Lives and Legacies

Tag: Health

Bane of the Washingtons: Deaths in the Next Generation and Amongst the Enslaved

Welcome back to our 3-Part Blog charting tuberculosis (TB) in the extended Washington Family. If you are new to this series, Part I examined how the disease works, charted its history and explained standard courses of treatments in the 1700s. Part II looked at victims from George’s generation, including his brothers Lawrence and Samuel and brother-in-law Fielding Lewis. You can find those blogs here and here. In our final entry, we will continue to look at individuals who suffered from the disease and see more evidence of how the disease stayed within a family.

George Steptoe Washington (1771-1809, aged 37)

George Steptoe Washington Source: MESDA

As covered in Part 2, George’s brother Samuel died of tuberculosis, as did several of his sons, including George Steptoe Washington. A product of his father’s fourth marriage to Anne Steptoe, George Steptoe became an orphan at age ten. He and his siblings then fell under the care of their uncle, George Washington. George Steptoe would go on to marry Lucy Payne, the sister of Dolly Madison. Like his father, the point of infection cannot be determined but is likely derived from a family member. George Steptoe certainly faced exposure to TB via his father from the moment of his birth but may have caught it later in life. Regardless, his health experienced a serious decline sometime after 1800, and he ultimately traveled to Augusta, Georgia, in search of health benefits. He died there on January 10, 1809.

George Augustine Washington (1759-1793, aged 34) & Frances “Fanny” Bassett (1767-1796, aged 29): George Augustine was another nephew of George Washington through his youngest brother Charles and quickly became his uncle’s favorite. He joined the Mount Vernon household in the early 1780s but had already experienced several periods of ill health that forced him to take leaves of absence from the battlefield. A diagnosis of tuberculosis soon came, leading George Washington to take an involved interest in his nephew’s health. Despite having witnessed the lack of improvement made by his brother Lawrence during such ventures, George funded trips to Berkeley Springs, Barbados, and Bermuda for George Augustine. He returned in May 1785 “in better health than when he set out, but not quite recovered.”¹

Fanny Bassett Source: Mount Vernon

During George Augustine’s absence, Frances “Fanny” Bassett, Martha Washington’s favorite niece, officially joined the household. Upon his return, the two quickly formed an attachment and married on October 15, 1785. George Augustine later became the manager of Mount Vernon, but his health steadily declined, leading his uncle to describe him as “a shadow of what he was.”² Despite barely being able to ride, George Augustine traveled to Berkeley Springs in October 1791 but would be bedridden and coughing up blood by August 1792. After battling the disease for over ten years, he finally succumbed in 1793. His death “had been long expected,”³ but nevertheless caused his uncle to feel “it very keenly.”⁴

The death of her husband left Fanny a young widow with three very young children. Unlike many in that situation, she retained a comfortable lifestyle. As the beloved niece of George and Martha, she always had a home at Mount Vernon and frequently served as an additional hostess. Regardless, she did not remain a widow for long and married Tobias Lear, secretary to her uncle, in August 1795. Sadly, she passed less than a year later, in March 1796, with Lear lamenting, “The Partner of my life is no more!”⁵ Thought to have died of TB, Fanny likely contracted it from George Augustine during their marriage.

Charlotte (~1770-unknown, aged 27+): Charlotte served as an enslaved seamstress at Kenmore and later at Betty Washington’s final home, Millbrook. She first appears, aged eleven, in the 1781 probate inventory following the death of Fielding Lewis. Few details about her life exist apart from the record of a son, George, and another baby in a document from 1797. However, Charlotte clearly held an important position within Betty Washington’s household, given the medical records we have.

Bill for Charlotte’s medical treatments

Charlotte took ill at Millbrook in 1796 with some form of respiratory complaint. Rather than care for Charlotte personally, Betty sent for the doctor seven times over the year. Charlotte underwent throat examinations and notably received treatment with mercury tablets and ammonia liniment for the chest. The former served as a common cure, which “purged” the body of any imbalances, while the latter mimicked early Vicks VapoRub by opening the airways. None of these treatments would have been pleasant, and the mercury certainly did more harm than good, but Charlotte recovered nonetheless. However, Betty Washington Lewis’ death in 1797 prompted the division of her enslaved staff. In an all-too-common occurrence, Charlotte and her son went to different properties (no mention of the baby exists). They likely saw little of each other after this or never met again. At age twenty-seven, we know Charlotte resided on a property owned by Charles Carter in Frederick County, Virginia. After this, she disappears from the record.

