1648-49 — Smallpox epidemic, Mass. Bay Colony, esp. Roxbury, Scituate, Cape Cod–Major

–Major outbreak. Kohn. Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence… 2001, p. 220.
–Very virulent. Knight-Sypniewski, Margaret nee. “New England Timeline.” Mass. Origins.

Narrative Information

Knight-Sypniewski: “1648-1649 – Massachusetts. A very virulent smallpox and whooping cough sweeps from Scituate to Cape Cod and north to Boston and Roxbury.”

Kohn: “Massachusetts Smallpox Epidemic of 1648-49.”
“One of the major outbreaks of smallpox in the English colonies in America. Most of the early outbreaks of the disease were confined to one settlement or area, but the 1648 epidemic spread to numerous towns and varied widely in severity from town to town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Boston was affected, but nearby Roxbury saw many more of its inhabitants perish from the disease, which was perhaps black smallpox (purpura variola), a highly fatal form, according to some reports.

“The English colonists – men, women, and children – who had not been exposed to smallpox previously and thus developed an immunity to it were greatly alarmed when many of them suddenly complained of splitting headaches, backaches, chills, fevers, nausea, and sometimes convulsions and delirium. Over the next few days these symptoms faded as the characteristic, deep-seated smallpox rash appeared ( rash usually leaving a survivor with a permanent reminder of his or her bout with the disease); some were left with pockmarked faces, blindness, or infertility.

“The town of Scituate, south of Boston, was especially hard hit, as was Cape Cod, where an outbreak of whooping cough was concurrently afflicting many settlers. The combined diseases (smallpox and whooping cough) may have led observers to perceive the smallpox epidemic as more severe than it actually was. Nevertheless, the epidemic seriously affected so many children in Scituate and Barnstable (on Cape Cod) that the church fathers in these towns declared a ‘Day of Humiliation’ on November 15, 1649.

“Further reading: Duffy, Epidemics in Colonial America; Shurkin, The Invisible Fire; Winslow, A Destroying Angel: The Conquest of Smallpox in Colonial Boston.” (Kohn. Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence… 2001, p. 220.)

Sources

Knight-Sypniewski, Margaret nee. “New England Timeline.” The New England Colonists Web. Massachusetts Origins. Accessed 3-10-2021 at: https://www.angelfire.com/mi4/polcrt/NewEngTimeline.html

Kohn, George Childs (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence From Ancient Times to the Present (Revised Edition). NY: Checkmark Books, 2001.