Kelab Zewedu
WS 7
Period 4
Black Death Letter
November 16, 1349
Copenhagen, Denmark
Dear Mother and Father,
Thank you very much for my birthday surprise. Last week, rumors have been spreading
that a contagious disease, called “The Black Death”, has been attacking almost every citizen in
cities and they think it was heading for the north of Europe. At this time, the so-called “Black
Death” has reached our town and the villages south to our Kingdom. So far I’ve seen people fall
down while talking, swelling beneath the arms, neck and groins. Every minute there were about
3-5 people were dying. It was a horrible sight to look or think of. It seemed like the end of the
world for us.
Although this “Black Death” is very much killing most of humanity, it’s also a little bit of
advantage for the survivors. People in our town are revolting against the government for higher
pays and better jobs, since most of our people died. Now they get to have better businesses
and jobs, and they were even left with extensive inheritance from their dead family which
basically made the really rich. They all were shocked about this outbreak. Grief, disbelief,
horror, and sadness also described the tone in the air. We didn’t really know what caused this
biological disaster , but we had a guess that merchants brought it from the south-eastern
Europe. We then turned to the church for answers; regardless of someone’s spiritual life, why
did the good people die and the sinners live? The church couldn’t answer that, so some people
moved the opposite way into spiritual plan and inflicted self-torture, since they thought that
they were punished for their sins and this penance could take away that sin.
This great mortality has very much affected our political systems and almost the whole
government. Now since we objected to high payments and limitations to our rights, the
government had to adjust the social...