The true nature of Charlotte’s illness remains a mystery. She certainly suffered from a respiratory ailment and received treatment in line with that given to tuberculosis patients. Nevertheless, we cannot conclusively diagnose it as TB or determine if it ever affected her again. Despite this, her story reflects an important aspect of life in eighteenth-century Virginia and a failing of history. An interest in keeping the enslaved healthy enough to work existed, but the actual health of an enslaved individual often went undocumented. We only know of Charlotte’s illness due to the bill sent by the doctor listing dates and treatments. Even this reflects a rarity as the lady of the household generally oversaw medical treatment for the enslaved rather than a physician. Considering the widespread nature of TB, its higher prominence in poor and minority communities, enslaved living and working conditions, and the high death rates recorded amongst Philadelphia’s free Black population in the early 1800s, the disease likely accounted for a high number of deaths within Virginia’s enslaved population. Sadly, we may never know how many individuals died of the disease or its impact on their lives.

You can read the full details of Charlotte’s treatment and life here.

Hercules Posey (~1754-1812, aged roughly 64)

Hercules Posey Source: Mount Vernon

One Black individual known to have died of tuberculosis was Hercules Posey. Hercules came to Mount Vernon in 1767 after his previous enslaver, John Posey, failed to pay a mortgage owed to Washington. Having served as a ferryman for Posey, Hercules initially took up the same position. By 1786, he had moved on to the position of cook, for which he is best known. Highly skilled in his culinary abilities, Hercules counted amongst the nine enslaved individuals the Washingtons brought with them to Philadelphia in 1790. Early 1797, however, found Hercules working as a laborer at Mount Vernon, and he acted to self-emancipate in February. In doing so, Hercules left behind at least three children, Richmond, Evey, and Delia, who he shared with his late wife, Alice. Due to Alice’s status as a dower slave, none of their children would receive their freedom in Washington’s will.

After his escape, Hercules made his way to New York City, where he again worked as a chef. He died on May 15, 1812, with the cause given as TB, and his grave lies in the Second African Burying Ground in Lower Manhattan. Given the span of time between his escape to freedom and death, he possibly contracted the disease after leaving Mount Vernon. Then again, it remains entirely possible that he became ill while enslaved in Virginia or Philadelphia. In this case, he either suffered with an active case for many years, with periods of waxing and waning or had a dormant case that reactivated later in life.

Others: Additional members of the extended Washington family contracted the disease as time went on, and the same goes for the enslaved. However, an interesting aspect of tuberculosis is that far more individuals may have had it but remained unaware. As covered in Part I, TB can go dormant by walling itself off in the lungs. Minor symptoms would have appeared at the time of infection, but those pauses when the disease goes dormant. Depending on how long it remained active and how severe, the TB may have gone unnoticed or been misdiagnosed. If the disease never reactivated, a person could live a full life and never know they had it.

Today, we diagnose tuberculosis through symptom analysis and testing. Multiple successful treatments additionally exist to help people overcome the disease. For the 1700s, however, symptoms alone provided the diagnosis, and the dormant phase served as the only successful reprieve from the disease. The fact that our modern technology and medical knowledge would have saved many of the people covered in this 3-part blog appears evident. Nonetheless, it remains unclear just how many people in the extended Washington family actually contracted TB. This then raises the question, if TB testing had existed in the 1700s, would individuals such as George and Betty Washington have turned up positive?

Emma Schlauder

Research Archaeologist

Bibliography

Anderson, Alicia K. & Lynn A. Price (editors) 2018     George Washington’s Barbados Diary: 1751-52. University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville, VA.

Budinger, Meghan & Mara Kaktins 2020    Charlotte and the Mercury Pills. Lives & Legacies Blog, The George Washington Foundation <https://livesandlegaciesblog.org/2020/06/17/charlotte-and-the-mercury-pills/>. Accessed April 11 2023.

Chernow, Ron 2010     Washington: A Life. Penguin Books Ltd, London, UK.

