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You're listening to American Shadows, a

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production of I Heart Radio and Grim

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and Mild from Aaron Minky.

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The crowd jeered and laughed at the old woman

0:18

as she took the stand in the Salem courtroom.

0:21

She tried to please them, her life

0:23

depended on it, after all. Speaking

0:25

in her native tongue, Gaelic and

0:28

goody, Glover recited the Lord's

0:30

Prayer perfectly. Her

0:32

accuser, a Puritan minister named Cotton

0:35

Mather, slammed his fist down

0:37

on the courtroom stand. Gaelic

0:39

was the devil's tongue, he told the courtroom.

0:42

He turned to Glover and demanded that she

0:44

try again. She knew

0:46

the odds were against her just by being

0:48

an Irish immigrant to the English

0:50

bread colonists. The Irish were inferior,

0:53

a bunch of know nothings. That

0:55

wasn't all, though, being an elderly

0:58

Catholic woman made them just like her

1:00

even more. Glover

1:02

searched the crowd for a shred of empathy.

1:05

Finding none, she recited the prayer again,

1:08

this time in perfect Latin. Once

1:11

more, Mather denounced her. If

1:13

she couldn't speak the prayer in perfect English,

1:16

he stated to the crowd that it proved

1:18

without a doubt that she was a witch. Her

1:21

innocence or guilt rested on her ability

1:23

to speak a language that she wasn't very

1:26

good at. Her testimony

1:28

hadn't been good enough. She had told

1:30

the truth, but the children had lied.

1:33

It had all started with the Goodwinds, one

1:35

of the families she earned a meager living from

1:37

as a laundress. Glover had

1:40

just put fresh linens on the line to dry

1:42

when Martha, the family's eldest child,

1:45

ripped the sheets from the clothes line, dirtying

1:47

them. That wasn't what Mather called

1:49

the incident, though he had

1:51

said the child had been tempted by the devil.

1:54

Angry, Blover had fallen back on her native

1:56

language, telling the spoiled girl off

1:59

it's never pleasant being caught. After

2:02

the scolding, the girl ran off to tell her

2:04

parents that the old woman had cursed

2:06

her for nothing more than a harmless prank.

2:10

Soon after, Martha began having fits

2:13

what Mather described as diseases

2:15

of astonishment. Before

2:17

long, four other Goodwin children

2:19

suffered the same affliction as their older

2:21

sister. They complained that their

2:23

eyes, tongue, and teeth hurt. They

2:26

cried out, swearing Glover was breaking

2:28

their necks, legs, feet and toes.

2:31

Of course, when their parents examined them, the

2:33

children claimed the witch delighted in healing

2:35

them and then breaking their bones over

2:37

and over. The Goodwins

2:39

summoned a doctor. Finding nothing,

2:42

he agreed the cause must be witchcraft. Witnesses

2:45

quickly came forward to did

2:47

seeing Glover curse the children with their own

2:49

eyes. Mother being the

2:52

local minister, had been brought in to investigate,

2:54

and he quickly declared the old woman a

2:57

witch. Glover

2:59

was promptly arrested and interrogated.

3:02

Each time she told the truth, they insisted

3:04

she was lying. Members of the community

3:06

told investigators they always knew something

3:09

was different about her. They didn't

3:11

like her religious beliefs, nor did they

3:13

like her broke. They said she

3:15

was confrontational and surly, but

3:18

all she had done was speak normally. They

3:20

had mistaken her enthusiasm and the

3:22

harshness of the Gaelic language as anger.

3:25

The Catholic saints she worshiped were seen as

3:27

demons. The people

3:29

in the courtroom, many dressed in their Sunday

3:32

best, watched as mother shouted

3:34

at Glover, demanding that she recite

3:36

the Lord's Prayer in English.

