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TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > History > 'The impact of the Black Death has been greatly exaggerated'. Discuss

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Below are some notes and suggested reading to act as a starting point for people looking at the the Black Death and it's impact. For example, when answering an essay question

'The impact of the Black Death has been greatly exaggerated'. Discuss.

• We can't tell exactly how many people died of plague; we don't know the prior population beforehand and the records for many areas aren't accurate enough.

• Contemporaries thought the whole world was being scourged, and as mass death on this scale had not been seen in their lifetimes they were affected to a huge extent. Ergo their accounts are full of phrases such as "there were scarcely enough living to bury the dead" and "husbands abandoned wives, mothers their children" which were the standard way of expressing this catastrophe- it doesn't necessarily mean that so many people died they couldn't bury the dead, but it means that one person perhaps thought they had.

• Records are for many areas non existent. Even careful statistical surveys and monographs still have to use historian's judgement as to how many people died.

• Very few records survive from C14th, of which few are careful parish registers, so that careful surveys such as those carried out on Plague in the 1600s cannot be carried out.

• If the poor are affected the most then they will not be documented- deaths could be far higher or lower amongst this section of society

• Society recovered very quickly after the Black Death- yes there were some social changes, but life went on. Some people found life easier, others harder. Some were enriched from dead people's belongings and property, others such as women found it easier to find work and get paid a fair wage due to the shortage of labour. Hence the Statute of Labourers, which limited the wages of workers, as a scarcity had made wages unsustainably high.

• Society did not break down- if half or more of the people had died, as contemporary chroniclers had recorded, then it is most unlikely that life would have gone on so nearly faultlessly.

• Different areas would be affected differently, and at different times.

Historians Views

In terms of historians, there are:

• Winslow; Black Death was a "shattering blow"

• Hilton and Aston; helped cause Peasant's revolt

• Gottfried; Breakdown of manorial system, end of traditional serfdom, big impact.

vs.

• Ziegler: England still overpopulated after Black Death, Very speedy recovery- speeded up existing trends, didn't start them.

Suggested Reading

• Rosemary Horrox, The Black Death - A collection of primary sources. VERY GOOD!

• Samuel Cohn, The Black Death Transformed

• Shrewsbury, The Black Death in the British Isles Old, and many of his conclusions have been rubbished- nevertheless, it's impressive and helps you understand the historiography.

• Ziegler, The Black Death

• Gottfried, The Black Death

• Herlihy, The Black Death

• Kelly, A History of the Black Death in Ireland

• Ormrod (ed.) The Black Death in England

• Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind (General history of medicine and illness- a good introduction to the topic)

• Roberts, "The Plague in England" History Today 30 4

• Twigg, The Black Death a Biological Reappraisal

Not exhaustive, but these books are all very good and useful

Comments

These notes are aimed at A Level history students.

Originally written by FadeToBlackout on TSR Forums.