Many may wonder what the Black Death has to do with horror. Well, besides being one of the most horrific things to happen to mankind, many rumors emulated out from the catastrophe, including the existence of vampires.
These pages attempt to give an overview of the Black Plague, the truths and the mysteries.
Whether called the “Great Pestilence” or the “Great Plague”, the results of the Plague were the same: It caused death and destruction.
The Black Plague is believed to have been the deadliest pandemic in human history. It is noted to have begun in central Asia and was carried into Europe in the late 1340’s via trade ships.
Worldwide deaths have been counted at 75 million. The Plague killed anywhere from 30% to 60% of the Europeans it infected and changed the world. The Black Death, as we are aware now, is the Bubonic Plague.* It was widely caused by a bacterium named Yersinia pestis and was spread by rats and fleas.
*Please see notes on new hypothesis in regards to the plague. Nervetheless, I have chosen to present traditional history until it is conclusively proven otherwise.
The Dance of Death by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1538.
Illustration of bubonic plague in a pictorial Bible. 1411
The dead bodies littered the streets. Carts rolled out in the morning to pick up the deceased. Children abandoned by their mothers and fathers. Bodies thrown in piles for burning. Dogs hunted down and killed as culprits of the plague. The digging up of dead bodies to kill the vampires thought to have spread the disease. The self-inflicting ceremonies given by the flagellants and the rampant anti-Semitism fueled this era. Few calamities have caused such horrific human behavior as the Black Plague of medieval times.
In 1347 A.D., the real culprit, the oriental rat flea, made its way into Europe through the rodents that boarded the trading ships. The three types of plague identified as such are: septicemic, bubonic and pneumonic. The first two were transmitted after contact with the flea, with the latter being transmitted via airborne droplets sprayed from the lungs and mouth of an infected person. The mortality rate was anywhere from 30-75%. All three killed in a most vicious way.
Photo From CDC (Center for Disease Contol) website.
In the bubonic type, symptoms included inflamed lymph nodes in and around the arms, groin and neck. Victims bore horrible headaches, nauseas, fever and vomiting. The body would garnish buboes. The pneumonic and septicemic were less seen than the bubonic. The mortality rate for the pneumonic was 90-95%. It infected the lungs, causing the victim to cough up sputum until it was all completely red. The septicemic plague was most rare and caused the victims body to turn purple due to DIC (Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation). The mortality rate was very close to 100% and even today there is no treatment.
Bubole: Photo from CDC website.
Prior to the arrival of the plague, Europe was in a cooling period with great crop failure. The Little Ice Age had begun. The Great Famine struck Northern Europe. Food shortages, crop failure and high prices spread the hunger and malnutrition. The typhoid epidemic then hit and acted a precursor to what lay ahead for Europe: THE BLACK PLAGUE.
