1730 — Smallpox Epidemic, Boston, New York City –1,000-1,480
— 1,000-1,480 Blanchard compilation based on locality breakouts below.
Boston (500-780)
— 780 Celebrate Boston. Boston Disasters. “Smallpox Epidemics.”
— ~500 Celebrate Boston. Boston Disasters. “Smallpox Epidemics.”
— 500 Childs 1886, 23.
— ~500 Purvis, Thomas L. Colonial America to 1763. NY: Facts On File, Inc., 1999, p. 173.[1]
— 500 Simonds. The American Date Book, 1902, p. 82.
New York City (500-700)
— ~560-700 Hopkins 2002, 241-242.[2]
— 500 Simonds. The American Date Book. 1902, p. 82.
Boston
“In 1730, about 4000 cases of smallpox occurred, one tenth of whom were inoculated. At this time, it carried off about 500.” (Celebrate Boston. Boston Disasters. “Smallpox Epidemics.”)
“An 1830s history of Boston states that the centennial celebration of 1730 was canceled due to a smallpox outbreak. About 780 people perished.” (Celebrate Boston. Boston Disasters. “Smallpox Epidemics.”)
New York
“About half of the city’s population was infected, and nearly seven percent of the eight to ten thousand New Yorkers died within three months during this outbreak of 1730-31. The city was still paralyzed in August 1731 when a correspondent for Boston’s Weekly News-letter reported from New York:
“There is little or no Business, and less Money, the Markets begin to grow very thin; the Small-Pox raging very violently in Town, which in a great measure hinders the country People from Supplying this Place with Provisions.” (Hopkins 2002, 242; citing Duffy 1953, 78-79, for the quotation)
Sources
Celebrate Boston. Boston Disasters. “Smallpox Epidemics.” Accessed 12/06/2008 at: http://www.celebrateboston.com/disasters/epidemics/smallpox.htm
Childs, Emery E. A History of the United States In Chronological Order From the Discovery of America in 1492 to the Year 1885. NY: Baker & Taylor, 1886. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=XLYbAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Hopkins, Donald R. The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1st Edition, 1983, with new Introduction, 2002. Partially digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=z2zMKsc1Sn0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Purvis, Thomas L. Colonial America to 1763. NY: Facts On File, Inc., 1999. Google digital preview: http://books.google.com/books?id=BZRJSx3uMYEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Simonds, W. E. (ed.) The American Date Book. Kama Publishing Co., 1902, 211 pages. Digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=JuiSjvd5owAC
[1] Cites as source: John B. Blake, Public Health in the Town of Boston, 1630-1822 (1959), p. 244. Shows 500 deaths out of 3,600 cases, and 12 inoculated smallpox deaths. Total Boston population is listed as 13,500.
[2] Calculated by taking 7% of 8,000 (560) and of 10,000 (700).