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Introduction a. Describing what the Black Death did to a persons body. b. Quick fact c. Thesis- The Black Death changed history forever. It has taught us how to never have to go through this terrible thing again. The Spread Across Europe a. Topic Sentence - The Black Death spread like wildfire. b. Through the Black Sea c. Spread to Ireland due to the sick British moving there d. Spread all throughout Europe in three years ***Transition Paragraph*** How the Black Death Worked a. Topic Sentence - - The Black Death worked in mysterious ways b. Rat fleas traveled on rodents c. Nobody knew because fleas are small. d. Unsanitary Conditions ***Transition Paragraph***

The Black Death

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How the Black Death Hurt People a. Topic Sentence - - The black death would destroy families and even communities b. Parents abandoned children. c. How it felt to be sick. d. The Black Death hurt more than 1000 stabbings to the chest. ***Transition Paragraph***

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How the Black Death changed history a. Topic Sentencethe black death changed history dramatically b. Hygiene c. Changed peoples religious aspects d. Medical Advancements Conclusion a. Reworded thesis - - As you can see how terrible the Black Death was. Thanks to scientists we will never have to go through this again. b. Small but deadly c. The person is now dead

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Sitting in your bed and rotting from the inside. Having large black abscesses protruding from your body the size of an egg or a small apple ( www.middleages.org.uk ). Those abscesses would be gushing with green-black blood that would be enough smell to let your neighbors know that you were dying. This is what would have happened if you were to live in mid- 14th century. This is the time when The Black Death hit Europe. This was at the time when Europe began to prosper. After three years, Europe dropped their high status. Europe was now one of the countries of the world that was depending on other countries for help. In modern day Europe people still remember the tragic disease that swept across that time when their ancestors lived. The Black Death changed history forever. It has taught us how to never have to go through this terrible thing again. The Black Death first hit Europe in 1347. According to Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian writer, Ate lunch with friends and ate dinner with ancestors in paradise (www.themiddleages.net ). This clearly shows how fast the Black Death occurred and how fast it spread throughout all of Europe. The Black Death killed people very fast. Once a person had the disease it would be within two to four days when people would die from the sickness. In some of the most serious cases the illness would take over in just a couple of hours. This is what Boccaccio meant when he said such things about how people Ate lunch with friends and dinner with ancestors in paradise. Once the Black Death hit Europe it spread like wildfire. The Black Death spread to Europe by sailors traveling through the Black Sea. They were coming back from a trip from Asia. By the time the sailors got back most of them were sick and on the verge of death. Many others were already dead. ( www.themiddleages.net )

People would never think that the problem would be so serious, and by 1350 nearly 25 million people were dead! That was one third of Europes population at the time. In 1348-1349 the plague spread all the way to Ireland. The plague spread to Ireland because many of the sick British were moving there. Soon the plague was all throughout Ireland. This led to people moving from the country to the city. More people got infected with the plague and died. Even worse the plague spread all across Europe in three years. (www.bbc.co.uk ). Some places were impacted greatly. Some of these major places included such places as: Moscow, Scandinavia, Central Italy, Sicily, Venice, Paris, London, Austria, Germany, England, and Marseille (www.howstuffworks.com ). These were some of the biggest cities in Europe at the time. Most of these places would be overcrowded and would have unsanitary conditions. The plague got even worse when there would be nobody that was able to pick up the dead rotting people. The toxins that lay inside the dead were being released and causing even more illness. ( www.bbc.co.uk ) As you can see the Black Death spread through Europe very fast. People would die two to four days after exposure to this deadly disease. According to Giovanni Boccaccio Parents would abandon sick children, and children would not want to be near their sick parents. The Black Death would cause people to turn their backs on both their friends and their family. The Black Death worked in mysterious ways. Since this happened in 1347 people had not even invented microscopes. If they had the microscope the people would have been better able to understand how The Black Death worked, hence they would have been able to slow or even stop it.

