Dolley and James Madison through the lens of medicine, sickness, and health

Abstract

The political lives of our founding fathers and mothers have been examined in great detail by many historians, but their experiences with medicine, health, and disease have generally received only cursory attention from most biographers. Yet focusing a lens on their often dramatic encounters with epidemics, disease, and medical treatments of their time lends them a corporeal presence that is absent from most historical accounts and serves to humanize them as flesh and blood individuals. James and Dolley Madison serve as prime examples of American icons who both dealt frequently with health challenges in the trajectory of their daily lives. This essay reflects the “health biographies” of James and Dolley Madison, which opens a revealing window into eighteenth century society and medicine, demonstrating graphically that even the elite, who had access to the best of contemporary medicine and physicians, were far from immune to debilitating illness.