do not specify parenthetical citations, I would have students cite any information they use in their essays (both paraphrased text and text that students choose to quote). I would advise students to write the title or an abridged version of the title within parentheses. For example, the first text below would be cited as (“Black Death”), the next text could be abbreviated as (“Sin”) and the third text could be abbreviated as (“Depopulation”).
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Write an informational essay about the relationship between the Black Death and the changes that took place in society. Your essay must be based on ideas, concepts, and information from the passage set.
Manage your time carefully so that you can
· read the passages;
· plan your essay;
· write your essay; and
· revise and edit your essay.
Your written response should be in the form of a multi-paragraph essay. Remember to spend time reading, planning, writing, revising, and editing.
Type your answer.
The Black Death
The Black Death is known by several names, including the Black Plague, the Bubonic Plague, and sometimes simply The Plague. When people use any of these names, they are specifically referring to the bubonic plague which swept across Western Europe from 1348-1349 (you may also see it dated 1347-1351 if you include Eastern Europe and other more remote places). Oddly enough, it didn’t get any of these names for centuries; it was just referred to as a “pestilence” at the time. Modern historians estimate that between 25%-50% of the entire population of Western Europe died in those two years.
Various pestilences (these could be any disease) went through Europe throughout the Middle Ages. What made the plague of 1348-1349 The Plague was the fact that it spread all over Europe and that it killed and sickened more people than any pestilence that had come before, or has ever come since. Previous plagues had been fairly local. A city might have an outbreak of a pestilence, but it generally didn’t spread too far. After a month or two, it had run its course and everyone was back to business as usual. The young, the old, and the sick were the most likely to die from disease; healthy adults did not often die.
When the Black Death came through Europe, it did not follow any of those rules. It went from city to city, village to village, spreading like a wildfire across almost all of Western Europe in just one summer. It almost completely disappeared over the winter, only to spring back to life as terrible as ever the next summer (which is also opposite normal cycles of disease, which are typically worse in the winter when people are in very close quarters). It killed healthy adults as easily as children, the old and the sick. No one anywhere seemed safe from it.
So, what exactly is the Black Death? The Black Death is the bubonic plague, and it is caused by bad bacteria (Y. Pestis) which lives in the stomachs of fleas that live on rats. Normally these bad bacteria just hang out in the flea’s stomach, but given the right conditions, the bad bacteria can multiply to the point that the flea gets sick, and when it bites a rat, it vomits the bad bacteria into the rat. Now the rat has the bubonic plague. And because the bad bacteria gets in its blood, every flea that bites the rat will suck the bad bacteria into its stomach. Then those fleas hop onto other rats and give them the plague.
People originally caught the Black Death when those infected rat fleas decided to bite them instead of rats (there were a lot of rats and a lot of fleas in the Middle Ages). Once people had the bad bacteria in their bodies, they could spread it to others.
The word “bubonic” refers to the buboes or lymph nodes in the body. It seems that most of the time the bad bacteria would get into these buboes and they would swell up and become very painful. Within a day or two of the swelling, they would get so large they would break open and make bad wounds. The bad bacteria could also cause the skin to die, and when it died, it would turn black-which is why it is known as the Black Death. Some people died within a day or two of the buboes breaking open, but some people might be sick for a week or two before dying-or they might get better. It is thought that about half of the people who got the bubonic form did manage to get better and live. And . . . you can only catch the plague from him [the sick person] if you touch one of his open wounds with a bare hand; you are okay if you wear gloves when touching him.
Although we call being sick with this bad bacteria “the bubonic plague,” the bacteria didn’t always settle in the buboes; sometimes it settled in the lungs, and sometimes it stayed in the blood. When it is in the lungs, it’s called the pneumonic form; when it is in the blood, it is the systemic form. The pneumonic form is easiest to spread because when the bad bacteria are in the lungs, every time that person breathes out, the bad bacteria are released into the air, up to several yards around that person. Anyone that breathes air containing the bad bacteria can then catch the plague.