⁵Eliassen, Meredith, Tobias Lear. Digital Encyclopedia of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, George Washington’s Mount Vernon < https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/tobias-lear/>. Accessed April 11 2023.

^1-4Fore, Samuel K. George Augustine Washington (ca. 1759-1793). Digital Encyclopedia of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, George Washington’s Mount Vernon < https://www.mountvernon.org/library/ digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/george-augustine-washington-ca-1759-1793/>. Accessed April 11 2023.

Glen, Justin 2014     The Washingtons: A Family History, Vol 1, Seven Generations of the Presidential Branch. Savas Beatie LLC, El Dorado Hills, CA.

Lenhart, Chelsea  Hercules. Digital Encyclopedia of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, George Washington’s Mount Vernon < https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/ article/hercules/>. Accessed 11 April 2023.

Rankin-Hill, Lesley M. 1997     A Biohistory of 19^th-Century Afro-Americans: The Burial Remains of a Philadelphia Cemetery. Bergin & Garvey, Westport, CT.

June 28, 2023
Bane of the Washingtons Part II: The Deaths of Lawrence, Fielding, and Samuel

Welcome back to our 3-Part Blog charting tuberculosis in the extended Washington Family. If you are new to this series, Part I examined how the disease works, charted its history, and explained standard courses of treatments in the 1700s. You can find the blog here, and we encourage a review of the “Treatment” section. In Part II, we will begin to look at the family members who suffered from the disease and how this impacted their lives and those around them.

Lawrence Washington (1718-1752, aged 33/34):

Lawrence Washington Source: Mount Vernon

Perhaps the best-known case of tuberculosis in the Washington family pertains to Lawrence Washington. George’s eldest half-brother, credited as serving as a role model, died of the disease in 1752, which subsequently laid the foundations for George to inherit Mount Vernon and become the Father of His Country. Behind this, however, lies one of the more clear timelines for the devastation the disease.

            Lawrence may have contracted tuberculosis during his service in the War of Jenkins’ Ear (served 1740-1742) or after his return to Virginia in 1742. Certainly, he had developed severe enough symptoms, particularly a cough, by the end of 1748, to cause him to take a leave of absence from the House of Burgesses. He resumed his duties in the spring of 1749, but his illness forced him home for a final time in May. That same month, George wrote hoping for news that his brother’s cough had improved and that he had “given over the thoughts of leaving Virginia.”¹ Lawrence could not provide his brother with the news he desired, and sailed to England in the summer of that year to consult with physicians. Lawrence returned in November with little encouragement, but set out for Berkeley Springs in July 1750, to take the waters. George accompanied his brother on this venture, but they did not stay long.

By 1751, Lawrence had exhausted any hope of finding a cure at home and his doctors recommended visiting a warmer climate. Following this advice, Lawrence and George sailed for Barbados on 25 September and arrived on 2 November. Shortly after their arrival, George recorded that a doctor came “to pass his opinion on [his] brother’s disorder, which he did in a favorable light, giving great assurances that…a cure might be effectually made.”² George mentions little else of Lawrence’s condition in his journal, a month of course went undocumented as George had smallpox, and he returned to Virginia alone in December.

Lawrence, having not found the relief he hoped for, decided to try Bermuda and journeyed there after George left. In an April 1752, letter to a friend, Lawrence referred to Bermuda as his “last refuge, where [he] must receive [his] final sentence.”³ Describing himself as “a criminal condemned, though not without hopes of a reprieve,”⁴ Lawrence followed his doctor’s treatment plan by “abstaining from flesh of every sort, all strong liquors, and by riding as much [he] could bear.”⁵ His doctor advised to take what benefit he could from the climate as another winter in Virginia would surely kill him. While Lawrence remained somewhat hopeful in this letter, he soon wrote again about his “unhappy state of health”⁶ and expressed the belief that, if it should worsen, he would “hurry home to [his] grave.”⁷ Evidently, Lawrence soon resigned himself to his impending death as he returned to Mount Vernon and set his affairs in order with the aid of his half-siblings and stepmother. He died on 26 July 1752.

