"The Awful Judgements of God upon the Land": Smallpox in Colonial Cambridge, Massachusetts

Abstract

tures were destroyed. English settlers, by no means immune to many of these same outbreaks, were also stricken with periodic epidemics of smallpox, measles, and diphtheria. Sickness was normally attributed to an act of God, and because the colonists had little understanding of either the transmission or the nature of most illnesses, the community knew of few actions that it could take to prevent outbreaks. New England, in 1721, faced such an epidemic. Smallpox spread throughout the region and was responsible for the deaths of almost one thousand people in Boston alone. The extent of the epidemic, combined with the belief that God was punishing the colonists for breaking their covenant with him, created a psychological frenzy within New England. Unlike in previous smallpox outbreaks, however, inoculation (actually variolation, or the use of a live virus) offered an alternative to passive acceptance. It also dramatically pitted religion against science and ministers against doctors, albeit in unusual alliances.'