Differences in economic institutions, social classes, political hierarchies, and cultural values shaped the Black Death in significant ways. And of course, the societies in which pandemics occur are markedly different, and those differences affect outcomes. This makes the plague harder to trace, because animals do not leave a written record. pestis bacterium is enzootic and affects both humans and other mammals. Furthermore, while COVID-19 is a human disease, the Y. The Black Death had much higher rates of infection and mortality than COVID-19. Credit:, public domain.īut the COVID-19 pandemic is also considerably unlike the Black Death, and it’s risky to make simplistic comparisons. Pierart dou Tielt, manuscript illumination in the Tractatus quartus bu Gilles li Muisit, Tournai, circa 1353.

And both then and now, some individuals and communities went to extraordinary lengths to help each other.Ĭitizens of Tournai bury their plague dead. Similarly, in both pandemics, the impact of the disease was heavily influenced by existing socio-economic differences and inequities. In particular, many sought a group of people who could be scapegoated, drawing upon existing prejudices to do so. During both pandemics, people learned about the disease during and after its spread, and as a result of feelings of desperation, many sought easy answers and solutions. In both cases, contributing factors include active global connections between human societies, climatic and environmental changes, and human pursuit of resources from the natural world. Above all, both outbreaks of disease have met the parameters to be considered a pandemic: a novel organism that is highly contagious and infectious, geographically widespread and fast-moving, with minimal population immunity. So, are these two pandemics actually comparable? Certainly there are similarities. The very words “the Black Death” may seem to accurately communicate the fear and grief that many are feeling now. Most people will have heard a reference to the Black Death in a history class, movie, video game, or tv show. Throop’s students suspect that people are turning towards the Black Death primarily because it is such a widely recognized historical pandemic. Why this gravitation towards a centuries-old pandemic, when we have many more recent examples in the late twentieth century alone? Dr. In recent weeks, as the world has grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic, pieces comparing it to the Black Death have spread rapidly online. But she did not foresee how directly relevant the course would become. “The historical and transdisciplinary complexities involved with studying this particular pandemic make it an ideal topic for a capstone seminar, and with pandemics an ongoing part of the human experience, I knew the course would always be relevant,” notes Dr. Indeed, our knowledge of the Black Death has changed quite dramatically in the last several decades, thanks to the work of groundbreaking interdisciplinary scholars, including historians such as Monica H. Knowledge of this pandemic comes from many disciplines, including history, bioarchaeology, genetics, and epidemiology. Due to its chronological and geographical range as well as its mortality rates, the Black Death is recognized as the largest pandemic in human history.Īs any historian will tell you, understanding the past is never simple, and that is especially true for the Black Death. Indeed, the four centuries from approximately 1350-1750 CE are known to scholars simply as the Second Plague Pandemic. The initial phase of the pandemic took place in the mid-fourteenth century, with recurring outbreaks for centuries afterwards. Known in its time simply as the “pestilence,” or “mortality,” the pandemic was first described as “the Black Death” in the eighteenth century the phrase sometimes refers to the full pandemic, and sometimes only to its earliest years. pestis (“plague”) in the eastern hemisphere, i.e. The Black Death was the second pandemic of the bacterium Y. Susanna Throop’s capstone seminar on the Black Death have been considering that very question. While our current pandemic, COVID-19, is very different from the infamous fourteenth-century plague, is it possible that studying the Black Death can teach us something about how to handle our current situation? History majors in Dr. When most people hear the term “pandemic,” their minds automatically turn toward the Black Death.

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