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Death And The Black Death

Decent Essays

Life was very busy for me in 1300’s, I travelled through many countries and continents following the trail of dead bodies. I am death. I have lived forever. I will live until no human lives no more. I will continue collecting the souls of the deceased on earth and taking them to rest in the light blue place beyond. I lived through the Black Death watching on as the world experienced the disastrous effects.

It all started in 1330 when I was drawn to China as the death count increased rapidly. The Yuan Empire was experiencing a devastating famine, this is where I believe the Black Death started. In 1345 I started following the Silk road, I ended up in Kaffa in 1346. Kaffa was controlled by Italian merchants, and was being attacked by plague infected Tatars (Muslim Turks). The Tartars would throw their dead corpses into the city and stack them mountain high waiting for me. With most of the Tartars troops dead their attack broke and the Italian merchants fled by boat back to Italy. I soon followed them as nearly every single person, who had travelled on the boats, was infected and faced the prospect of death, all due to the Black Death. The Italian merchants introduced the Black Death to Europe and it was spreading fast, making my job very hard.

I was observing the spread of the plague right before my eyes. I knew how the three types of plague were transmitted but the humans did not. The three types were the Bubonic, Pneumonic and Septicemic plague. The Bubonic plague was the most common plague in medieval Europe. It was transmitted by infected fleas that were carried by rats, when the rat died the flea would jump to a human to feed from their blood. The human bitten by the flea, was then infected and faced certain death, the flea would then find a new human to feed off. The Pneumonic plague, being the second most common type in medieval Europe, was far more deadly and contagious than the Bubonic plague. The Plague would attack a human's respiratory system and was spread through the air by a victim's cough. The last type of plague was the Septicemic, it was the rarest and deadliest form of the Black Death. The Septicemic plague was also spread by fleas, like the Bubonic plague, but moved directly to a human's

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