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I have been reading some interesting stuff about how the Black Death shaped humanity. Plague has been with humankind at least 5, 000 years and has been one of our most efficient killers.
“Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, a zoonotic bacteria, usually found in small mammals and their fleas. It is transmitted between animals through fleas.”
Yersinia pestis is the official name of this malevolent bacteria, which has a predilection for human victims. It manifests in bubonic and pneumonic ways to spread death and disease. It has been found in ancient DNA by scientists and looks to have originated on the steppes of Eurasia.
The Plague Effect On Human History
Plague spreads via human to human contact, once it has crossed over from its original animal/insect source. Our taste for travel and trade is what makes the devastation possible, as plague wreaks havoc through populations of people. Reading a first hand account of the Great Plague in Britain in the 17C by renowned author Daniel Defoe was eye opening. The similarities in public health policies with our own recent Coronavirus pandemic are startling. It is well worth a read.
“Defoe, Daniel. Journal of the Plague Year, Being Observations or Memorials, of the Most Remarkable occurrences, as Well Publick as Private, which Happened in London during the Last Great Visitation in 1665, Written by a Citizen who Continued All the While in London. Never Made Public Before. London, Printed for E. Nutt, J. Roberts, A. Dodd, and J. Graves, 1722.
SPC Rare xx PR 3404 .J4 1722
Daniel Defoe, 1660?–1731 was a London area based businessman, journalist, political pamphleteer, spy, and one of the early proponents of the novel as a genre of literature. Students still read his novels Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders. His Review was one of the earliest periodicals.”
Religion, Black Death & Misunderstanding
Plague came around and impacted populations in cities and towns seemingly cyclically. Reading Defoe’s account one sensed the frustrating and fatalistic reactions within societies faced with a black hole of scientific ignorance at what caused this horrendous killer of human beings. Religion made everything worse on this score, as the superstitious and ungrounded beliefs of the age distracted minds away from the evidence before them. Christianity, like most Bronze Age religions, diminished the material/body and gave far more intellectual weight to the intangible concept of the soul. This hocus pocus hodge podge had prayers for divine intervention high up on the menu, which sadly rarely eventuated. Legions of priests and clergy were claimed by the plague, as they went about their duties during the worst of each outbreak. However, in London they did have all the cats and dogs put to death, as a preventative measure in the cities fight against the scourge of this infectious disease. This shows that there were some right thinking officials involved in public health policy initiatives even back then. Today, with our own scientific knowledge, it is hard to comprehend that so many did not understand the role of blood borne infectious agents in plague. I mean human beings must have been very aware of blood from time immemorial. Every time someone plunged a knife or sword into another there it was. Similarly, bed bugs and mosquitos have been biting us for countless millennia.
The absence of an understanding of the microbial world is glaringly obvious with hindsight. Sadly, man’s invented God offered no insight in this key regard.
Plague’s Butcher’s Bill
The enormous mortality rate of plague everywhere it flourished, especially in large cities like London, was astounding. Defoe made lists of the weekly death rate from plague in various parts of London.
“The next week And to the 1st
– was thus: of Aug. thus:
Aldgate 14 34 65
Stepney 33 58 76
Whitechappel 21 48 79
St Katherine, Tower 2 4 4
Trinity, Minories 1 1 4
– —- —- —-
– 71 145 228
It was indeed coming on again, for the burials that same week were in the next adjoining parishes thus:—
– The next week
– prodigiously To the 1st of
– increased, as: Aug. thus:
St Leonard’s, Shoreditch 64 84 110
St Botolph’s, Bishopsgate 65 105 116
St Giles’s, Cripplegate 213 421 554
– —- —- —-
– 342 610 780”
– (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/376/376-h/376-h.htm)
The above excerpted figures were in the early phase of the outbreak of plague in London in the 17C. These numbers would rise exponentially, as the death carts and pits would take ever greater volumes of those carried off by the disease. Dealing with the dead was always done under the cover of darkness, so as not to alarm the citizenry.