Upon Lawrence’s death, he left behind his wife Anne Fairfax and daughter Sarah. Three other children had already died all under the age of two. Infant mortality frequently occurred in the 1700s, so it proves impossible to know what caused each death. However, it remains a possibility that they contracted tuberculosis from their father, which then killed them quicker due to their age and weaker immune systems, or left them vulnerable to secondary infections. Sarah would suffer a similar fate in 1754, aged four, and her mother, having married into the Lee family, would die in 1761, aged thirty-three. These deaths allowed George to inherit Mount Vernon.

Fielding Lewis (1725-1781, aged 56):

Fielding Lewis

The husband of Betty Washington and the mind behind Kenmore, Fielding Lewis served his country during the war by funding various supply and defense lines. One of the richest men in Virginia, Fielding had the ability to provide aid and, as the brother-in-law of the commander-in-chief, could hardly stay out of the conflict. While his efforts did much for the cause, Fielding drew the short straw by spending nearly all of his money. Accounts of Fielding Lewis’ death often insinuate a connection to the stress of losing his fortune. While this certainly put him under strain, and would not have helped his health, Fielding’s case of tuberculosis meant that he would have died regardless of his financial status.

Tracing tuberculosis in Fielding’s life proves more difficult than that of Lawrence. Mentions of Fielding as ailing exist for several years prior to his death. However, with no description, one can hardly say if this references tuberculosis or some other affliction. Like many, he frequented Berkeley Springs and even purchased property there. Fielding recorded little of his visits, but his interests lay in the spring’s supposed medicinal benefits and, to that end, undertook an annual August trip from 1772 onwards. Throughout the war, Fielding held the rank of colonel and, though he never received a formal posting, oversaw Fredericksburg’s gun manufactory and the defense of the Rappahannock. This position required no military action and had strong connections to his background as a merchant. However, the choice of assignment may have derived from knowledge that he would never be well enough to effectively command troops. Then again, Fielding was in his fifties and had no military experience. In any case, the position reflected a strategic choice that played to Fielding’s strengths and lessened the impact of field inexperience and ill health.

If Fielding hoped for a peaceful death, he would not receive it. In the summer of 1781, with the British encroaching on Fredericksburg, the Lewis household and Mary Washington fled. At this stage, Fielding’s health had significantly deteriorated, leaving him an invalid confined to his home. A sudden evacuation by carriage would have done little to ease his discomfort as the household hurried to another property in Frederick County, Virginia. Once there, Fielding focused on putting his affairs in order and likely did not have the strength to visit nearby Berkeley Springs. The news of the Yorktown victory undoubtedly brought some emotional respite, but it proved short-lived as Fielding died mid-December 1781. The location of his burial site on the Frederick County property remains unknown. Fielding’s death brought immense grief to his widow, Betty Washington, who had lost her brother Samuel to the same disease only three months earlier.

Samuel Washington (1734-1781, aged 46):

Samuel Washington Source: Mount Vernon

The second son of Augustine Washington and Mary Ball, Samuel grew up at Ferry Farm with his full-siblings. Said to have suffered from tuberculosis for most of his life, it remains unknown where, when, and from whom he contracted it. However, by visiting Lawrence in July 1752, to help put his half-brother’s affairs in order, seventeen-year-old Samuel certainly faced exposure. Samuel died at his home Harewood, near Charles Town, West Virginia, in September 1781, shortly before the victory at Yorktown. The home itself lies conveniently close to Berkeley Springs, which may indicate that its location and Samuel’s move from Stafford County, Virginia, derived from a desire for easy access to the springs and their reputed health benefits.

Despite dying just shy of age forty-seven, Samuel famously married five times. His final wife, Susannah Perrin Holden (1753–1783, m. 1778), survived him, and the fourth, Anne Steptoe (1737–1777, m. 1764), died of complications from a smallpox inoculation. However, the deaths of his first three wives, Jane Champe (1724–1755, m. 1754), Mildred Thornton (roughly 1741–1762, m. 1756), and Lucy Chapman (1743–1763, m. 1762), have long been associated with tuberculosis.

All three experienced rapid declines in health after their marriages to Samuel, and in correlation with several pregnancies. Pregnancy and childbirth proved extremely dangerous during this period, so these deaths could simply be tragic examples. However, as pregnancy exacerbates tuberculosis, the common interpretation remains that the women contracted the disease from Samuel, saw it worsen at an alarming rate due to pregnancy, and the strain of one or more births on top of the disease made it impossible to recover. Regarding his children, several died quite young, which may mirror the fate of Lawrence’s children, and three of his sons who reached adulthood would ultimately die of the disease.

