching of the clothes, appeared to itself to communicate the malady to the toucher” (History.com Staff). As stated by Benedictow, the disease takes about three to five days to incubate in humans before they start to feel sick, and then in eighty percent of the cases, it takes another three to five days for the host to die (History
Realizing the seriousness of the disease, superstitions came about a few months after the plague started. Many people thought they were being punished for sinning so they turned to religion, some stayed in churches all day, confessing their sins and even began self-chastisement (deathblack.wordpress.com). The Dance of Death was created by people, called Flagellants, who believed they could drive the devil away and wash away their sins. They would strip themselves naked, and beat themselves, or each other. It was believed that doing this would wash away their sins (originsoftheblackdeath.weebly.com). Others, the more desperate for an explanation, claimed the Jews were the cause of the Plague because they “poisoned the wells.” In only a year, thousands of Jews were massacred because of this myth. Unusual advice was spread on how to prevent the disease as well like only opening windows in the northward direction, sacrificing pets, no sleeping or hardworking during the day because it’ll advance the breakout and living in the south attracted the disease. People were scared, panicking and in serious need of some sort of explanation therefore they were willing to believe and try