3:38

She spoke slowly, doing her best. She

3:41

almost made it to the end. For stuttering,

3:44

the crowd gasped, and,

3:46

knowing that her moment of hesitation was

3:48

the final proof in a verdict that had already

3:51

made Glover Fell silent, they

3:54

sentenced her to death by hanging, and

3:57

on November six, a

4:00

violent crowd gathered to watch. They

4:03

yelled and threw things at her. The

4:05

executor demanded she tell them the names

4:07

of other witches. Unable to

4:09

do so, they hanged her. Pleased

4:13

that justice had been served, Mother

4:15

told the crowd that evil came in unseen

4:18

threats against God, and anyone

4:20

who attempted to thwart God's will, no

4:22

matter what the circumstances, was doing

4:24

the devil's work. Little

4:27

did he know, however, that would soon be at

4:29

the center of a controversy that would divide

4:31

not only Boston but the colonies themselves.

4:35

It would challenge not just religion, but societal

4:37

beliefs, and some

4:39

would even say that Mother's actions were

4:42

on par with witchcraft itself. I'm

4:46

Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome to

4:48

American Shadows. At

4:53

first, the symptoms were nothing more than

4:55

a call, maybe a sneeze now

4:57

and then within two

5:00

weeks, though people complained

5:02

they just didn't feel right. Headaches

5:04

and low fever came next, followed

5:06

by back aches. Then lesions

5:09

in the nose and mouth began to form,

5:13

almost imperceptibly. The telltale

5:15

rash began next, forming on

5:18

the face first, then spreading

5:20

to the arms, hands, and down the body.

5:23

Smallpox was the most contagious at

5:25

this point, staying infectious

5:27

until the scabs formed about nine days

5:29

later. Those inflicted

5:31

who survived to this point were lucky.

5:34

Not only had they beaten a mortality rate of thirty

5:36

to six, depending on the strain,

5:39

but they developed a lifetime immunity from

5:41

ever catching it again. There

5:44

was a price, though. The disease

5:46

left marks, deep pitted

5:48

scars, often prominent on the face.

5:52

Though it was epidemic throughout Europe in

5:54

the seventeenth century, smallpox

5:56

didn't exist in the Americas until

5:58

colonists brought it with them,

6:00

and without any immunity, it swept

6:03

through the indigenous peoples. In

6:05

sixteen thirty four, a colonist noted

6:07

the mass death in a journal in great detail.

6:11

The Native Americans became so ill in

6:13

great numbers, and so quickly that entire

6:15

tribes and families were unable to care for

6:17

each other. He wrote, there

6:19

were few left to bring water or food to

6:21

the others, nor cover them with furs for

6:24

warmth. They crawled from their

6:26

dwellings for food and water, and often

6:28

died while trying to return. He

6:31

finished not by praying for the Native

6:33

americans lives, but by thanking

6:36

God that the virus hadn't afflicted the English.

6:39

Smallpox would eventually contribute to

6:41

the deaths of around half of Native

6:43

American populations. Most

6:47

of the new colonists were Puritans, who

6:49

have not only believed in predestination, but

6:51

they firmly believed they were God's

6:53

chosen. The decimation of

6:55

the indigenous peoples, who they called savages,

6:58

was Heaven's way of herging the land

7:00

in favor of the new settlers. They

7:03

believed they were meant to take over the land,

7:06

But the colonist's turn came soon enough.

7:09

Like the Native Americans, the colonists children

7:12

and their descendants were not immune

7:14

to smallpox. Before long,

7:16

epidemics rolled from generation to generation.

7:20

From sixteen seventy seven to sixteen

7:22

seventy eight, infected passengers

7:24

aboard an English ship caused an epidemic

7:26

to spread throughout Boston, but

7:28

the worst outbreak in Boston didn't happen

7:31

until sixteen ninety seven. One

7:34

out of every seven citizens died. So

7:37

common with smallpox that by seventeen

7:39

o one the city established

7:41

pest houses where they infected were taken.

7:44

While you might think these were set up as

7:47

many hospitals, they were little

7:49

more than a place to dump the sick until

7:51

they either died or miraculously survived.

