Pox and the Covenant: Mather, Franklin, and the Epidemic That Changed America's Destiny
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On April 22, 1721, the HMS Seahorse arrived in Boston from the West Indies, carrying goods, cargo, and, unbeknownst to its crew, a deadly virus. Publishers Weekly Historian Williams (Hurricane of Independence) explores a fascinating aside to American medical history—how “a Puritan minister and one lone doctor... stood up to the medical establishment” by carrying out the first-ever American inoculation program during Boston’s 1721 smallpox epidemic. Here’s the brilliant Puritan minister Cotton Mather, also a member of the prestigious British Royal Society, and Zabdiel Boylston, the doctor whom Mather persuaded to test out the theories of inoculation. The results were stunning. Out of 242 persons inoculated against smallpox, only six died. Despite this success, the public—including the young and brash Ben Franklin—loudly disapproved. If this account of the raucous, turbulent times is often stilted, the compelling details of the momentous experiment and the epidemic’s devastating human toll speak for themselves. Williams argues that the campaign of Mather, the greatest preacher of his day, for inoculation illustrates the error of assuming that religion has always been “an impediment to the progress of modern science and reason.” But his better story is the one of Mather, a spiritual man and loving father who—despite being the target of an attempted assassin—wanted nothing more than to save his family and city.Map. (Apr.)
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction xiiiPrologue xix1 A Killer Lurking 12 Walking Around Boston 113 Contagion 214 Ordinary and Extraordinary Concerns 335 At the Pulpit 516 A Consult of Physicians 597 Dr. Boylston Responds 698 Social Disharmony 899 The Brothers Franklin 9710 For and Against Inoculation 10711 "My Dying Children" 12112 Death's Head 13913 Life-Giving Fires 15714 "The Afflicted Still Multiply" 16515 "Cotton Mather, You Dog, Damn You!" 17316 The Final Boston Inoculations 187Conclusion 207Bibliography 211Endnotes 227About the Author 259Note to Reader 261Index 263
