Elizabeth A. Fenn, Pox Americana: the great smallpox epidemic of 1775-82, (New York: Hill and Wang, 2001). Pages, ix, 384, index, bibliography. Review by Samantha Pilcher. Elizabeth A. Fenn is the author of Pox Americana.
What Made it Hard to Settle Charles Town? Charles Town was a major development at the time owned by the mighty British Empire. They wanted to establish a settlement here because of the resources it had to offer. But, there were a number of problems that came with settling Charles Town.
In the book, Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 by Elizabeth Fenn (2001), depicts the casualty of one of the deadliest virus in mankind -- the smallpox during the American War of Independence and how it shaped the course of the war and the lives of everyone in the North America. Smallpox is a highly contagious disease caused by an Orthopoxvirus known as variola major virus. Spread by direct transmission, the disease produces high fever, headache, excruciating back pain, anxiety, general malaise, blindness at times, and the most distinctive of all, blistering rashes that can leave deep-pitted scars. Its spread could be attributed through human civilizations, voyaging, expansion of trade routes. The European colonizers brought
A virus that spread easily and could be deadly when not treated. In the Age of Exploration time period they didn’t have the technology like we have today to cure such a disease. In documents 2a-b the first part is a statement talking about how the Natives and Africans rarely got sick, its says “ There was no sickness; they had no aching bones; they had then no high fever; they had then no smallpox.” This is showing how before the Europeans all of the diseases and the sicknesses that came with them never occurred in the Natives life. In the document the second portion that follows says, “ There was great havoc.
This caused millions of people to fall ill from smallpox, a disease that the Spanish had brought from the Old World. The Spanish were
“We were in the center of a dying city.” That was the thought of millions of yellow fever victims during the devastating outbreak of 1793. This disaster is the focus of the nonfiction text “An American Plague.” The text is about a young woman, Catherine LeMaige, who lost her life to yellow fever, although her doctors did all they could. After recounting the symptoms, they concluded Catherine had contracted yellow fever, and was one of the earliest victims.
Another similarity between Smallpox and the black death is that they both advanced important movements. Smallpox is credited with being the cause of the rise of the American abolition movement. White people living in the slave ports feared for their own health, which brought the notion of the movement itself. The Black Death is credited with being the cause of the Reformation. Due to people like William the One-day Priest, the church was thought to be corrupt.
In some areas contact with smallpox wiped out nine-tenths of the Indians population. Smallpox was brought over by animals when they were transported overseas. It is communicated through the air by means of droplets or dust particles and enters the body through the respiratory tract. Europeans were not as susceptible to smallpox because they had built up much stronger immune systems from being around epidemic pathogens for a long time. They viewed smallpox as an illness almost every child gets while growing up.
Sometimes the smallest things have the biggest impact. What was infinitesimal but so widespread that no part of North America was untouched by it? The devastation of Smallpox in the 1700s played a key role in the outcome of the revolutionary war and also in shaping modern medicine and in how we handle diseases. But these medical advances didn 't come without terrible sacrifice. Nearly 30% of europeans living in the Americas during the epidemic would succumb to smallpox totaling thousands.
While Smallpox caused a disruption of faith upon the natives, the plague caused a disruption of faith upon the Catholics. During the time of smallpox, the natives were dying in incredibly large numbers and none of their medicine men could save them. This undeniably changed their spirituality. They were convinced that the European’s God was better, since the Europeans were not dying, and they began to attend Catholic churches. Quite the opposite during the plague, the Catholics were the ones questioning their faith this time around.
Smallpox was and still is one of the most dangerous diseases in the world. Smallpox had killed approximately 300 million people in the 20th century. This disease was originally known in English as the “Red Plague“1. In 1980 the “World Health Organization” said that Smallpox had been completely destroyed. Even though, the disease had been eradicated, some smallpox vials still exist until now.
It is probable that smallpox existed before any known civilizations, as this disease is based on the activity of human interaction. Once a person became infected and survived, he would no longer be susceptible to this disease, and smallpox is passed on through interaction with other people. With this information in mind, entire ancient tribes could have carried this disease unknowingly, and only through emigration and immigration could the full extent of this disease been evident. Also, before major civilizations came about, most people lived in isolation from others. This isolation mitigated the spread and influence of smallpox.
In my opinion, I don’t think it’s accurate to say that disease is an “unseen enemy” throughout history. The diseases mentioned by John Aberth are smallpox and the bubonic, also known as the Black Death. They both show symptoms of it taking place inside the human body. So in a way, they are not an “unseen” enemy. For example, the bubonic plague is spread through the bite of a flea.
The virus generally disappears in a few weeks. Christopher Columbus is considered to be the explorer who brought measles (as well as many
Smallpox outbreaks have occurred from time to time for thousands of years, but the disease is now eradicated after a successful worldwide vaccination program. The last naturally occurring case in the world was in Somalia in 1977. After the disease was eliminated from the world, routine vaccination against smallpox among the general public was stopped because it was no longer necessary for prevention. In 1970, when smallpox was nearly eradicated, a previously unrecognized orthopoxvirus named monkey pox was identified in humans.