7:55

To prevent new outbreaks, arriving ships

7:57

were searched. If a single case

8:00

of smallpox was discovered, the ship

8:02

and the entire crew had to quarantine

8:04

aboard. Those aboard

8:06

who weren't sick were now trapped with those

8:08

who were. And I'm sure you can

8:10

guess how that tended to play out. From

8:13

seventeen o two until seventeen o three,

8:16

casualties were so high that the city

8:18

invoked new laws. Previously,

8:21

the town bell rang for seven minutes for

8:23

each death. Now, to

8:25

keep the noise and interruptions down, the

8:28

bell sounded only once. The

8:31

contagious nature of the disease also

8:33

required families to bring the deceased

8:35

to the burial ground within an hour of

8:37

death. Corpses

8:39

you see, could still spread the virus to

8:41

the living. With

8:43

so many dying, often multiple

8:46

people in the same household, the whole

8:48

community was grieving for

8:51

the more unscrupulous, though this

8:53

time of morning became the perfect time

8:55

to take advantage of others, overcharging

8:58

for services or outrights, windling

9:00

them. The practice became so

9:02

commonplace that the city put select citizens

9:05

in charge of ensuring fair pricing.

9:09

No family went unscathed by smallpox.

9:12

Cotton Mother wrote in his own journal that

9:14

he had lost count of the number of friends, family,

9:17

and neighbors who died from the disease. In

9:20

seventeen o two, he lost his first

9:22

wife. The couple had six

9:24

children, and although they survived smallpox,

9:27

scarlet fever and measles were also

9:29

on the rise. Every

9:32

Sunday, Mother led his congregation

9:34

in prayer, but no amount

9:36

of praying stopped the diseases from ravaging

9:39

the city. Their prayers

9:41

didn't save the four hundred and forty one colonists

9:43

who died, roughly five percent of Boston's

9:46

population. Of course,

9:48

the newspapers didn't report the depths of

9:50

black or Native Americans. While

9:54

mandatory quarantines helped, Mother

9:56

felt something else had to be done. As

9:59

a younger man, had briefly considered a

10:01

life in the medical field before becoming a

10:03

minister, and as it

10:05

happened, he still received publications

10:07

from London that discussed inoculation.

10:12

One night, Mather openly vented

10:14

his frustration to an enslaved man

10:16

in his service who went by the name Mather

10:18

had given him, Anisimus. Ansimus

10:22

had been a gift from Mather's congregation

10:24

in December of seventeen o six. It's

10:27

hard to imagine how anyone could gift

10:30

another human being, but these

10:32

were also the same people who believed

10:34

God's will had killed Native Americans

10:36

so that they themselves could prosper. Mather

10:40

was interested in converting Anesimus to Christianity,

10:42

and so he taught Anisimus to read

10:44

and write alongside his own children, and

10:47

discussions between them were not unusual.

10:50

The concept of immunization, while

10:52

unheard of in the colonies, wasn't new

10:54

to parts of Europe or Africa. Ansimus

10:58

explained he had no fear of small because

11:00

he had been given a protective operation as

11:02

a boy. Intrigued

11:05

mother asked how the procedure worked. The

11:08

method was rather crude back then. Essentially

11:11

fluid was taken from an infected person's

11:13

blisters and transferred into an incision

11:16

made in the arm and leg of an unaffected

11:18

person. Without understanding

11:21

what we know today about virus load

11:23

and exposure, Animus's

11:25

explanation was simple. By

11:27

taking a tiny amount of the virus and

11:29

introducing it into the bloodstream of a healthy

11:31

person, the virus couldn't multiply

11:34

fast enough before the body's immune system

11:36

killed it. This is

11:38

what we now know as vary elation, a

11:40

version of an oculation. Sure,

11:43

the inoculated person would get a little sick,

11:45

but they'd survive, and afterward

11:49

they'd be immune for life. Mother

11:53

quickly interviewed other enslaved people

11:55

in the city. He learned that the

11:57

process had been widespread and defective

11:59

in Africa. Before

12:01

long, he formed an idea. If

12:03

he could find a way to inoculate people, the

12:06

colonists would be free of smallpox

12:08

for good. It

12:11

was one and a whole new

12:13

generation was vulnerable should a new outbreak

12:15

hit the city. Little

12:17

did he or anyone else know, it

12:20

was already there, sitting

12:22

just offshore in a trading ship named

12:25

the h MS. Sea Horse pirates

12:36

were common in seventy one.