Coming Up

            In our final blog on tuberculosis, we will be taking a look at how the disease impacted the next generation of the extended Washington family and those they enslaved. This will be coming out on June 28^th.

Emma Schlauder

Research Archaeologist

Bibliography

^2-7Anderson, Alicia K. & Lynn A. Price (editors) 2018     George Washington’s Barbados Diary: 1751-52. University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville, VA.

¹Chernow, Ron 2010     Washington: A Life. Penguin Books Ltd, London, UK.

Felder, Paula S. 1998     Fielding Lewis and the Washington Family: A Chronicle of 18^th Century Fredericksburg. The American History Company.

Glen, Justin 2014     The Washingtons: A Family History, Vol 1, Seven Generations of the Presidential Branch. Savas Beatie LLC, El Dorado Hills, CA.

May 31, 2023
Winter Ailments (and how to endure them in the eighteenth century)

As spring approaches in the Middle Atlantic and Northeastern states, we welcome the chance to spend more time outdoors in the fresh air instead of cooped up in our houses – getting sick. Ailments such as colds and flu are contractible anytime, but we usually associate them with the wintertime as that’s when they seem to be more prevalent.

Ferry Farm during winter storm

With modern medicine, we can easily treat and overcome these and other more serious illnesses that rise up during the colder months. People living in the eighteenth century, however, did not have the luxury of our scientific knowledge of modern medicines, and so what is easily treatable today could be, and often was, deadly during their lifetime. They had to deal with serious diseases, such as dysentery, measles, mumps, smallpox, rickets, typhus, typhoid, tuberculosis, and yellow fever, without the benefit of antibiotics.

Medical treatments for dealing with illnesses in the eighteenth century were primarily herbal remedies and traditions passed down over the centuries in medical books or as local knowledge. People like the Washington family probably relied on local healers, apothecaries, physicians, or midwives in the Fredericksburg area to prepare the medicines and treat their illnesses. It is also very likely that Mary Washington would have had the knowledge herself to oversee the formulation of cough syrups, laxatives, and other tinctures using the herbs and flowers in her own garden. Betty Washington Lewis, Mary’s daughter, owned a copy of Eliza Smith’s 1739 The Compleat Housewife: or, Accomplished Gentlewoman’s Companion, a cookbook, in which are explicit medicinal recipes for dealing with hysterics, the vapours, pain from stones, the plague, upset stomachs, a cancerous breast, consumption, and for ‘preserving the lungs,’ among other things.[1] The chances are pretty good her mother Mary also had access to this same recipe book.

We do not have any historical information on the childhood diseases or winter ailments that were present in the Washington home, but here are two that they might have experienced.

Pneumonia

Anteroposterior chest x-ray revealed right upper lobe pneumonia. Credit: Public Domain Files

Pneumonia, a bacterial infection of the lungs, also known as ‘Winter Fever’, was a great concern in colonial Virginia. Although it was not known as a disease in and of itself but rather a symptom of other illnesses until much later, the presence of this respiratory ailment was noted by colonists.

Pneumonia and many other such illnesses were prevalent in the winter months when conditions forced people inside with closed windows and doors. Prior to modern home climate-control technology, windows and doors were opened in good weather to create a breeze that cooled down a house but also served to air it out. Additionally, many activities we perform indoors today took place outside, such as laundry and food processing, which got people out in the open more. When the weather turned cold, however, people were stuck inside with little ventilation and essentially stewing in their own germs. As such, pneumonia spread rampantly throughout the winter, and with no antibiotics, it was often deadly especially for the young and elderly.

An ill man who is being bled by his doctor. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The commonly incorrect assumption at the time was that many illnesses resulted from bad smells or miasma. Bloodletting, laxatives, and emetics were justified treatments for almost anything wrong with you because it was essential to purge and expel the bad blood and humours from one’s body. In general, these treatments did more harm than good and, in some cases, killed the patient.

