Smallpox, Inoculations, and the American Revolution with Andrew Wehrman
Episode 74 - August 15, 2021
Andrew Wehrman (Central Michigan University) talks to Merle and Lee about the importance of public health, especially smallpox and inoculations, during the American Revolution. After first orienting listeners to the political situation in North America, Andrew discusses differences between public health in Britain and the colonies, along with how the colonists used quarantine and isolation to stop the spread of smallpox. He then discusses the importance of inoculation in preventing smallpox on a broader scale, along with how the movement of armies during the Revolution led to more demand for more readily available inoculation even for the poor (although not Native Americans). At the end, he offers similarities between 18th century epidemics and Covid including why vaccines changed the calculus and why some outbreaks of smallpox were worse than others.
Further Reading
- Andrew Wehrman, “How to Prevent an Epidemic Like the American Colonists Did,” On Second Thought: The Health and Happiness Issue (Humanities North Dakota, 2018).
- John Duffy, Epidemics in Colonial America (Louisiana State University Press, 1953).
- Ben Mutschler, The Province of Affliction: Illness and the Making of Early Modern New England (University of Chicago Press, 2020).
- Elizabeth Fenn, Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 (Hill & Wang, 2001).
- Peter McCandless, Slavery, Disease and Suffering in the Southern Lowcountry, (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
Our Guest
Andrew Wehrman
Associate Professor, Central Michigan University
