Dear Black Death, You’re the Worst
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 6.3 ACTIVITYDEAR BLACK DEATH, YOU’RE THE WORST1Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit: “Dear Black Death, You’re the Worst,” OER Project, https://www.oerproject.com/PurposeThe impact of the Black Death goes beyond the huge number of deaths. Millions of humans experienced history’s worst pandemic. By thinking about what individuals knew and how you might feel if put in their shoes, you’ll gain a better understanding of the causes and effects of this historical plague. Process 1.Watch this video, and then read this source collection about the Black Death. 2.Below are 12 real responses to outbreaks of contagious disease. Some are from the Black Death in the fourteenth century, some are from today. Read each one, and then write its number into the correct column of the T-chart: Medieval Response or Modern Response. If you think a response fits in both columns, put it in both and be ready to explain why. 1. Flagellants whip themselves in public, believing self-punishment will satisfy God.2. Ships arriving in port are held in isolation for 40 days before docking.3. Antibiotic treatment kills bacterial infection.4. Relatives abandon sick family members to avoid infection. 5. People blame and sometimes attack outsiders for causing the disease.6. Sanitation systems treat water and sewage to prevent the spread of disease.7. Leaders cooperate across borders to prevent the spread and limit human exposure to high-risk animals.8. Vaccinations prevent many infectious diseases before exposure.9. People wash hands to prevent the spread of germs.10Special hospitals and centers are built specifically for isolating and treating patients.11.Cities create secular boards of health to manage outbreaks. 12.Overwhelmed by mortality rates, communities bury the dead in mass graves.
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 6.3 ACTIVITYDEAR BLACK DEATH, YOU’RE THE WORST2Medieval response (1347–1351) Modern response (today)3.With a partner or in small groups, respond to the following questions: a.What tools or knowledge do we have today that medieval Europeans did not? How do these change the way societies today respond to outbreaks of disease?b.Did you put any responses in both the Medieval and Modern columns? Why? What evidence do you have?c.Reflecting on what you learned in the video and the source collection, imagine that you are a historian in the twenty-first century trying to decide what percentage of Europe’s population died in the Black Death. What are the three biggest questions you need answered?
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 6.3 ACTIVITYDEAR BLACK DEATH, YOU’RE THE WORST31.2. 3. 4.Choose ONE perspective from the list on the next page. You'll spend a few minutes planning, and then you’ll write a letter to the Black Death in that person’s (or other animal’s) voice, describing what you saw, felt, and experienced during the Black Death. Be imaginative, but use specific details from the video or primary sources. Be sure to take this person’s (or other animal’s) perspective seriously, even if it seems outlandish by today’s standards: What did they know? What information would they NOT have had access to? 1. Gravedigger—You dig plague pits on the outskirts of town, stacking bodies in layers under thin soil. There aren't enough coffins, priests, or workers left to do this properly.
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 6.3 ACTIVITYDEAR BLACK DEATH, YOU’RE THE WORST42. Emperor Kantakouzenos—You rule Constantinople, the first major European metropolis to fall. Your own youngest child, Andronikos, died on the third day of the outbreak. 3. A sailor on the Genoese galleys—Your ship is one of 12 that just docked at Messina in October 1347. Most of the crew is dead or dying, covered in black boils. Port officials are refusing to let you off the ship. 4. Flagellant—You roam the countryside whipping yourself in public, convinced that self-punishment will satisfy God's thirst for human suffering and stop the plague. 5. Sister of the Hôtel-Dieu—You are one of the nursing nuns described by chronicler Jean de Venette. You tirelessly tend to plague patients, knowing you will likely die caring for them.6. Peasant farmer—Before the plague, you were powerless and poor, tied to your lord’s land under feudalism. After so many people died, there is a labor shortage, and your work is suddenly valuable.7. Port official in Croatia—You enforce the new 40-day quarantino, holding incoming ships in isolation before they can dock. You spend your days facing down angry sailors who don’t understand why they can’t come ashore. 8. Pope Clement VI—So many are dead that the land can no longer hold the bodies. You are about to bless the entire Rhone River so it can be considered holy ground and corpses can legally be thrown into it.9. Flea—You carry Yersinia pestis from rodent to human, riding the rigging of merchant ships from port to port, hitchhiking in grain shipment carts and hiding on livestock. You are the smallest cause of the largest catastrophe.
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 6.3 ACTIVITYDEAR BLACK DEATH, YOU’RE THE WORST5