Part 3

2

The Burden of Disease: Arguments - Primary Source

The Burden of Disease: Arguments - Primary Source

Argument 4 from Part I:

The long-term effect of the pandemic was population reduction, as it had a very high mortality rate. It is even argued that the effect on population was severe enough to even continue after the pandemic, that is, after 1353.

The Primary Sources

Document 1: The English chronicler Henry Knighton wrote about the effects of the Black Death in England in 1348-50 as follows:

Key Section:

“In this year there was a general mortality among men throughout the world. It began first in India, and then appeared in Tharsis, then among the Saracens, and at last among the Christians and Jews, so that in the space of one year, namely, from Easter to Easter, 8000 legions of men, according to widely prevalent rumors in the Court of Rome, died in those remote regions, besides Christians.

In the following summer [1350], there was so great a lack of servants to do anything that, as one believed, there had hardly been so great a dearth in past times. For all the beasts and cattle that a man possessed wandered about without a shepherd, and everything a man had was without a caretaker (Knighton, 1948).”

Explanation:

The evidence supports the argument that long-term effects of the pandemic were a drastic reduction in population. Henry Knighton noted that there was a general mortality of men throughout the world. This reduction in population affected the availability of servants to work such that productive land and animals were left unattended to. In other section of the narrative, the author notes that this lack of servants was so serve that the few that were willing to work were changing such a high wage that the King had to come in and intervene to regulate the wages they could ask, but the demand was so severe and the conditions very hostile that they went against this decree.

Document 3: The great Muslim historian, Ibn Khaldun lost both of his parents to the Great Death. He describes the effect of the plague in this excerpt:

Key Section:

“Civilization both in the East and the West was visited by a destructive plague which devastated nations and caused populations to vanish. It swallowed up many of the good things of civilization and wiped them out. It overtook the dynasties at the time of their senility, when they had reached the limit of their duration. It lessened their power and curtailed their influence. It weakened their authority. Their situation approached the point of annihilation and dissolution. Civilization decreased with the decrease of mankind. Cities and buildings were laid waste, roads and way signs were obliterated, settlements and mansions became empty, and dynasties and tribes grew weak (Robert Gottfried, 1983).”

Explanation:

The plague had a long-term effect on the reduction of the population across the regions affected. According to the historian Ibn Khaldun, the population decrease was so significant that it lessened the power of the dynasties, cities and buildings remained empty as civilizations decreased significantly. The example of a city being empty goes to paint a picture of the extent of the population decrease caused by the plague.

Document 5. Nicephorus Gregoras, Roman History (Byzantium), 1350s.

Key Section:

“To put matters simply, it did not spare those of any age or fortune. Several homes were emptied of all their inhabitants in one day or sometimes in two. No one could help anyone else, not even the neighbors, or the family, or blood relations. The calamity did not destroy only men but also many animals living with and domesticated by men. I speak of dogs and horses and all the species of birds, even the rats that happened to live within the walls of the houses (Bartsocas, 1966).”

Explanation:

This source supports the argument that the pandemic had a significant impact of population decrease. The author Nicephorus Gregoras pointed out that the plague did not choose its victims but spared no one. He states that several homes were left deserted, and the situation was so dire that it was hard for one to help their neighbor owing to the fact that they themselves had been visited by death and also needed help in one way or another. The author goes on further to add that even animals experienced the effects of the plague, as there were no humans to tend to their needs.

Document 7. Jean de Venette, Chronicle, 1368. Vennette was a French Friar.

Key Section:

“After this cessation of the epidemic, pestilence, or plague, the men and women who survived married each other. There was no sterility among the women, but on the contrary fertility beyond the ordinary. Pregnant women were seen on every side. . .. But woe is me! The world was not changed for the better but for the worse by this renewal of population (Newhall & Jean Birdsall, 1953).”

Explanation:

This source refutes the argument that the pandemic reduced the population significantly. In the above excerpt, the author Jean de Venette notes that the opposite was experienced, that is, more women were observed to actually be pregnant. The author also noted this as the renewal of population. This was contrary to what was argued by Hays, as he noted that the plagues’ impact on population was so significant that even after it took such a long time for the number to recover. Jean de Venette refutes this noting that there was actually no sterility, but fertility beyond the ordinary.

References

Knighton, Henry,  Chronicles, trans. Edith Rickert, in Rickert (comp.), Clair C. Olson and Martin M. Crow (eds.),  Chaucer's World, Oxford University Press, 1948

Robert Gottfried.  The Black Death. New York: Free Press, 1983:41

Christos S. Bartsocas, “Two Fourteenth Century Greek Descriptions of the ‘Black Death,’” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 21 (1966): 3

Richard A. Newhall, ed., Jean Birdsall, trans., The Chronicle of Jean de Venette (New York: Columbia University Press, 1953), pp. 48-51.