12:39

To combat them, warships like the

12:41

Sea Horse often escorted smaller merchant

12:43

ships to and from ports. The

12:46

Sea Horses Captain Thomas Durrell,

12:48

was a seasoned veteran with a reputation

12:51

for rushing trips. In

12:53

his opinion, the faster they and the

12:55

merchant ships traveled, the better. By

12:58

the time the ship and crew pulled into Boston

13:00

Harbor, newspapers had reported

13:02

that Europe at large and the London in particular,

13:05

were in the midst of an epidemic of bubonic

13:07

plague, Making matters

13:09

worse. An outbreak of smallpox had

13:11

also been reported in both London and Barbados.

13:15

The route Durrell and his crew had sailed

13:18

because cargo ships from both locations

13:20

came into port frequently. Customs

13:22

agents in Boston had taken to examining

13:25

incoming crews for traces of sickness,

13:28

but the captain didn't subscribe to

13:30

Boston's inspection requirements.

13:33

Such an intrusion of his liberties were an

13:35

inconvenience to his business.

13:37

Sure, there had been death swollen route, but

13:40

Durrell knew better than to be specific

13:42

in the ship's logs. Once

13:44

the crew laid anchor, he released them to

13:47

go ashore at Castle Island. On

13:50

May twelve, a report came in from the Sea

13:52

Horse. The last man to die

13:54

had been young and healthy. Just days

13:56

after the ship docked. Inspectors

13:59

were sent to instigate there.

14:01

They were horrified to discover two other young

14:04

men, both in the early stages

14:06

of smallpox. But the

14:08

real terror came when they learned that forty

14:10

three other crew members were freely roaming

14:13

Boston's streets. The

14:15

City council ordered an immediate quarantine

14:17

for the Sea Horse. It took several

14:19

days before all the men were found and returned

14:22

to their ships. Captain

14:24

and crew were ordered to quarantine at a hospital

14:27

on Spectacle Island. Darrell

14:29

refused, though adamant that his

14:31

men hadn't brought smallpox ashore.

14:34

Eventually he left Boston Harbor, but

14:37

instead of heading to the hospital, he instead

14:39

dropped anchor at Bird Island. While

14:43

city council members and the ship's captain

14:45

quarreled, officials decided to

14:47

keep their findings aboard the Sea Horse out

14:49

of the public sears. There

14:51

was no reason to cause a panic, after all,

14:55

but secrets have a way of leaking, and

14:58

before long, the news, along

15:00

with the upcoming epidemic spread through

15:02

the city like fire. Durrell,

15:06

angry with the implication that he had caused

15:08

the outbreak, and even more furious

15:10

that he and the ship were now in lockdown, had

15:13

a musician play the trumpet at all

15:15

hours, disturbing the peace

15:17

of those living close to shore. Eight

15:20

days into the quarantine, officials tried

15:22

to quiet the rumors and concern. People

15:25

were on edge. By

15:27

May twenty six, Cotton Mather wrote

15:30

in his diary that smallpox would be upon

15:32

them once more. The disease

15:34

wasn't all that was on his mind, though his

15:36

debts were growing too. His

15:39

second marriage was in trouble, and

15:41

on top of all of that, his congregation

15:44

had started to dwindle. Puritans

15:46

were becoming less popular. His

15:49

reputation had been under fire since

15:51

the uproar, of which chials in Salem,

15:53

and his opponents, both personal and religious,

15:56

seemed to be attacking him from all sides.

15:59

A of course, mother wasn't the easiest

16:01

person to get along with. He was

16:04

prone to fits of rage, exaggeration in

16:06

bravado, and his clinging

16:08

to outdated conventions didn't win

16:10

him any popularity contests. He

16:13

had long been saying another outbreak was

16:16

on the way, and when one hadn't

16:18

happened in a few years, people began

16:20

to dismiss his warnings. Not

16:22

to be ignored, he claimed a destroying

16:25

angel would wreak havoc on Boston.

16:28

But the warm spring weather had arrived,

16:31

people ventured out and mingled with their

16:33

neighbors, unaware that infected sailors

16:36

were among them. Not surprisingly,

16:39

many became ill. Soon

16:41

enough, the city officials could no longer

16:43

pretend the virus wasn't spreading. They

16:46

made another announcement in the paper, notifying

16:49

the town that they had eight known cases,

16:52

though in reality the numbers were much

16:54

higher. Read

16:56

quarantine flags cropped up in front

16:59

of people's homes, along with signs

17:01

reading Lord have mercy on this house.

