{"id":4895,"date":"2020-04-24T12:34:13","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T16:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/?p=4895"},"modified":"2024-12-21T12:07:54","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T17:07:54","slug":"how-a-public-health-crisis-nearly-derailed-the-american-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/how-a-public-health-crisis-nearly-derailed-the-american-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"How a public health crisis nearly derailed the American Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Washington confronted a smallpox epidemic with a belief in science\u2014and a controversial plan.<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

George Washington strikes a confident pose after the victorious Battle of Princeton in this iconic portrait by Charles Willson Peale.<\/p><\/div>\n

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WHEN AMERICAN COLONISTS<\/span>\u00a0launched their revolution against Britain, they quickly encountered a second but invisible enemy that threatened to wipe out the new Continental Army: highly contagious smallpox.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But luckily for the young nation, the army\u2019s commander was familiar with this formidable foe.\u00a0George Washington\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0embrace of science-based medical treatments\u2014despite stiff opposition from the Continental Congress\u2014prevented a potentially disastrous defeat, and made him the country\u2019s first public health advocate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A hard lesson<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Washington\u2019s wisdom came from personal experience with the horrors of an epidemic. \u201cWas strongly attacked by the small Pox,\u201d Washington wrote as a teenager in 1751, while\u00a0visiting the Caribbean island of Barbados<\/a>. At the time,\u00a0the disease caused by the variola virus<\/a>\u00a0killed as many as one in two victims. Washington was lucky. After nearly a month of chills, fever, and painful pustules, he emerged with the pockmarked face typical of survivors\u2014but alive, and with immunity to the illness.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I will] continue the utmost Vigilance against this most dangerous enemy.\u201d\u00a0\u2014George Washington<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

Washington\u2019s encounter with the virus proved fortunate for the new nation. In 1775, smallpox arrived in Boston, carried by troops sent from Britain, Canada, and Germany to stamp out the growing rebellion. Many of these soldiers had been exposed and were therefore immune, but the vast majority of American colonists were not.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In the aftermath of the\u00a0battles of Lexington and Concord<\/a>, Washington\u2019s Continental Army had set up camp across the Charles River from the stricken city. To the dismay of many patriots seeking refuge from the British, the general prohibited anyone from Boston from entering the military zone. \u201cEvery precaution must be used to prevent its spreading,\u201d he sternly warned one of his subordinates about the virus. To John Hancock, the president of the Continental Congress, Washington vowed to \u201ccontinue the utmost Vigilance against this most dangerous enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

By immediately isolating anyone suspected of infection and limiting outside contact, Washington \u201cprevented a disastrous epidemic among the Continental troops,\u201d historian\u00a0Ann Becker<\/a>\u00a0says. In March 1776, when the British withdrew from Boston, Washington even specified that only soldiers who had suffered from smallpox be allowed into the city and its surroundings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Fighting back<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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But Washington wanted to do more than contain the threat. Inoculation against smallpox dates back to ancient China, but in colonial America it was a highly controversial procedure. Called variolation, the procedure entailed making a small incision in a patient\u2019s arm and inserting a dose of the live virus large enough to trigger immunity but small enough to prevent severe illness or death. The son of Britain\u2019s King George III had died in agony when his dose was poorly applied. In Washington\u2019s home state of Virginia, variolation was illegal.<\/p>\n

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Washington, however, was a strong believer in its effectiveness; he even persuaded his wife, Martha, to undergo the procedure in May 1776. That month, however, the general forbade any of his troops from being inoculated. It could take weeks to recover, and he feared that the inoculated men would be laid low just as the fight with the British intensified. \u201cThe Enemy, knowing it, will certainly take Advantage of our Situation,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He also had to contend with states and localities that strictly controlled or outlawed the procedure. In the midst of the epidemic, the Continental Congress ordered Army surgeons not to perform variolations. Washington was temporarily hamstrung, but he nevertheless ordered all new recruits inoculated, figuring their immunity would kick in by the time they were battle ready.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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By then, it was too late for thousands of American troops who marched on Quebec. Their commanding officer, Major General John Thomas,\u00a0failed to follow Washington\u2019s strict protocols<\/a>\u00a0during the ill-fated expedition, and he and one-third to half of his 10,000 soldiers perished from the virus. The force was soundly defeated. \u201cThe smallpox is ten times more terrible than Britons, Canadians, and Indians together,\u201d Massachusetts statesman John Adams despairingly wrote in 1776.<\/p>\n

As the epidemic spread, Washington decided to act. The following February, he informed Hancock that \u201cI find it impossible to keep it from spreading thro\u2019 the whole Army in the natural way.\u201d He ordered all troops inoculated, noting to his leading medical officer that \u201cnecessity not only authorizes but seems to require the measure.\u201d By the end of 1777, some 40,000 soldiers had been vaccinated.<\/p>\n

\n

Historians say the general\u2019s bold move proved critical to the revolution\u2019s success. \u201cA compelling case can be made that his swift response to the smallpox epidemic and to a policy of inoculation was the most important strategic decision of his military career,\u201d historian Joseph Ellis says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

When infection rates dropped from about 20 percent to 1 percent as a result of Washington\u2019s order, even the skeptical Continental Congress was convinced. The lawmakers repealed bans on variolation across the colonies, the first major piece of American public health legislation. And, of course, after winning the war against smallpox, the United States went on to win its fight against Britain and solidify its standing as a new nation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Washington confronted a smallpox epidemic with a belief in science\u2014and a controversial plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-geographic"],"yoast_head":"\nHow a public health crisis nearly derailed the American Revolution • Andrew Lawler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"George Washington confronted a smallpox epidemic with a belief in science\u2014and a controversial plan.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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Lawler is author of three books, Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City, The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke, a national bestseller, and Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization. As a journalist, he has written more than a thousand newspaper and magazine articles from more than two dozen countries. His byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many others. He is contributing writer for Science and contributing editor for Archaeology. Andrew\u2019s work has appeared several times in The Best of Science and Nature Writing.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AndrewLawlerAuthor","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/andrew-lawler-9b5a064a\/","https:\/\/x.com\/LawlerAndrew","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCsliIwdDC_wPYE01Se2zzAw"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4895"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18557,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4895\/revisions\/18557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}