The other thing that made the pneumonic form of the plague so easy to spread is that people weren’t visibly sick. And because they did not look sick and did not feel sick for several days after catching it, they would keep on working or traveling and would cough the bad bacteria into the air all around them. When the bacteria got very bad in their lungs, they would have some blood come out of their mouth or nose and then die very quickly after that. It is thought that about 90% of people who caught this form of the plague died.
The systemic form of the plague, where the bacteria stays in the blood, was the most deadly, but it didn’t spread. You could not get the plague from someone with the systemic form unless you touched their blood. But it is thought to be fatal 100% of the time. It is not known how long people with the systemic form of the plague lived with it because they never showed any symptoms. These people would be walking behind their plow or down the street and just fall down dead. Some of them might feel a bit tired and lay down for a nap and be dead within the hour.
So why did the bubonic plague become so bad when previous plagues weren’t so bad? It seems that it was bad because of a number of things that happened all at the same time. First, the population in Europe had gotten so large by the 1200′s that it was becoming difficult to feed everyone, even in good years. But there were many bad years before the Black Death when too much rain and cool weather ruined the crops, and several diseases killed many sheep and cattle. So famine was common throughout the 1200 and 1300′s and large parts of the European population were weakened by this.
Also, those large numbers of people had to live somewhere, and many of them lived in cities. The more people you have together in a small space, the easier it is for disease to spread. When you are sick with the pneumonic form and are out on your large farm when you cough, there’s no one around to catch it. When you are in a city market and you cough, 20 people might catch the plague.
Trade was much more frequent and widespread in the 1300′s than it had been previously. More people and goods traveled further, which meant that goods infested with fleas or people already sick with the Black Death could carry it much further and much faster than in the past.
It is even thought that the weather had some effect on the spread of the Black Death. A couple of very warm, dry summers after many summers of cold and wet may have been just what the bad bacteria needed to multiply like crazy and start getting out of the fleas. Dry air also allows airborne diseases (like the pneumonic form) to spread easier.
The Plague did eventually die down after it had occurred for two summers in most places. It continued to occur off and on for several more centuries, but it was generally confined to a single city or small region and it did not sweep across all of Western Europe again.
It wasn’t until the 1700′s that Europe again had as many people as it did in the year before the Black Death. By then medicine and sanitation were improving, which helped prevent large outbreaks of bubonic plague. It still exists today and occasionally appears in poor parts of the world, but the U.S. usually only sees one or two cases a year. And it is easily treated with antibiotics. Our ancestors once thought the world was coming to an end thanks to a disease that a little penicillin and a few days resting at home will now cure!
Various pestilences (these could be any disease) went through Europe throughout the Middle Ages. What made the plague of 1348-1349 The Plague was the fact that it spread all over Europe and that it killed and sickened more people than any pestilence that had come before, or has ever come since. Previous plagues had been fairly local. A city might have an outbreak of a pestilence, but it generally didn’t spread too far. After a month or two, it had run its course and everyone was back to business as usual. The young, the old, and the sick were the most likely to die from disease; healthy adults did not often die.
When the Black Death came through Europe, it did not follow any of those rules. It went from city to city, village to village, spreading like a wildfire across almost all of Western Europe in just one summer. It almost completely disappeared over the winter, only to spring back to life as terrible as ever the next summer (which is also opposite normal cycles of disease, which are typically worse in the winter when people are in very close quarters). It killed healthy adults as easily as children, the old and the sick. No one anywhere seemed safe from it.
So, what exactly is the Black Death? The Black Death is the bubonic plague, and it is caused by bad bacteria (Y. Pestis) which lives in the stomachs of fleas that live on rats. Normally these bad bacteria just hang out in the flea’s stomach, but given the right conditions, the bad bacteria can multiply to the point that the flea gets sick, and when it bites a rat, it vomits the bad bacteria into the rat. Now the rat has the bubonic plague. And because the bad bacteria gets in its blood, every flea that bites the rat will suck the bad bacteria into its stomach. Then those fleas hop onto other rats and give them the plague.