17:04

Eventually the flags were everywhere in

17:06

the city, enforced martial law. While

17:10

Mather was worried, he also couldn't

17:12

help feeling a little justified. Deciding

17:15

that now was the time to implement his plan,

17:18

he wrote to a prominent physician and friend,

17:21

telling him about Nissimus and their concept

17:23

of inoculation. He didn't

17:25

have to wait long for the rejection letter. Undeterred,

17:29

Mather wrote to several more physicians,

17:32

one doctor Zadbiel. Boylston responded

17:35

and asked for any notes and papers Mather

17:37

had on the subject. Meanwhile,

17:40

smallpox cases exploded. People

17:43

no longer had faith in city officials

17:45

to tell the truth and began to evacuate

17:47

the city, potentially spreading the

17:49

disease farther. By

17:52

the time Mather's letter arrived, doctor

17:54

Boylston had already sent his wife and daughters

17:56

to stay with relatives in another colony.

17:59

One of his sons remained at school in Cambridge,

18:02

though, and two more stayed in Boston.

18:05

Knowing how deadly the disease was, the

18:07

doctor became obsessive about changing

18:09

clothes between patients, among other

18:11

sanitation practices. After

18:15

much deliberation about the best method

18:17

of an oculation, Boylston decided

18:19

it was time for a trial and sent

18:21

a note to Mather telling him he would

18:23

attempt to immunize a few test subjects.

18:27

After formulating the procedure and coming

18:29

up with what he thought was a solid plan, Boylston

18:32

visited one of his patients who was twelve

18:35

days into the sickness. After

18:37

cleaning the skin on his patient's arm, Boylston

18:40

pierced a few blisters and collected the

18:42

fluid with a quill. He transferred

18:45

liquid to a vial and placed to stop

18:47

er in it, then tucked the vial into

18:49

his jacket pocket to keep it at body temperature.

18:52

Finally, he headed home to his test subjects.

18:55

One was his own son, six year old

18:58

Thomas. Also part of

19:00

the test would be his assistant, an enslaved

19:02

man called Jack, and the man's

19:04

young son Jackie. After

19:07

that the waiting began. Their

19:09

plan might very well save lives, but

19:13

like so many things in life, only

19:15

time would tell. Inoculation

19:25

wasn't pleasant. Not just the procedure,

19:27

mind you, that was bad enough. The

19:29

preparation leading up to it wasn't

19:32

exactly a walk in the park. But

19:34

from the medical journals Boilston had read,

19:37

along with Mather's interview notes from the black

19:39

population, the doctor had

19:41

what he hoped would work. First,

19:44

the patient was to take a laxative to

19:46

purge their system during

19:48

the isolation. A week before and

19:51

three weeks after the procedure. Thomas,

19:53

Jackie, and Jack were also placed on

19:56

a special diet, no milk or other

19:58

dairy products. Boylston

20:01

chose to inoculate Thomas first.

20:04

He made an incision on his son's upper arm

20:06

then placed a single drop of liquid from

20:08

the vial into the open wound. Then

20:11

the process was repeated, this time

20:13

on the boy's upper thigh near the buttocks.

20:16

Not once did Thomas cry out despite

20:18

the lack of a topical memming agent. Jackie

20:21

was just a toddler, and although he

20:23

did cry, he was back to playing moments

20:26

afterward. Jack was

20:28

last. Finally,

20:30

with the procedures complete, all the

20:32

windows in the house were shut and the three

20:34

patients were kept in a single room in an

20:37

attempt to contain the virus. Four

20:40

days later, the virus may not have spread

20:42

among the test subjects, but word

20:45

had. Citizens were

20:47

horrified and outraged. They openly

20:49

condemned Boylston for not only

20:51

using his own son, but for such

20:53

a dangerous and clearly immoral

20:55

procedure. Once

20:58

they learned that their own minister had stigated

21:00

the inoculations, they became downright

21:02

incensed. A couple

21:04

of days later, Jackie and Thomas

21:06

had begun to run fevers. Boylston

21:10

had hoped that symptoms would be mild, but

21:12

now he wondered if it had saved his son or

21:14

condemned him to a premature death. All

21:17

he could do was wait Eight

21:21

days into the quarantine, Jackie

21:23

seemed better, but Thomas's fever

21:25

spiked. He twitched

21:28

in his sleep and had vivid nightmares.

