profwehrman.bsky.social
History professor at CMU and author of "The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution" Vaccination is patriotic.
New book project(!) tentatively titled: Afterlife and Liberty: New York City’s Doctors’ Riot of 1788
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The point is that mesales was always feared and taken very seriously. Before vaccines, people did their best to alleviate symptoms and contain the disease. Vaccines ended all of this torment. Why are we trying to bring it back?
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The 1913 makes at least some stupid sense as year of the 16th amendment and federal reserve act. But why does he think things started getting great in 1870? The 15th amendment?
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I knew it was going to be a tough match but you defended me perfectly, old friend. You’ve got a .900 defense going!
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Soldiers who are afraid of shots that babies get are definitely going to stand up to bullets, right?
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That’s how I got started on my dissertation too! Journal of Ashley Bowen, a sailor tormented by all his friends and family who caught it in the 1760s and 70s.
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There was a debate in the 18th century over the use of mercury. Many considered it completely unnecessary even harmful. But none doubted the effectiveness or necessity of inoculations themselves.
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You’re right, of course, but obviously there have been improvements over the years! And they didn’t inoculate with mercury exactly; they would take a mercury pill (calomel) in preparation for the inoculation.
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That's 100% what was happening!
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No, only in the most roundabout way, I guess. Inoculation was introduced to America by a Black slave named Onesimus. Some sixty years later Washington had his military doctors use the same technique Onesimus used to inoculate the troops. But the soldiers' inoculations were not performed by a slave.
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Then when vaccination was discovered and published by Jenner in the 1790s. He was given credit for it. With the Revolution behind them, Americans didn't have a problem with it being a British invention, perhaps it was even easier to stomach than the African or Asian origins of inoculation.
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in New England they credited Boylston, in New York and Philadelphia they credited George Muirson or Adam Thomson, in the South they credited James Kilpatrick for improving inoculation. I'm not sure non-doctors new much about inoculation's origins but by the Revolution they knew it wasn't British.
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It's a much better story! But white Americans didn't like hearing that this great medical innovation came from Africa. Sometimes histories mentioned Mather or Boylston or that its from Asia or Africa. But starting in the 1730s they claimed Americans improved it enough that it was a new invention.
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I should say, they had no doubt after about the 1750s! No doubts during the Revolution itself is what I mean. Plenty of doubts before then as you rightly mention.
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There's a lot of depth to the story, indeed! I wrote a 400 page book about it! I write about how colonists whitewashed the history of inoculation ignoring Onesimus and the Africans and to claim it as their own invention. Even while stepping on its real origins they had no doubt that it was effective
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Apology accepted.
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Barney Fife was also fond of quoting Novanglus.
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Here's a gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
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Glad to hear it!
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Thanks, Chris!! Let me know what they think!
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During a writing workshop, the great historian Patrick Griffin plucked that sentence out of my dissertation introduction and said “there’s your book’s first line.” I’m forever grateful!
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Definitely the same vibe!