The black death in London

Secret history – Return of The Black Death runs on two plot threads: one takes place in the 14th
century and one takes place in the 2000’s. The former investigates how the black death spread and
disappeared in London, the latter tells the story of finding a mass grave and the examination of the
skeletons.
In 2014, 25 black death skeletons were unearthed by a crossrail project. The discovery of the plague
pit was an important element to finally understand what really happened back in the days. The
bones, the wills of the dead people and other useful documents help guessing the real deathrate,
which was almost impossible before. Between 1348 and 1349 around 60% of the population of
London has died, which 5 million death. The newly found skeletons offer an explanation to how
could the pestilence spread so quickly. It killed fast, so there were no direct traces on the bones.
However, the long-term signs help us understand it a bit more: they show us malnutrition, anemia
and already untreated problems. This means the immune system of the of the victims were so weak
that everybody caught it easily. London was on the brink of annihilation, but it was survived because
of the disaster management by the king, Edward III.
In the 20th century, an Asian pestilence outbreak arrived to the United Kingdom by rats and then it
was spread by the humans. This time it was not bubonic plague, but pneumonic plague, which is
even more contagious. The plague still exists nowadays, on Madagascar rats and flees spread it to
the human population too, but it is much slower than the one in the 14th century. Bubonic plague
today is identical to the black death, the plague itself has never changed, but most of the antibiotics
are able to stop it. The moral of the documentary is that it is important to understand the way the
black death happened, so if a new epidemic turned up, we could handle the situation correctly to
avoid a new catastrophe in the human history.
The two documentaries examine different waves of pestilence in different time periods, but both
examine it in the same location, London. While Secret History talks about the whole city in the 14th
century, The Great Plague focuses on a quarter called Cock and Key Alley in the 17th century. The
latter also focuses much more on how the epidemic changed the life of the inhabitants, especially
the poor people. The documentaries have similar views on how plagues effected the urban cultures.
They both emphasize that these were great tragedies which left many orphans and widows behind
and is some cases it even destroyed whole families. Nobody was safe from the black death, but those
who had a job connected to the plague, were in bigger danger, for example nurses, watchmen,
grave diggers and even the wax candle makers. People, who were higher on the social scale, could
go to the countryside to their relatives with a certificate of health, but the poor was stuck in London
with no escape. So, in both cases, after the end of the plague-waves much of the poor has
disappeared.
The way people reacted to the appearance of the pestilence was also similar: at first, they did not
take it seriously and only after the sudden increase in death did they realize how bad the situation
is. Then they locked themselves in their homes and neighbors turned against neighbors; everybody
was terrified. Nobody knew where the plague came from nor how it could be stopped. In both cases,
there were mystical answers, scientific answers and in the 16th century a new theory appeared too,
called miasma theory. There were also some absurd prevention ideas, like using garlic or getting
the syphilis.
A big difference between the waves was with the way the government handled it. Edward III, who
had personal losses due to the epidemic, took action quite early on. For example, they built the
dead properly in purpose built black death cemeteries. It was impossible to stop it in time, because
the famine in the previous years weakened the immune system of the folks. On the other hand, the
government in the 16th century has not done anything until it was too late. Then they closed the
pubs, killed the animals on the street, they built (only) five pesthouses, locked the infected in their
house and signed it with a red cross. The authorities were paralyzed, the dead became nameless,
they could not keep record of them anymore.
Finally, I would like to point out some technical differences between the documentaries. Secret
history was jumping between the past and the present, while The great plague focuses only on the
past. Even when talking about the past, Secret history shows everything in a modern environment.
For example, when they were talking about the first recorded infected, who was a shoemaker, they
showed a shoemaker today or when they were talking about some places in London, they showed
them in their current forms. The great plague was more cinematic in a sense. It also tells the stories
of real people, but it recreates the scenes historically accurate. Of course, this would be impossible
without adding some fiction to it too. This way a deeper emotional connection is formed between
the characters and the viewer and it helps understanding the tragedy better. In my opinion, the
latter was more interesting to watch, but the former was more informative and useful with talking
about epidemics today.