In addressing the symptoms of pneumonia (fever, cough, inflammation of the lungs), a mixture of treatments would have been proscribed for the patient. Cough syrups recipes were many and concocted from a wide variety of aromatic herbs infused in flavored waters, honey, or liquor. Opium in the form of poppy leaves was also a common ingredient. Additional treatments included bloodletting “8 to 10 ounces if strong 12 ounces” and applying ‘blisters’ on the back of their neck to promote sweating and to help with a headache.[2] Blistering was an aggressive treatment to the skin and essentially created pain in one spot to counteract pain elsewhere. A blistering agent, such as mustard, capsicum, or Spanish Fly, was applied in a poultice to the skin, causing redness and, in extreme cases, a raised pus-filled blister.[3] The cure might have been worse than the disease!

Scientists have since made great breakthroughs in treating pneumonia, including the invention of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928. Yay science!

Rickets

Three children displaying signs of rickets. Credit: Wellcome Collection

Bowed legs, thickened wrists and ankles, low weight, and deformities of the skull and pelvis are all signs of Rickets, a common disease of the 18^th century and prevalent during the winter months. Rickets is caused by a lack of Vitamin D in a child’s diet, leading to soft, weak bones that don’t mineralize properly. The symptoms of rickets usually appear between the ages of 3 to 18 months, and if caught early, the disease is reversible by ensuring a proper diet of Vitamin D-rich foods (fatty fish, egg yolks, fish oil) and exposure to sunlight.

Eighteenth-century physicians knew about the disease and discussed the symptoms and possible remedies in their medical books, but they didn’t understand the actual cause (Vitamin D deficiency) and, therefore, how to cure it. And although Rickets is often associated with children living in poverty with limited diets or restricted to sunless living and working conditions, it affected children of all socio-economic levels.

Mother holding a child with symptoms of rickets in Christ at the Pool of Bethesda by William Hogarth (1697–1764) Credit: Barts Heritage

John Freke, in his 1748 book “An Essay on the Art of Healing,” felt that the diet of the children affected by Rickets was “in general too luxuriant” and should be scaled back to a more austere diet than ordinary.[4] “Care should be taken to send this sort of Children into a sharp Air,” and “rousing their Blood by shaking and tossing them often, giving them now-and-then a little red Wine, and dipping them every Morning in cold Water.” He was spot on to suggest letting them play outside in the sun, but restricting their diet would certainly have had a deleterious effect on the patient.

The 1710 Book of Physick was a recipe book of natural remedies using plants and minerals to cure the everyday ills and complaints of the sick.[5] The first step incurring rickets was to administer a “purge,” which was a drink that flushes everything out of your digestive system by either vomiting or diarrhea. Purgatives were seen as a cure-all for many diseases because the prevailing thought was you had to expel whatever was making you sick out of your body.

The recommended purge was made of a long list of plants, including liverwort, speedwell, and yarrow, mixed with fruits such as figs and raisins, all slowly simmered together in water. Dosage was three spoonful’s every morning and night for 14 days.

Next on the list was bloodletting, of course! Just a prick on the ear would do the job, or leeches behind the ears! What is interesting is that this instruction was immediately followed by a reference to the page on how “to staunch bleeding.”

Not all remedies had to come from physician’s books but could be found in publications geared towards laymen. The Servants Directory, Improved; or House-Keepers Companion, published in1762, was an instruction manual on all things household, ranging from how to kill rats, clean furniture, wash silk stockings to the best way to cook parsnips. Included in a chapter on the care of small children was a cure for a Rickety child. The first suggestion was to give the child three doses of a gentle physic, or purge, similar to the 1710 Phisick book. Next, rub the child with a concoction of smashed garden snails and liquor every day for a month. Outside exercise was also recommended, thank goodness![6]

If the 18^th century rickety child could survive multiple purges, bloodletting, a restrictive diet, vigorous body rubs with bug juice, and occasional sun exposure, who’s to say which treatment was the one that was most effective (Just kidding)! Progress in studying the causes and treatments of Rickets culminated in the early 20^th century when it was clearly shown the benefits of using sources of Vitamin D, such as cod liver oil and sun exposure, in curing rickets.[7]

If you are interested in medical history see our other blog posts on mercury, patent medications, Civil War medicines, Civil War hospitals, bad medicines, homemade medical remedies, dental care and smallpox.