– Of all of the
– Diseases. Plague
From August 8 to August 15 5319 3880
” ” 15 ” 22 5568 4237
” ” 22 ” 29 7496 6102
” ” 29 to September 5 8252 6988
” September 5 ” 12 7690 6544
” ” 12 ” 19 8297 7165
” ” 19 ” 26 6460 5533
” ” 26 to October 3 5720 4979
” October 3 ” 10 5068 4327
– ——- ——-
– 59,870 49,705
Tens of thousands of human beings dying in a matter of weeks would overwhelm many of us today, I would contend. Imagine being no wiser as to why this was occurring! Of course, we would invent some reason so as to put our distressed minds at some sort of, if not rest, temporary way station on the journey to resignation. Putting stuff down to the divine intervention of a cruel god or demon still appeals to some of us today.
“If I may be allowed to give my opinion, by what I saw with my eyes and heard from other people that were eye-witnesses, I do verily believe the same, viz., that there died at least 100,000 of the plague only, besides other distempers and besides those which died in the fields and highways and secret Places out of the compass of the communication, as it was called, and who were not put down in the bills though they really belonged to the body of the inhabitants. It was known to us all that abundance of poor despairing creatures who had the distemper upon them, and were grown stupid or melancholy by their misery, as many were, wandered away into the fields and Woods, and into secret uncouth places almost anywhere, to creep into a bush or hedge and die.”
- (Defoe, Daniel. Journal of the Plague Year)
The Economic Effects Of The Plague
In the current era, for most of us our gods are now economic in nature. Therefore, it is behoven upon me to focus on how the Black Death impacted upon communities in this manner. To consider how the economics stacked up when cities lost half or more of their entire populations.
Well, topically in today’s zeitgeist it created inflation, as it drove up wages due to the scarcity of available labour. With all those folk dead employers had to pay more to get individuals to do the required jobs.
“The economy underwent abrupt and extreme inflation. Since it was so difficult (and dangerous) to procure goods through trade and to produce them, the prices of both goods produced locally and those imported from afar skyrocketed. Because of illness and death workers became exceedingly scarce, so even peasants felt the effects of the new rise in wages. The demand for people to work the land was so high that it threatened the manorial holdings. Serfs were no longer tied to one master; if one left the land, another lord would instantly hire them. The lords had to make changes in order to make the situation more profitable for the peasants and so keep them on their land. In general, wages outpaced prices and the standard of living was subsequently raised.”
(Ed: D.S.) Courie, Leonard W. The Black Death and Peasant’s Revolt. New York: Wayland Publishers, 1972; Strayer, Joseph R., ed. Dictionary of the Middle Ages. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Vol. 2. pp. 257-267.
The workers found a friend in the economic impact of plague upon their lives if they were fortunate enough to survive. They may have lost loved ones and family but their meagre pay packets benefitted somewhat from the shortage of human labour more generally. Inflation in the current clime is seen as a very bad thing, with our central banks putting economies into virtual recessions to get on top of rising inflation. However, not all economists are in agreement about all inflation being a bad thing. In this instance, it positively contributed to peasants getting a raise and breaking free of crippling serfdom arrangements which bound them to the land and their lords.
Black Death Plague’s Roll Call Through History
Plagues have been plaguing humanity for more than 5, 000 years and their death tolls have shaped our civilisation in many ways.
“During the fourteenth century, the bubonic plague or Black Death killed more than one third of Europe or 25 million people. Those afflicted died quickly and horribly from an unseen menace, spiking high fevers with suppurative buboes (swellings). Its causative agent is Yersinia pestis, creating recurrent plague cycles from the Bronze Age into modern-day California and Mongolia. Plague remains endemic in Madagascar, Congo, and Peru.”
