Smallpox inoculation & Zabdiel Boylston Flashcards
Smallpox incoulation year and place
1721, Boston MA
WHO WAS ZABDIEL HIRED BY?
HE WAS HIRED BY COTTON MATHER TO START INOCULATING FOR SMALLPOX
WHO IS ZABDIEL BOYLSTON?
HE WAS A DOCTOR & THE FIRST ONE TO USE INOCULATION, EVEN THOUGH THE DOCORS AROUND HIM TOLD HIM NOT TO
WHEN DID ZABDIEL PUBLISHED HIS ACCOUNT?
1726
WHAT DID Boylston’s ACCOUNT DETAIL?
HIS ACCOUNT DETAILED HIM TESTING INOCULATION ON HIS SON, HIS 2 SLAVES AND OTHER PATIENTS. IT DETAILED HIS PROCESS AND THE OUTCOME.
WHO DID ZABDIEL BOYLSTON AND COTTON MATHERS DISAGREE WITH? Why?
WILLIAM DOGULAS
William Douglass was skeptical of the inoculation process, partly because Mathers learned about it from a slave. He thought it would make more people sick and that it wasn’t being kept track of properly.
HOW MANY PEOPLE DIED/what was the percentage of death due to smallpox?
850 PEOPLE DIED. SMALLPOX ACCOUNTED FOR 3/4 OF DEATHS IN BOSTON.
HOW MANY PEOPLE BECAME SICK IN BOSTON 1721?
6,000
where did Cotton Mathers learn of the inoculation?
He learned about it from an enslaved African, Onesimus
how was the smallpox inoculation used maliciously?
it was used as bio warfare during the American revolution
how did they inoculate people against smallpox? (What was the process)
they take the pus from a sick person and put it into the open wound of a healthy person so that they develop immunity to it
Why were people against the inoculation?
People who were inoculated didn’t always quarantine. Douglass mentions that this ended up spreading smallpox more. People also didn’t trust it because Mathers learned about it from an enslaved man. It was also banned in Virginia during the rev war.
what historian wrote about the smallpox inoculation and the controversies around it? What did they think?
Margot Minardi. She thinks it’s important to look at the controversy through the race lense; a big part of why Douglass didn’t accept inoculation was because it came from Africa.
why was smallpox so dangerous?
It was super contagious and stayed on surfaces for weeks; it was contagious for a long time (about 1 month) and had a long incubation period. Even if you didn’t die from it you were often scarred for life
why was the outbreak in boston in 1721 so bad?
the last outbreak was in 1702 so young colonists had no immunity to it. lots of people also fled to the countryside, bringing it with them