People originally caught the Black Death when those infected rat fleas decided to bite them instead of rats (there were a lot of rats and a lot of fleas in the Middle Ages). Once people had the bad bacteria in their bodies, they could spread it to others.
The word “bubonic” refers to the buboes or lymph nodes in the body. It seems that most of the time the bad bacteria would get into these buboes and they would swell up and become very painful. Within a day or two of the swelling, they would get so large they would break open and make bad wounds. The bad bacteria could also cause the skin to die, and when it died, it would turn black-which is why it is known as the Black Death. Some people died within a day or two of the buboes breaking open, but some people might be sick for a week or two before dying-or they might get better. It is thought that about half of the people who got the bubonic form did manage to get better and live. And . . . you can only catch the plague from him [the sick person] if you touch one of his open wounds with a bare hand; you are okay if you wear gloves when touching him.
Although we call being sick with this bad bacteria “the bubonic plague,” the bacteria didn’t always settle in the buboes; sometimes it settled in the lungs, and sometimes it stayed in the blood. When it is in the lungs, it’s called the pneumonic form; when it is in the blood, it is the systemic form. The pneumonic form is easiest to spread because when the bad bacteria are in the lungs, every time that person breathes out, the bad bacteria are released into the air, up to several yards around that person. Anyone that breathes air containing the bad bacteria can then catch the plague.
The other thing that made the pneumonic form of the plague so easy to spread is that people weren’t visibly sick. And because they did not look sick and did not feel sick for several days after catching it, they would keep on working or traveling and would cough the bad bacteria into the air all around them. When the bacteria got very bad in their lungs, they would have some blood come out of their mouth or nose and then die very quickly after that. It is thought that about 90% of people who caught this form of the plague died.
The systemic form of the plague, where the bacteria stays in the blood, was the most deadly, but it didn’t spread. You could not get the plague from someone with the systemic form unless you touched their blood. But it is thought to be fatal 100% of the time. It is not known how long people with the systemic form of the plague lived with it because they never showed any symptoms. These people would be walking behind their plow or down the street and just fall down dead. Some of them might feel a bit tired and lay down for a nap and be dead within the hour.
So why did the bubonic plague become so bad when previous plagues weren’t so bad? It seems that it was bad because of a number of things that happened all at the same time. First, the population in Europe had gotten so large by the 1200′s that it was becoming difficult to feed everyone, even in good years. But there were many bad years before the Black Death when too much rain and cool weather ruined the crops, and several diseases killed many sheep and cattle. So famine was common throughout the 1200 and 1300′s and large parts of the European population were weakened by this.
Also, those large numbers of people had to live somewhere, and many of them lived in cities. The more people you have together in a small space, the easier it is for disease to spread. When you are sick with the pneumonic form and are out on your large farm when you cough, there’s no one around to catch it. When you are in a city market and you cough, 20 people might catch the plague.
Trade was much more frequent and widespread in the 1300′s than it had been previously. More people and goods traveled further, which meant that goods infested with fleas or people already sick with the Black Death could carry it much further and much faster than in the past.
It is even thought that the weather had some effect on the spread of the Black Death. A couple of very warm, dry summers after many summers of cold and wet may have been just what the bad bacteria needed to multiply like crazy and start getting out of the fleas. Dry air also allows airborne diseases (like the pneumonic form) to spread easier.
The Plague did eventually die down after it had occurred for two summers in most places. It continued to occur off and on for several more centuries, but it was generally confined to a single city or small region and it did not sweep across all of Western Europe again.
It wasn’t until the 1700′s that Europe again had as many people as it did in the year before the Black Death. By then medicine and sanitation were improving, which helped prevent large outbreaks of bubonic plague. It still exists today and occasionally appears in poor parts of the world, but the U.S. usually only sees one or two cases a year. And it is easily treated with antibiotics. Our ancestors once thought the world was coming to an end thanks to a disease that a little penicillin and a few days resting at home will now cure!
