The most terrible of all the terrors

In 1349 something arrived in England that would change the country for ever. It is known as the Black Death. It killed millions of people all over the world.
Here are four investigations. You can do as many as you like. The first is the easiest and the last is the hardest.

You can find work done by students and other resources at the gmhistory7 wiki. There are some great investigations by Tashan and Henna.

INVESTIGATION 1: What was the Black Death and how did it affect people?

Imagine you have to do a presentation to a class who know nothing about the Black Death. You have to be clear and interesting. You have to answer the following questions:

What was the Black Death? Where did it come from? What did it do to people? How did it spread? What caused it? What did people think caused it at the time? How did people deal with it?

Here are some links to start with:

Black Death presentation
Plague booklet
Symptoms
Images

You could also learn more about the Black Death by playing this game:
Fling the teacher!
You can find work done by students and other resources at the gmhistory7 wiki .There are some great investigations by Tashan and Henna.
It's up to you how to present your findings. A slideshow? A poster? A comic strip? A piece of writing? Whatever you choose, aim for clarity and maximum impact...

INVESTIGATION 2: The Plague returns.

The Black Death killed two and a half million people in England. It wasn't the last time we were hit by plague, though. Plagues hit this country many times. One of the most famous was the Great Plague of London in 1665. Over 300 years had passed between the Black Death and the Great Plague.

Links:
Plague
The Great Plague
London Plague 1665
Lord Mayor's Rules
Pepys' Diary
Extracts from the Diary

Your task is to compare the two and reach an answer to this question:

Did people in 1665 react to the plague in the same way as they did in 1349? If so, why? If not, why not?

You can post your answer to this blog if you like, or write in your book, or wordprocess your answer. Remember to back up your points with evidence. You can find work done by students and other resources at the gmhistory7 wiki . There are some great investigations by Tashan and Henna.

INVESTIGATION 3: Was the Black Death really a bad thing?

Most historians say that the Black Death was in many ways a good thing for ordinary poor peasant farmers in England - at least for those who survived.
How can that be when a quarter of the population died and people suffered so much?
Look back over the links in Investigation 1 and/or do your own searches.

Find out about the results of the Black Death to answer the question:

Was the Black Death really so bad for this country?

Post your response on this blog. Use evidence to back up your points.

You can find work done by students and other resources at the gmhistory7 wiki .

INVESTIGATION 4: Have we got it all wrong?

Most textbooks, history books and many websites say that the Black Death of 1349 was bubonic plague, spread by fleas from rats.

Fleas and rats

However, in the last few year some scientists and historians have begun to question this.
There are suggestions that the Black Death may have been a different kind of disease altogether. Perhaps it was pneumonic plague, spread through the air. Maybe it was similar to the deadly disease Ebola which hit Central Africa recently. Perhaps the Black Death of 1349 and the Great Plague of 1665 were completely different diseases.

There is a big argument going on about this and people are divided. There are pressing reasons why this matters at the start of the 21st century.

Your task:

Investigate the discussion and the research and come up with your own conclusions:
(a) On balance, do you think the Black Death was bubonic plague spread by rats, or not? Explain your answer with reference to the latest research.
(b) Why is this discussion so important to us in today's world?

You can post your answers on this blog or write/wordprocess an essay. Whatever you do, back your argument with evidence.
Here are some sites to start you off

Bubonic plague?
On the trail
De-coding
Bird flu
You will also need to go back and look at the links for previous investigations.

You can find work done by students and other resources at the gmhistory7 wiki . There are some great investigations by Tashan and Henna.

The Great Peasants' Revolt of 1381

The year was 1381, just over 30 years after the Black Death which had so changed England.
The country was ruled by a 14-year-old boy, Richard the Second.
In the villages of Essex and Kent, peasant farmers were not happy for many reasons.
In this year their anger led to mass protests, a march on London and a violent end.

TASK ONE: What happened and why?

Using the links below or your own research, find out

• why villagers were unhappy
• how they protested
• what happened when they reached London
• how the Revolt ended

The main events - main points, quite short, some difficult words.

Same story, more detail.
Another view of the same story.

Wikipedia

Peasants Revolt hoop shoot game.

TASK TWO: Is Thomas of Walsingham a good source of evidence?

Thomas of Walsingham lived at the time and wrote about the Revolt.

To read his account click here. You will need to print it out or save it to do the activity.

For the activity click here.