The Bubonic Plague
How the Black Death Reached America
By: Leo Eaton & Jamie Tavenner
May 19, 2026
Almost everyone you know is dead. Bells toll outside. The few healthy people left drag bodies into the street as voices cry out for anyone to help collect the dead. You’re left wondering one thing: will this plague ever end, or will it end you instead?
The bubonic plague, better known as the Black Death, is one of the most infamous diseases in history. It wiped out cities, collapsed economies, inspired grim works of art, and turned neighbors against one another.
And while most of us associate it with medieval Europe, the truth is even more unsettling. Let’s go back in time to see how the plague started and how it made it all the way to the United States.
Yes, America had its own brush with the Black Death (I don’t remember learning that in school).
Here’s a Little Background on the Plague
The bubonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It spreads primarily through flea bites, especially fleas that feed on rodents like rats, squirrels, and prairie dogs.
When a flea bites a host, it can regurgitate plague bacteria into the wound. Contact with an infected animal can then spread the disease to humans. Once inside the body, the bacteria travel to the lymph nodes, causing painful swollen lumps called buboes the hallmark symptom of bubonic plague.
Other common symptoms include:
Fever
Chills
Headache
Fatigue
Nausea
Extreme weakness
Without treatment, the plague can become even deadlier.
The Three Forms of Plague
Bubonic Plague
The most recognizable form. It attacks the lymphatic system and causes swollen buboes in the neck, armpits, and groin (all your moving parts rubbing on your newly formed buboes, ouch).
Septicemic Plague
The infection enters the bloodstream, causing tissue death, internal bleeding, and organ failure (that just sounds all around bad).
Pneumonic Plague
The bacteria infect the lungs and spread through respiratory droplets. Untreated, this form was historically almost always fatal (basically super pneumonia).
In the 14th century, contracting pneumonic plague was essentially a death sentence.
The First Recorded Pandemic: The Plague of Justinian
The earliest documented plague pandemic was the Plague of Justinian.
Around 541 CE, likely beginning in lower Egypt, it spread across the Mediterranean and devastated Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire (shout out to our boy Pope Formosus who hung around Constantinople around the 800s) .
At its peak, as many as 10,000 people were reportedly dying each day.
The city was overwhelmed. Mass graves overflowed, bodies were packed into towers or burned at sea. Food shortages and social collapse followed.
The plague spread out of the city walls and east to the Caucasus Mountains, where invading Persian armies contracted the deadly disease. Due to the invasion, it spread throughout Europe and outbreaks occurred for the next two centuries.
Estimated deaths range from 25 million to 100 million people (though some believe these numbers to be an exaggeration).
The One We All Know: The Black Death of 1347–1351
When people talk about “the plague”, they usually mean the “Black Death” in Europe. It all started with a little biological warfare.
One of history’s most chilling…horrible? ingenious? (you pick an adjective for this one) plague stories took place during the Siege of Kaffa which is in Crimea in 1347.
Mongol forces led by Kipchak Khan Janibeg reportedly catapulted (trebuchet’d for the history police) plague-infected corpses over the city walls.
It may be one of the earliest documented examples of biological warfare.
The defenders fled by ship, inadvertently carrying the disease into Europe.
In October 1347, twelve ships arrived in the Sicilian port of Messina. Most sailors aboard were already dead, and the survivors were covered in blackened boils.
Authorities tried to expel the ships, but it was too late.
The disease spread rapidly through:
Italy
France
Spain
England
Germany
Scandinavia
Much of the rest of Europe
By the time it subsided, approximately 25 million people in Europe had died (that’s around one-third of the continent’s population, yikes).
How Did People Explain the Plague Back in the Day?
Medieval medicine had no understanding of bacteria.
Many believed the plague was caused by things like divine punishment, poisoned air, evil spirits, or even the gaze of infected people.
Fear often turned into violence.
Some outcomes of this fear led to thousands of Jewish communities being persecuted and massacred after being falsely blamed for the disease.
Others joined the Flagellants, groups that marched from town to town whipping themselves in public acts of penance (when people think the divine are angry they be doing some wild stuff) .
How the Plague Changed Europe
The Black Death reshaped society in profound ways.
Labor Became More Valuable: With so many workers dead, survivors could demand better wages.
Art Became Darker: Skeletons, graves, and personifications of death became common themes.
Population Recovery Took Centuries: Western Europe did not return to its pre-plague population until the 1500s.
The Bubonic Plague Comes to America
Most Americans are never taught that the plague reached the United States.
But it did.
Hawaii’s Plague Outbreak (1899–1900)
In 1899, Honolulu experienced an outbreak centered in Chinatown.
Health officials quarantined approximately 10,000 residents, most of them Chinese immigrants.
When the disease spread beyond the quarantine zone, officials decided to burn infected buildings (so the infected were now sick and homeless, nice work guys).
One fire escaped control and raged for 18 days.
The result:
60 acres of Chinatown destroyed
4,000 to 6,000 people left homeless
Detention camps established (sick, homeless, jailed. Cool I guess)
71 confirmed cases
61 deaths
The response was shaped as much by racism as by public health.
San Francisco’s Outbreak (1900–1907)
The first confirmed plague death on the U.S. mainland occurred in San Francisco in 1900.
The victim, a Chinese-American laborer named Chick Gin, was found dead in Chinatown. Officials quarantined the neighborhood, but politics soon interfered. California leaders downplayed the threat and even created media blackouts, fearing economic consequences. By the end of March, 1907 more than 100 people had died.
One physician, Rupert Blue, recognized the link between rat die-offs and plague transmission. His response included trapping and killing thousands of rats, sanitizing buildings, and tearing down overcrowded or temporary housing. At one point, he was killing around 13000 rats a week.
Eventually the efforts paid off, the outbreak was contained.
Los Angeles Outbreak (1924)
The last major urban plague outbreak in the United States occurred in Los Angeles in 1924. This time, Mexican-American communities were disproportionately blamed and targeted.
The outbreak killed around 40 people and was eventually traced back to 1 infected rat.
Does the Plague Still Exist?
Yes.
The plague never completely disappeared.
In the United States, a handful of cases still occur each year, especially in western states such as:
Colorado
New Mexico
Arizona
California
Transmission usually involves contact with infected rodents or fleas, including prairie dogs.
Fortunately, modern antibiotics are highly effective when treatment begins early.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that plague remains rare but is still present in natural rodent populations in the western U.S.
What the Plague Reveals About Human Nature
The Black Death wasn’t just a medical disaster.
It exposed a recurring human tendency of how people act when faced with fear and uncertainty. Across centuries, one pattern repeats:
When people are scared, they often search for someone to blame.
Final Thoughts
From the Plague of Justinian to outbreaks in the United States, the bubonic plague has shaped human history in terrifying ways. It toppled empires, inspired biological warfare, transformed art, and even reached American shores.
And while modern medicine has turned it from a near-certain killer into a treatable infection, it remains a reminder that history’s darkest chapters are never as distant as they seem.
So the next time you see a prairie dog in Colorado looking cute and harmless, or a rat scurrying down an alley in California, remember:
History sometimes comes with fleas.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed and if you'd like to listen to us discuss The Plague coming to America and other historical events on our podcast ‘The Darkives: Serious history. Told not so seriously’ feel free to listen to the episode Here or consider leaving a donation below.
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