Black Death and Sin
The increase in world trade within the last century or two had exposed more people to disease, and the increase in movement of people that came with war exposed more people to disease. In December 1347 the disease was in the Crimea and Constantinople. That same month it spread to Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and Marseille. By June,1348, it was in Spain, Italy and as far north as Paris. By June 1349 it had advanced through London and central Europe. From there in the year and a half that followed it swung as if on a hinge in central Europe, through Ireland and through Scandinavia. It reached people weakened by decades of hard times and malnutrition.
The bubonic form of the disease was a bacterium (Yersinia pestis) spread by fleas from rats. The pneumonic form of the disease spread from one person to other people. This was made worse by crowding in the cities. Some cities lost from half to two-thirds of their population. Some small cities became ghost towns. Common folks were dying as well as the most pious. Perhaps a third of the Catholic clergy died, with priests who attended the afflicted being hit the hardest. The poor were hit harder than aristocrats because they were generally in poorer health and less able to resist the disease and because they were more crowded together. Wolves fared better and appeared in some capital cities.
People did not understand the source of the plague, and panic spread faster than the disease. The belief in witchcraft was revitalized. Believing that the end of the world was at hand, some groups engaged in frenzied bacchanals and orgies. People called the Flagellants believed that the plague was the judgment of God on sinful mankind. They traveled the country, men and women flogging one another. They preached that anyone doing this for thirty-three days would be cleansed of all his sins – one day for every year that Christ lived. The Church was still on guard against innovative religious proclamations, and in 1349 Pope Clement VI condemned the movement.
The wandering mobs focused their wrath upon clergy who opposed them, and they targeted Jews, whom they blamed for inciting God's wrath. In Germany rumors arose that Jews had caused the plague by poisoning the water. Pogroms followed. Jews were arrested. Their fortunes were seized by the lords under whose jurisdictions they lived, and Jews were put to death by burning. The attacks on Jews were condemned by Clement VI, and he threatened excommunication for those Christians who harmed Jews.
The success of this greatest of plagues was limited and destined to diminish. The body that the bacterium entered was its environment and source of life. It used up its environment and faded away but not completely.
Depopulation, Rebellion and Social Progress
It has been roughly estimated that a third of England died from the Black Death of 1348-49, and perhaps this figure is not far from the losses suffered in other areas of Europe through which the plague passed. Much farm land went into disuse, reducing the output of food. Farm animals died, further diminishing the food supply. With all the deaths and drop in demand for food, the price of food dropped. In Western Europe the demand for labor rose, and, with fewer people around willing to work for less, wages rose. And in Western Europe the shortage of labor brought on by the plague increased the demand for slaves, cutting into the demand for free labor. Wealthy merchants vied for servants to staff their households. Craftsmen and shopkeepers felt that they had to keep slaves. Cobblers, carpenters, weavers and woolworkers bought men and women from the slave dealers to help in their industries. And more slaves were put on the market as hungry parents sold their children, preferring their children's enslavement to watching them starve to death.
In Western Europe, common folks were more inclined to rebellion. With labor in short supply they were aware of their added value as producers and eager to improve their situation. In response to rising wages, authorities started to fix wages at a low level – the opposite of a minimum wage. Hostility toward employers and authorities increased. Peasants and other workers tried to dodge these impositions. Peasants called for a reduction in service obligations. In cities, workers rose against the wealthy merchants who had been running city hall. Peasants and workers revolted in Spain, the Netherlands, southern Germany, Italy, and England.
A handout with specific, concrete steps on how to approach and answer the Informational Essay Prompt will be posted soon, as well as a sample Argumentative Essay Prompt and a handout with concrete, specific steps to answer this prompt, too.
To create your own FSA-style prompts, see the sample prompts on the DOE website (Training Tests) for ideas about length and formatting: http://www.fsassessments.org/training-tests
To create your own FSA-style prompts, see the sample prompts on the DOE website (Training Tests) for ideas about length and formatting: http://www.fsassessments.org/training-tests
