The Renaissance Plague Activity

 

 

In our study of the Renaissance time period we have discovered many influences during the times that have impacted people even today.  Art, music, and literature from the Renaissance have lasting impacts throughout the world even today.  Queen Elizabeth changed Great Britain permanently.  Urbanization, trade, and growing populations during the Renaissance were impacted by one very deadly disease.  This disease is commonly known as the plague, black death, or bubonic plague and it killed huge amounts of the English population during the 16th Century. 

 

For this activity you will be using an actual newspaper entry from the early 1600’s to analyze death tolls due to the plague.  You will also be reading and discussing how the plague came to England, how it spread, and how it changed the country.

 

 

The Picture shows the bodies of Bubonic Plague or Black Death victims thrown on to a death cart

Part 1:  Begin by opening http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/plaguedata.htm which contains an actual newspaper from 1665, the year of the Great Plague.  From this site you need to download and print the excel spreadsheet activity labeled as “data”.  Using this spreadsheet and the newspaper entries, fill in the chart with plague information.

 

 

 

Part 2:  After you have finished the excel exercise, answer the following questions using this plague page, the plague links and your own opinion.

 

  1. How did the plague spread?
  2. How did people stop the disease?
  3. What were some of the believed cures for the plague the in 1600’s?
  4. How do you think the plague permanently (even today) impacted England?