Black Plaque

Black Plague, also known as the Black Death or the Bubonic plague, has been the deadliest plague in history. From the start of the harsh disease till the last serious case, there have been horrific results that have killed and harmed many people. Today, not much is said about the disease, but it was a very serious thing. The widespread physical toll of what has come to be called the Black Death had a tremendous social impact on Europe.

The Black Plague is defined as a contagious disease caused by buboes, fever, prostration, and delirium. The first known victim was Margaret Porteous, was buried in April, and by the end of that year between 70,000 and 110,000 people had died. (Epidemic, 80) Trading ships carried infected rats west to the Mediterranean Sea. From there plague spread through most of Europe. (Protman, 506) It took place before the disease managed to penetrate south of Germany illustrating the great importance of transportation by ship and relative slowness by land. (Gale Group)

Black Plague spread across Europe in the years 1346 to 1353. in the course of just a few months, sixty percent of Florence's population died. (History Today, 122) The spread of the disease was so quick that nobody was ready. It went year by year through Europe. Another pandemic began in China in the mid 1800s. Over seventy-five years, Plague spread to every inhabited continent. (Drotman, 506) The soldiers caught the bubonic Plague in war times by sleeping too close together because the bubonic Plague was a highly contagious disease.

The Black Plague was a very traumatic epidemic. No recorded epidemic mortality has been so devastating in Europe. Thirty to fifty percent of the people who got it died. No war or famine since had been unforgiving. Not only did the Black death wipe out twenty to sixty percent of Europe's population, but it struck fear in every single man and women. Hoff and smith

Blue, Page 2

said that brothers abandoned one another, uncles abandoned nephews, sisters abandoned

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