Judy Jobrack

Staff Archaeologist

Mara Kaktins, Archaeologist

Ceramic & Glass Specialist

[1] Eliza Smith, The Compleat Housewife: or, Accomplished Gentlewoman’s Companion, J. and J. Pemberton, 1739, pgs. 240-250.

[2] A Book of Phisick. Made June 1710, p. 46. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark

[3] Souter, Keith. Bleed, Blister, Vomit and Purge. July 23, 2015. https://westernfictioneers.blogspot.com/

[4] Freke, John. An Essay on the Art of Healing, p. 247-248. 1748. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=H_o1AQAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA246&hl=en

[5] A Book of Phisick, pg. 92-93.

[6] The Servants Directory, Improved; or, House-Keepers Companion. H. Glass. Fourth Edition, 1762. Reprinted 2001 by United States Historical Research Service.

[7] O’Riordan, Jeffrey and Olav Bijvoet. Rickets before the discovery of vitamin D. Published online 2014 Jan 8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3899557/

March 23, 2022
Washington, Smallpox, and the Fight for Independence

Living in Colonial America, disease and illness were defining challenges and perpetual threats of human existence. At the time, there was no concept of infection or germ-theory, no vaccines, no really effective treatments for infectious disease and few public health measures that could reliably curb epidemics.[1] For colonial Americans, it was not a matter of “if” you would get sick but rather when and would you be strong enough to survive.

George Washington contracted many of the epidemic diseases like malaria, dysentery, and smallpox that plagued colonists and survived despite limited medical intervention. As a young man in the prime of his life, standing 6’2”tall and weighing over 200 pounds, his body fought a host of illnesses that killed most. Still, these diseases had lasting effects on Washington’s body and one of the diseases he suffered led to a controversial decision that may have even saved America in its fight for independence.

Smallpox no longer terrifies humanity because it was eradicated in 1977 through a global program of vaccinations. The devastation this disease caused through history is unrivaled. By the 17th century, smallpox surpassed all other pandemic diseases as the swiftest and most deadly.[2]

The earliest conclusive evidence for smallpox dates back to 4th century China. It quickly spread through Asia and reached Europe around the 10th century. By the 18th century, it accounted for an estimated 8 to 20% of all deaths.[3] Upon its arrival in the New World, it decimated the Native American population, which had never faced the horrible and highly contagious disease.

Smallpox spread easily through overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. Symptoms include fever, intense headaches, pains in the back and legs, vomiting, and eruptions of seeping, smelly pustules on the body. While left with immunity, survivors face debilitating after-effects like disfiguring scars and blindness.[4]

Smallpox pustules on hand. Credit: Centers for Disease Control

While smallpox was a reoccurring problem for larger coastal cities in British North America, it was less prevalent in more inland rural areas. Virginia experienced only minor outbreaks prior to 1747 when large outbreaks hit Williamsburg and Norfolk County causing panic, public unrest, and eventually public health proclamations.[5]

At the time, many offered advice on how to stave off or even cure the disease. Recommendations in popular medical manuals, like Domestic Medicine, advocated rest, liquids, and various regimens of blistering, purging, and bleeding but not much more.[6] A particularly interesting remedy Virginian planter William Byrd II advocated included drinking large amounts of water “that had stood two days upon tar”. These methods perhaps relieved symptoms but did little to prevent one from catching the disease.

Inoculation was the one way available to try and prevent smallpox. A doctor took a bit of infected matter (i.e. pus from a pustule) from a person suffering from a mild case of smallpox and inserted it under the skin of a healthy patient.[7] Theoretically, the newly infected patient would then develop a mild case of the infection and after recovery be immune to further breakouts.

Inoculation against smallpox in Paris (1807) by Louis Léopold Boilly. Credit: Public domain / Wikipedia.

Many physicians supported this new technique but inoculation had serious drawbacks. One of the biggest was the mild case of smallpox in the newly infected patient could become a full-blown attack. Additionally, people who were inoculated became carriers of the disease, capable of infecting individuals who had never had smallpox or who had not undergone inoculation. This became a volatile issue because of a lack of understanding of population immunity and ineffective quarantine protocols.[8]

Anti-inoculation sentiments rose in Virginia after people recently inoculated returned to the community and outbreaks followed. Full-scale riots and protests were seen in Norfolk County and Williamsburg which led to petitions to ban inoculation. In 1769, Virginia prohibited inoculation unless specifically approved by the county courts.[9]

But how does smallpox and inoculation relate to George Washington, Virginia’s most famous son, and America’s fight for independence?

