Black Death essays

Black Death essays The black plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1352 put entire societies in flux as those who were infected lived in very for their lives. The death of 25 million people would not go unnoticed. Consequently analyzing the reactions of people during the Middle Ages to the bubonic plague is imperative. Victims, friends, and family felt that death was inevitable, and reacted to the deadly disease in fear, desperation, and superstition. In the personal diary of Agnolo di Tura once said, The mortality in Siena began in May. It was a cruel and horrible thing. It is impossible for the human tongue to recount the awful truth. Indeed one who did not see such horribleness can be called blessed. The victims died almost immediately. They would swell beneath the armpits and the groin, and fall over while talking. Father abandoned child, husband abandoned wife. None could be found to bury the dead for love or money. And they died by the hundreds both day and night; all were thrown in ditches and covered with dirt. All believed it was the end of the world. The fear that families had can be felt in Agnolos writing many people shared these feelings during the middle ages, but primarily the people that were less fortunate financially. Nicolas Versoris a French author who wrote the Book of Reason in 1523 concurs, Since the rich fled, death was principally directed towards the poor so that only a few of Paris porters and wage-ea rners, who had lived there in large numbers before the misfortune, were left. The initial reaction of fear to the virulent disease was to flee to a place where the sick were not close. Even when those dearest to you fell victim to the plague anyone close to the sick felt no remorse and abandoned them. Likewise the fear of people that were sick traveling made people at unrest. Heinrich von Staden, Count of Palatinate who wrote The Land and Government of Muscovy during 1571 quotes, Whatever ...