What were the living conditions like during the plague?

Living conditions for those living in the Medieval age were difficult. Homes were typically cold, damp, and dark. The only light and fresh air that would come from an open door. By the end of the plague, one out of five residents died in London.

Did plague doctors quarantine?

A plague doctor had to serve a long quarantine after seeing a plague patient. The doctor was regarded as a “contact” who by agreement had to live in isolation to be quarantined.

What were houses like during the Black Death?

Typically these are houses of three bays, with a truss at each end and two internal trusses. The central bay forms an open hall, without upper floor or chimney, recognisable today by the fact that the surviving roof timbers are covered in soot and tar deposits from smoke rising from a central hearth on the floor below.

What was life like after the Black plague?

With as much as half of the population dead, survivors in the post-plague era had more resources available to them. Historical documentation records an improvement in diet, especially among the poor, DeWitte said. “They were eating more meat and fish and better-quality bread, and in greater quantities,” she said.

Did anyone survive the Black Death?

In the first outbreak, two thirds of the population contracted the illness and most patients died; in the next, half the population became ill but only some died; by the third, a tenth were affected and many survived; while by the fourth occurrence, only one in twenty people were sickened and most of them survived.

How did the Black Death spread so quickly?

The Black Death was an epidemic which ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1400. It was a disease spread through contact with animals (zoonosis), basically through fleas and other rat parasites (at that time, rats often coexisted with humans, thus allowing the disease to spread so quickly).

What did peasant houses look like?

Peasants lived in cruck houses. These had a wooden frame onto which was plastered wattle and daub. This was a mixture of mud, straw and manure. The straw added insulation to the wall while the manure was considered good for binding the whole mixture together and giving it strength.

How did living conditions affect the spread of the Black Death?

The disease was an infectious fever caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The disease was carried from rats and fleas to humans from a bite. The disease lasted for 5 years, the hygiene and living conditions allowed the infection to spread so quickly during the time.

How did the Black Death affect people’s daily lives?

The effects of the Black Death were many and varied. Trade suffered for a time, and wars were temporarily abandoned. Many labourers died, which devastated families through lost means of survival and caused personal suffering; landowners who used labourers as tenant farmers were also affected.

How did the black plague affect social life?

The plague had large scale social and economic effects, many of which are recorded in the introduction of the Decameron. People abandoned their friends and family, fled cities, and shut themselves off from the world. Funeral rites became perfunctory or stopped altogether, and work ceased being done.