21:31

On day nine, Boylston induced

21:33

vomiting. Seven hours later,

21:36

his son's fever broke. The

21:39

two boys developed blisters on the ninth

21:41

day, but Jack barely had any

21:43

symptoms. Many of

21:45

the white population in Boston felt

21:47

that inoculation was dangerous and

21:49

that the black population had lied about its

21:51

effectiveness in an attempt to kill off their

21:53

owners. Boylston,

21:56

however, held fast to his belief

21:58

that immunization was life saving.

22:02

Time and again, the doctor found himself

22:04

under attack, even when

22:06

Jack, Jackie, and Thomas had fully

22:08

recovered without the devastating symptoms

22:10

and scarring that most others experienced

22:13

from smallpox. Some people objected

22:15

to inoculations based on religious

22:17

beliefs. They believed that God's

22:20

will wasn't something to tamper with, and

22:22

that changing the course of an illness was nothing

22:24

short of the devil's work. Mather

22:28

did his best persuade people that rejecting

22:30

inoculation was a direct violation

22:32

of the sixth commandment, thou shalt not

22:34

kill those unwilling

22:36

to inoculate were welcoming the disease,

22:39

and that was the true crime against

22:41

God. In

22:43

July, doctor Boylston was called

22:45

before the city officials. No amount

22:48

of scientific evidence nor medical research

22:50

from England persuaded the committee. Though

22:53

he did his best to defend himself and

22:55

his practice, the doctor realized

22:58

the councilman and the public had made

23:00

up their minds against immunization. He

23:02

left, determined to continue inoculating

23:05

people as long as smallpox was a threat

23:07

to the community. By

23:12

now, Boylston had successfully inoculated

23:15

two more of his sons. Mother,

23:18

however, chose not to inoculate

23:20

his children. He wrestled

23:22

with indecision and hoped that

23:24

if officials outlawed inoculations,

23:27

he would be off the hook as a hypocrite. Had

23:30

lost his first wife and ten of

23:32

his fifteen children to disease, and

23:35

two of his daughters were now ill, Hannah

23:38

and Abigail. He wrote

23:40

in his journal that the cursed clamor

23:43

of people fiercely possessed by the devil

23:45

would stop him from saving the lives of his remaining

23:47

children and complicating

23:50

matters, Abigail was weeks away

23:52

from giving birth. Shortly

23:55

afterward, his son Samuel reported

23:58

that the college roommate had come down with allpox

24:00

and begged to be inoculated. With

24:04

two of his children already stricken, mother

24:06

relented. Samuel and

24:08

Hannah survived, though Abigail

24:10

and her baby died. Smallpox

24:14

continued to ravage the city, and the

24:16

death toll continued to rise. Doctor

24:19

Boylston was verbally and sometimes

24:21

physically assaulted. His saddle

24:23

was tard after an elderly inoculation

24:25

patient died. Others

24:27

cried out for his imprisonment, but

24:31

the doctor wasn't the only one under attack.

24:34

One morning, while the Mather household slept,

24:37

someone threw a crude bomb through a window.

24:40

Unfortunately, the fuse was knocked loose

24:42

and the device fizzled. Though

24:44

a hefty reward was offered, not a

24:47

single person stepped forward with any

24:49

information. That

24:51

October saw the highest death toll yet,

24:54

an average of thirteen deaths a day.

24:57

Boylston continued to immunize those who

24:59

sought him mount and by December

25:02

the inoculations were seeming to take hold.

25:05

Attacks against him continued to rise,

25:07

though, and fearing for the safety

25:09

of his family, he stopped taking on new

25:11

patients for the month between December and

25:14

January. Fortunately,

25:18

two other doctors and neighboring towns

25:20

took up the practice of immunization. By

25:23

February, the Boston Newsletter wrote

25:25

that not a single case of smallpox had

25:27

been reported for the first time in nearly

25:29

a year. In

25:32

May, Boylston performed his last

25:34

inoculations, many on Mather's

25:36

extended family who had returned to the city.

