1. The Black Death Learning Objective
To find out when the plague arrived in England and what caused it.

2. Key questions
There are 3 questions that will be asked during the course of the lesson;
What is the “Black Death”?
What caused the Black Death?
What were the consequences?

3. The plague arrives
-Plague arrived in England during the summer of 1348
-Fall of 1348 it spread quickly through the south west
-Few villages escaped, churchyards full with bodies.
-Spread quickly during the winter of to the north of England.
- By 1350, nearly all of Britain was infected
At the end of 1350 nearly two and a half million people were dead!

4. Where did the Black Death come from?

5. What happened when you got the plague?

6. Ring Around the Rosie
Ring around the rosie Pocket full of Posie Ashes, Ashes We all fall down! What does each line of this common rhyme refer to?

7. What caused the plague?
The question that you are probably thinking is this;
Q: Who or what caused the Black Death?
A: This is your answer!
The Oriental Rat Flea!

8. How was the plague transmitted?
We now know that the most common form of the Black Death was the BUBONIC PLAGUE! This disease was spread by fleas which lived on the black rat. The fleas sucked the rat’s blood which contained the plague germs. When the rat died the fleas jumped on to humans and passed on the deadly disease.

10. What were the symptoms of the plague?
Buboes
Vomiting
Spasms
Painful death
What caused the Black Death?
Fleas – carried by rats
What were buboes?
Painful swellings in armpit and groin.
Usually the size of an egg.

11. How did the plague manage to spread?
People did not know about germs or how diseases spread
There was a lack of medical knowledge.
-Religious people thought that if they whipped themselves, God would forgive their sins and save them from the plague
Medieval towns were dirty places – people emptied chamber pots into the streets below.
There was litter and rubbish everywhere

12. Medieval Cures
We should not eat food that goes off easily and smells badly such as meat, cheese and fish. Instead we should eat bread, fruit and vegetables
If a person gets the disease, they must be put to bed. They should be washed with vinegar and rose water
The streets should be cleaned of all human and animal waste. It should be taken by a cart to a field outside of the village and burnt. All bodies should be buried in deep pits outside of the village and their clothes should also be burnt.
Place a live hen next to the swelling to draw out the pestilence from the body. To aid recovery you should drink a glass of your own urine twice a day.
Discuss – would any of these actually help?

13. On average, between 30-45% of the general populace died in the Black Death of But in some villages, 80% or 90% of the population died
Mass burial of the dead. Most people were not given coffins as there were too many to bury

14. Think About It:
1) Why was it called the Black Death? 2) Which theme of Geography encourage the spread of the Black Plague? Give examples for support. 3) What is different about our society that may stop the spread of a plague? 4) What do we come into contact with daily that could promote the spread of a plague?

15. Day 2: Effects of the Black Death

16. What was the effect on Britain?
Huge impact on society
Fields went unploughed as there were not enough men to work on the land

17. What was the effect on Britain?
Animals died – there were not enough people to look after them
Food shortages
Inflation – food prices went up because it was hard to come by.

18. Fields unattended Animals died Inflation ($$) Lack of food EPIC FAIL
Memory Aids
Fields unattended
Animals died
Inflation ($$)
Lack of food

19. There were more effects!
Feudal Law said that a peasant was not allowed to leave a village unless they had the Lord’s permission

20. -Many lords were short of desperately needed labour for their land
After the Black Death, lords encouraged peasants to leave their villages to come to work for them.
Peasants could demand higher wages as they knew that a lord was desperate to get in his harvest.

21. This meant lots of peasants roaming the land looking for work
The government didn’t like this.
They wanted to stick to the Feudal System!

22. How would the peasants react to this?
Statute of Labourers
How would the peasants react to this?
“No peasants could be paid more than the wages paid in No lord or master should offer more wages than paid in No peasants could leave the village they belonged to“

23. 1381 – Peasant’s Revolt

24. Black Plague: The End
No obvious reason why the Black Death started to decline
A few theories, probably a mix of these, led to it’s passing

25. Theories
1) Quarantine: Non-infected people stayed in their house, rarely leaving. Rich people would buy large estates out in the country, away from the dirty cities.

26. Theories
2) Hygiene: More people showered, boiled drinking water, and burned bodies rather than mass burials