- (Glatter KA, Finkelman P. History of the Plague: An Ancient Pandemic for the Age of COVID-19. Am J Med. 2021 Feb;134(2):176-181. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2020.08.019. Epub 2020 Sep 24. PMID: 32979306; PMCID: PMC7513766.)
Pestilence makes itself known within the pages of the Bible, that best selling fictional account of the roots of Christianity and Judaism purporting to be the history of the world. Even in Sunday school, I remember the colourful boasts made about a God smiting his more powerful enemies with 7 years of pestilence in Egypt and other places. The inflated claims from a paranoid exiled group of Judeans and Israelites reads like a mad manifesto that barely touches the ground of any factual reality.
That this Old Testament thinking has infected the minds of Christian Nationalists in the US today is probably no surprise when you think about the fate of the South in the Civil War. Birds of a feather and all that.
Blaming The Black Death On The Jews
Unfortunately, for minorities in the Dark Ages, often the Jewish ghetto within Christian populations, they would cop it from those wishing to blame it on them during plague times. Their homes would be destroyed, places of worship desecrated, and their lives slaughtered and burnt alive. Blame it on the immigrant, those that were considered ‘other’ and outside of the accepted members of the community or township was a popular means of venting. This occurred with sickening regularity in places all over Europe. The Jews were historically blamed for killing Christ, despite the fact that it was the Romans who did the actual crucifying.
Pogroms against the Jews and other minorities accompanied most periods of plague down through the ages.
Culling Creatures & Plague
The main thrust of this is that plagues have been culling humanity with regularity for 5 millennia. This means that Yersinia pestis has been our hand maiden of death for a very long time. We, as human beings, like to think of ourselves as above all other creatures on earth. In actual fact, we are just another species of animal making our way with all the attendant connections to everything else. We do not stand outside of the holistic totality of mother earth. We Homo sapiens cull other creatures within our environments when we consider there to be too many of them. In Australia, we regularly cull kangaroos in various locations in response to calls for their management. Livestock is culled for breeding purposes and stock management levels. Wild animals are culled when their numbers are considered to be excessive to their environment and habitats. Yersinia pestis has been our culling agent over the last 5 thousand years. Theists may see it as God deeming there to be too many of us running about the place, thinking and doing sinful things and causing havoc. Those of us with a bit of a green thumb know that pruning can generate more vigorous growth in our plants. Perhaps, plague has played this role for humanity over the millennia?
Plague Presence In History
“The plague has afflicted humanity for thousands of years. Molecular studies identified the presence of the Y. pestis plague DNA genome in 2 Bronze Age skeletons dated at roughly 3800 years old. In the biblical book 1 Samuel from approximately 1000 BCE, the Philistines experience an outbreak of tumors associated with rodents, which might have been bubonic plague. Scholars identify 3 plague pandemics. The first pandemic or Justinian plague probably came from India and reached Constantinople in 541-542 CE. At least 18 waves of plague spread across the Mediterranean basin into distant areas like Persia and Ireland from 541 to 750 CE.”
The evidence suggests that there were people who knew or strongly suspected the culprits carrying the infectious agents at the time. However, those writing the histories which have survived are most often religious scribes attributing most everything to a divine source fitting their theistic world view. Thus, we get a very skewed vision of the past not only in relation to plague but most everything else too. If all you have is an imaginary hammer then everything looks like an imaginary nail. The stories we believe dominate our thinking and how we see the world. Even when, our loved ones are dying a terrible death with bursting blood filled buboes, we seek soul filled answers to these ‘in your face’ calamities. Few of us can remain with the material facts of the matter without seeking solace in imaginary realms.
Travelling The Black Death Express
Modern human beings like to travel, even when there is no demanding reason to do so for their livelihood. We saw the much ado about this when Covid-19 shut down the world’s airports for all but essential services. Plague and pandemics are spread via this travel over vast distances very quickly. Our love of recreational travel is a major reason why infectious diseases will be capable of becoming global pandemics for the foreseeable future. For some of us the very idea that we can jump on a plane and fly somewhere far away is a part of being human in the 21C.