25:40

The minister recorded the success in his journal,

25:42

stating that several hundred people of all

25:44

ages and races had been inoculated. The

25:47

smallpox epidemic had come to an

25:50

end, though the debate

25:52

raged on and several cities banned the

25:54

practice. Those who chose to protect

25:56

themselves found doctors willing to inoculate,

26:00

but smallpox and the debate around

26:02

immunization was far from over.

26:05

In fact, it was just getting started.

26:16

With the population booming in cities

26:18

growing denser, it wasn't long before

26:20

diseases like smallpox returned.

26:23

People living in areas that banned inoculations

26:26

often sent family members to Philadelphia,

26:28

where the procedure was allowed. In

26:30

seventeen seventy five, a new outbreak

26:33

spread through the colonies, threatening to infect

26:35

the new Continental Army. People

26:38

fled the city, hoping to find refuge

26:40

in nearby towns, but General George

26:42

Washington banned them from the army's camps

26:45

to prevent further infection. The

26:47

British and their mercenaries new Colonials

26:50

were vulnerable to smallpox, and sent

26:52

infected prisoners directly into the

26:54

colonies. And if that sounds

26:56

a bit like Germ warfare, that's because

26:58

it was. If the rebels were

27:00

sick, the budding revolution would be

27:02

over without much of a fight. After

27:05

all, the British troops had been inoculated

27:07

back in England, where the practice was legal

27:09

and commonplace. The

27:12

plan seemed to work in the fall of seventeen

27:14

seventy five, when over ten thousand

27:17

Colonial troops were sent to march on Quebec.

27:20

Failure to take the Canadian city was blamed

27:22

mainly on illness. Three

27:24

thousand men were stricken with smallpox,

27:27

prompting John Adams to say that the disease

27:29

was ten times worse than any human

27:32

adversary. General

27:34

Washington also knew the dangers of the

27:36

disease. He had survived

27:38

the illness as a child, but

27:41

though he believed in an oculation, his

27:43

orders were to prohibit it among his men.

27:46

The month long process was too time

27:48

consuming, he told them.

27:51

When the British left Boston in seventeen

27:53

seventy six, Washington sent

27:55

a thousand troops had survived smallpox

27:57

to secure the city. With a growing

28:00

need for even more soldiers, the call went

28:02

out for volunteers. Men

28:04

from far and wide joined, but most

28:06

of them had no immunity.

28:09

Virginia had barely been touched by smallpox,

28:12

but when enlisted men returned home, they

28:14

brought the deadly disease with them.

28:17

Now Washington was faced with a problem.

28:20

If he didn't inoculate his men, he

28:22

wouldn't have enough of them to fight, Defying

28:26

the laws against it, he had recruits.

28:28

Inoculated soldiers were

28:30

sworn to secrecy. It wouldn't do

28:32

for the British to learn that the majority of the rebel

28:34

troops were incapacitated during the quarantine

28:37

period. By the year's

28:39

end, forty men would carry

28:41

smallpox immunity for the rest of their lives.

28:44

Infection rates dropped from seventeen percent

28:46

to just one percent. After

28:49

that, Washington's troops were able to travel

28:51

up and down the coastline and move from city

28:54

to city without catching or spreading

28:56

the disease. Their immunity

28:58

kept them healthy and more

29:00

importantly, allowed them to continue

29:02

the fight for American independence. And

29:05

the rest, as they say, is

29:08

history. There's

29:13

more to this story. Stick around after

29:15

this brief sponsor break to hear all about

29:17

it. In

29:22

seventeen ninety six, Dr Edward

29:24

Jenner created the first vaccine for

29:26

smallpox. Though his method

29:29

was considerably safer and more comfortable

29:31

than earlier techniques, people still

29:34

tended to resist immunization, and

29:36

smallpox outbreaks continued worldwide.

29:39

In just the twentieth century alone, about

29:42

two million people died from the disease.

