Lucky for the Europeans, the ravages of the Black Death caused them to gain stronger immune systems. The change was so great that 10% of their modern descendents are resistant to HIV! The Plague was, in some sense, an evolutionary bottleneck. read more
In fact, research published in February in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggested that the plague did write itself into human genomes: The descendants of plague-affected populations share certain changes in some immune genes. read more
Michael L, the term black death does not refer to black people. It refers to the subcutaneous hemorrhage in and around the lymph nodes of a victim, most notably in the groin area. From Wikipedia. The Black Death was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. read more