The Black Death was a problem that was caused by a tiny flea called the rat flea. This flea is called the rat flea because this particular flea likes to travel on rats. You may be asking, How does this relate to the Black Death? What happened is back in the 14th century people did not know about cleanliness. Many tiny little rats would roam the street looking for food . As you know rats are usually around when places are dirty. These tiny fleas would hitch rides on the rats and when the rats would hang around these dirty and overcrowded cities the fleas would jump on these people and bite these people. Then after the fleas were full they would then jump to another person and infect that person as well (www.howstuffworks.com). The fleas came from Asia. More specifically, people thought the flea came from the Gobi desert. The Gobi Desert is a Desert located in Northeastern China. It is amazing that something so small could kill 25 million people. (www.middle-ages.org.uk ) To make matters even worse, the Black Death caused people to turn against the church and revolt on Christianity. People would walk around in this suit called the Doctors Suit and would put perfumes in the nose of the masks and would put eye coverings over the eye socket. They did this to protect their eyes from what they thought was evil. They did not want the evil to go into their eyes. They used the perfumes to block out the smell of the rotting bodies. Many people would have a robe and a scythe to hurt anything that tried to hurt them. The robe would be a great thing to protect them except the flea would more likely crawl up the robe and would infect them. As you can see most of the friars and nuns were the only ones who still prayed to god the rest believed that his powers were not real and used the suit instead.(www.themiddleages.net ).

The Black Death would hurt people, families, and even communities. For example, parents would abandon their children in fear of getting sick themselves. They would just leave their children in their bedroom and would not even help them once they knew the children were infected with the plague. Parents however, would end up eventually dying though because once their child was dead they would go take the sheets off the bed and then the fleas would jump on them and infect them as well. As the same time, children would also abandon their parents. Babies would sit and cry by their sick mothers that lay dead in the body infested street. According to Boccaccios writings Fathers abandoned their sick sons. Lawyers refused to come and make wills for dying. Friars and nuns were left to care for the sick, and monasteries and convents were soon deserted, as they were stricken, too. Bodies were left in empty houses, and there was no one to give them a Christian burial (www.middleages.net ). People would also Die miserably according to Boccaccio. The Black Death was very painful. Clearly the Black Death hurt people dramatically. It broke up many families. During a crisis the most important thing is family. They are there to back you up in the worst of times. When the parents were ill there was usually one kid that takes care of all the other children. Sometimes the oldest would have to take care of six or seven children depending on how many their parents had. This put a lot of strain on families. People thought more of themselves and they were living out of plain fear. They would often abandon their children and leave them to die alone. Parents would not even be near their children when it was obvious that it was going to be the childs last few days of life.

The Black Death changed history dramatically. It now teaches us the importance of hygiene. Today in modern Europe it prospers and is very neat it has always been like that ever since the renascence the whole reason this happened is because of hygiene related problems. This is just like a cause and effect relationship. Nothing dirty equals no rats and no rats equals the fleas to stay near the places where few people live. There still probably still had been deaths but not so dramatically as 25 million people! Today people clean up many of their messes and also do very good personal hygiene ( www.bbc.co.uk,www.themiddleages.net ) The Black Death also changed many peoples religious aspects. Some people turned against the Christian church and believed that god was the reason that this happened and revolted against the church. They believed that gods power was evil. People would also ( www.eyewitnesstohistory.com ). The Black Death also made much medical advancement. Know we know that we can get many shots or pills for many different things such as the polio vaccine. We now know the bacteria in what caused the plague and how to stop it. As you can clearly see the Black Death has changed history in many ways. We should never have to go through this terrible thing again. Thanks to many researchers, doctors, and writers who tell us what happened during the time period of the Black Death All in all, you can see how terrible the Black Death was. Thanks to science we will never have to go through this terrible thing again. Who would ever think something so small could be so deadly. As you know so many people got sick so quick but they died before I even got to finish this sentence.