29:45

While smallpox may seem like something from

29:47

our distant past, work towards

29:50

truly eliminating the disease didn't

29:52

happen until nineteen sixty four. That's

29:55

when the World Health Organization Expert

29:57

Committee came up with an aggressive plan to

29:59

vACC nate the entire world population.

30:03

Without it, outbreaks would always threaten new

30:05

generations. The

30:07

disease was so persistent and contagious

30:09

that even when of Western

30:12

Nigeria was vaccinated, an outbreak

30:14

still occurred in the remaining ten The

30:17

source of the flare up reportedly originated

30:19

in a religious group that had been against

30:22

vaccination supplying

30:24

the world with enough vaccines proved to be a

30:26

monumental task. Liquid

30:28

serum had to be used within forty eight hours.

30:31

The freeze dried version was created along

30:33

with the new delivery method, a jet injector,

30:36

allowing workers to deliver a thousand vaccinations

30:38

an hour. Though

30:41

efficient, the injector was cost prohibitive,

30:44

so an even better delivery method was created,

30:46

a bifurcated needle, which is essentially

30:49

a two pronged syringe. The

30:52

operations suffered another setback when

30:54

supplies were delayed and new outbreaks

30:56

erupted. Staff members

30:58

scrambled to isolate and contain the infected.

31:01

The organization was losing the war

31:03

on smallpox. On

31:06

New Year's Day of nineteen sixty seven,

31:09

the World Health Organization launched an even

31:11

more aggressive eradication program.

31:14

The result was the elimination of smallpox

31:16

in Western Europe, Japan, and North

31:18

America, among other places. Disaster

31:21

struck again in nineteen seventy though, killing

31:24

a hundred and twenty three unvaccinated people

31:26

in India. A door to door search

31:28

helped vaccinate the vulnerable and isolate

31:31

the sick. In nineteen

31:33

seventy two, yet another outbreak occurred

31:35

this time in Yugoslavia, authorities

31:38

declared martial law to enforce quarantine,

31:40

and the outbreak lasted a mere two months.

31:46

By nine seventy five, smallpox

31:48

persisted primarily in the Horn of Africa.

31:51

Vaccinating people there had proved difficult.

31:54

Much of the area was in the midst of civil war. Famine

31:57

and violence caused many refugees to flee

31:59

take the disease with them,

32:01

and getting people in supplies in and

32:03

out of the region was difficult without transportation

32:06

infrastructure. The

32:08

last case of the deadliest strain of

32:10

smallpox, very all a major, was

32:13

found in a three year old girl in India

32:15

in nineteen seventy seven. The

32:17

World Health Organization traveled to Bangladesh

32:19

to isolate the child. Thankfully,

32:22

with medical treatment, she made a full recovery.

32:25

Since that young girl was the last known

32:27

case of the deadliest strain of smallpox,

32:30

a sample taken from her was transferred

32:32

to the United States Centers for Disease Control

32:34

in Atlanta and stored with other

32:37

disease samples there. Finally,

32:40

on December nine of ninety nine, smallpox

32:43

was declared completely eradicated.

32:46

Today, it's the only disease humanity

32:48

has ever been able to eliminate. The

32:51

cost totaled over three hundred million

32:53

dollars, with the United States making the

32:55

largest contribution. That's over

32:58

a billion dollars today adjusting for a nation.

33:01

While the World Health Organization kept a

33:03

couple of the vaccines on hand just in

33:05

case, they asked that all samples

33:08

of smallpox be destroyed. After

33:12

all, if the disease were ever to find its way

33:14

back into the population, the results would

33:16

be catastrophic. Most

33:18

countries agreed and destroyed their samples.

33:21

Two, however, did not, and

33:24

they still have samples of the deadliest

33:26

strain of smallpox in history. Those

33:29

countries Russia and

33:32

the United States. American

33:44

Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum.

33:47

This episode was written by Michelle Muto

33:49

with researcher Robin Miniter, and

33:51

produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor

33:54

Young, with executive producers Aaron

33:56

Minky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.

33:59

To learn more about out the show, visit grim and

34:01

Mild dot com. For more podcasts

34:03

from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio

34:06

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

34:08

you get your podcasts. M