Black Death: Effects on FarmersA devastating widespread disease that caused approximately 75 million deaths was known as the Black Death. The disease came from fleas detached from rats commonly found in cities. The fleas bit their victims, injecting them with the disease. Fleas and rats could be found almost anywhere, but were mostly found aboard ships of all types. This is how the Black Death made its way through European ports. This disease could also be transmitted through the air from person to person. According to a doctor, "instantaneous death occurs when the aerial spirit that comes out of the sick person's eyes hits the healthy person who is nearby and looks at the sick person." There was no medical knowledge to help people either cure or stop the disease. This sent all of Europe into a panic and changed many of their lives forever. The Black Death arrived in Europe in 1347 by sea. After a long voyage across the Black Sea, 12 merchant ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. When the ship arrived, most of the sailors were dead or deathly ill. The sailors were trying to chase away the fever. They couldn't keep food down and they were all in terrible pain. They were covered from head to toe in black blisters oozing blood and pus. The Sicilian authorities asked to remove the "death ships" from the port but it was too late, the disease had already begun to spread. The Black Death affected farmers in several ways. The disease has killed everyone and everyone it reaches, regardless of their age, religion or beliefs. People began to wonder what God's purpose was and wondered why He would send such disaster and damage to their cities. The farmers already... middle of paper... mercy or beautiful face. Woe is me for the shilling under the armpit; it is seething, terrible, wherever it comes, a head that gives pain and makes one cry out loud, a weight carried under the arms, a painful and angry apple, a white limp. It has the shape of an apple, like the head of an onion, a small pimple that spares no one. Great is its boiling, like burning ash, painful thing of ashen color. It's a nasty rash that comes with unseemly haste. They are like black pea seeds, broken fragments of brittle sea coal, and the crowd proceeds to the end. It is a painful ornament that erupts in a rash. They are like a rain of peas, the first ornaments of black death, ashes of the cardiola husks, a mixed multitude, a plague as black as a halfpenny, as berries. It's a painful thing that they have light skin. (Streissguth 62)