Cruise ships became floating citadels of infection during Covid and still folk are keen to jump back aboard them today. Short memory my friend!
Cargo and freight are other means for plague causing agents to spread their deadly disease around the world. In previous millennia, it was the great sailing ships that carried the rats and their fleas from port to port over the seas. These hardy maritime travellers were decidedly effective in spreading the Black Death throughout the Mediterranean and beyond. Fabric could be a host for flea pupae which can survive for up to 5 months. Animals being shipped can play host to infected adult fleas and provide them with blood to live off during their journey. Travel and trade are the best friends of plague and pandemics.
Human Immunity & The Black Death
When thinking about how the Black Death shaped humanity over the millennia it reminds us all that we are only a part of something much larger than ourselves. Our fate, as a species of primates, is inextricably linked to the pathogens which affect us. They have impacted upon our survival as individuals and as societies and populations. Yersinia pestis has feasted upon us and changed the way we live our lives at various stages of our development in a variety of locales. It has brought great tragedy upon the lives of individuals and families, often cutting short lifespans.
This disease generating bacterium has culled the populations of our cities and towns over the millennia. Indeed, the Black Death has affected our immunity over the many centuries.
“results suggest that the Black Death influenced the evolution of the human immune system. “When a pandemic of this nature—killing 30 to 50% of the population—occurs, there is bound to be selection for protective alleles in humans,” Poinar says. “Even a slight advantage means the difference between surviving or passing. Of course, those survivors who are of breeding age will pass on their genes.”
However, the protection against plague conferred by these variants appears to have come at a cost. The protective ERAP2 variant is also a known risk factor for Crohn’s disease. Another protective variant has been associated with an increased risk of two autoimmune diseases. Thus, the Black Death and other past pandemics may have shaped humans’ immune systems in ways both good and bad. While we acquired better protection against infections, we became more susceptible to autoimmune diseases.”
It is indisputable that we have been shaped at multiple levels by such a microbial force over so many thousands of years. Our autoimmune disease response sees our own bodies attacking themselves. Our immune response mistakenly targets parts of our system as foreign organisms and this creates destructive havoc within us. The very real fear of plague infection seemingly has manifested this susceptibility via evolution within our bodies.
The Blackest Of Deaths & Real Tragedy
“let me first mention that one of the most deplorable cases in all the present calamity was that of women with child, who, when they came to the hour of their sorrows, and their pains come upon them, could neither have help of one kind or another; neither midwife or neighbouring women to come near them. Most of the midwives were dead, especially of such as served the poor; and many, if not all the midwives of note, were fled into the country; so that it was next to impossible for a poor woman that could not pay an immoderate price to get any midwife to come to her—and if they did, those they could get were generally unskilful and ignorant creatures; and the consequence of this was that a most unusual and incredible number of women were reduced to the utmost distress. Some were delivered and spoiled by the rashness and ignorance of those who pretended to lay them. Children without number were, I might say, murdered by the same but a more justifiable ignorance: pretending they would save the mother, whatever became of the child; and many times both mother and child were lost in the same manner; and especially where the mother had the distemper, there nobody would come near them and both sometimes perished. Sometimes the mother has died of the plague, and the infant, it may be, half born, or born but not parted from the mother. Some died in the very pains of their travail, and not delivered at all; and so many were the cases of this kind that it is hard to judge of them.”
- (Defoe, Daniel. Journal of the Plague Year)
This kind of thing, described above by Defoe, is the epitome of soul destroying agony. This is what Yersinia pestis could and did unleash upon the very means of new life in human terms. Most of us have led lives untouched by such incomparable tragedy. The greater majority of us have been spared of this for generations in the modern era. You can, however, understand how fearful many health professionals are of such a pandemic returning to our lives enmasse. The microbial world can wreak devastation upon our bodies, our families, our communities, and our species. Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death…
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
©MidasWord