The connection began on November 2, 1751 when George Washington landed in Bridgetown, Barbados with his half-brother Lawrence. They had come from Virginia to the tropical island seeking relief for Lawrence’s tuberculosis. Two weeks later, George wrote in his journal that he “was strongly attacked with the smallpox”. He was confined to his sickbed for nearly a month being too ill to keep his daily journal.[10] After his battle with smallpox, however, Washington became a major proponent of inoculation even though his support ran counter to most of his fellow Virginians.

Home of Captain Croftan where Washington lived during the several months he visited Barbados in 1751. Credit: Wikipedia / Jerry E. and Roy Klotz

With the Revolutionary War, smallpox increasingly became a deadly complication for the new United States in its fight for independence. Where soldiers go plagues follow and when Washington took command of the Continental Army in summer of 1775 he wrote to the president of the Continental Congress that he had been, “particularly attentive to the least Symptoms of the Smallpox” and he would “continue the utmost Vigilance against this most dangerous enemy”.

Outbreaks were particularly common when there was a large buildup of troops in an area like during the Siege of Boston in 1774 or after the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775.[11] Epidemics also broke out in Boston and Philadelphia in summer of 1776 and the attempt by American forces to take Quebec was greatly hindered by smallpox among the soldiers.

In the winter of 1777, Washington decided to have all troops and new recruits inoculated. As stated in his letter to Dr. William Shippen Jr., “finding the Small pox to be spreading much and fearing that no precaution can prevent it from running through the whole of our army, I have determined that the troops shall be inoculated. This Expedient may be attended with some inconveniences and some disadvantages, but yet I trust in its consequences will have the most happy effects. Necessity not only authorizes but seems to require the measure, for should the disorder infect the Army in the natural way and rage with it usual virulence we should have more to dread from it than the Sword of the Enemy.”

Washington understood the great risk he was taking in instituting mass inoculation and effectively incapacitating large numbers of soldiers while they recovered. The operation was kept secret and done during the winter in the hope that his forces would be healthy and ready to fight in the anticipated summer campaign. Despite some setbacks, Washington’s efforts to eliminate smallpox in the army were largely successful. While the disease continued to affect soldiers, there were no further epidemic outbreaks among the troops.[12]

Reconstructed winter cabins at Morristown National Historical Park in Morristown, New Jersey, where the Continental Army quartered for the winter of 1776-77 and where a large portion of Washington’s troops were inoculated. Credit: National Park Service / Steve Santucci

George Washington’s insistence in these preventive health measures and his belief in the effectiveness of inoculation helped the Continental Army conquer smallpox and become a more reliable military force. Additionally, the success of mass inoculation within the fledgling nation’s military helped encourage the civilian population to use these preventative measures. Inoculation began to gain popularity with Virginians and all of the American people. So, young Washington’s trip to Barbados when he was nineteen was unsuccessful in helping his brother’s tuberculosis but it did end up giving him a greater appreciation for preventive medicine and the devastating power of epidemic disease.

Heather Baldus
Collections Manager

[1] “The Perpetual Challenge of Infectious Diseases”, Anthony S. Fauci and David M. Morens, The New England Journal of Medicine, 2 February 2012.

[2] Kotar, S.L., and J.E. Gessler. Smallpox: A History. McFarland, 2013. pg 11

[3] The Seat of Death and Terror: Urbanization, Stunting, and Smallpox by Deborah Oxley, The Economic History Review, November 2003, pg 5, 627

[4] Kotar, pg 4; Oxley, 628

[5] Kotar, 41

[6] Domestic Medicine, William Buchan, 1769

[7] Oxley, 629

[8] Kotar, 13

[9] Kotar, 41

[10] Kotar, 40

[11] Kotar, 42

[12] “Smallpox in Washington’s Army: Strategic Implications of the Disease during the American Revolutionary War”, Ann M. Becker, The Journal of Military History, Vol. 68, No 2. (Apr. 2004), pg. 424-430

December 13, 2017