Research Symposium

BIO

Brooke LeBoeuf is a second-year undergraduate student from Plantation, Florida. She is pursuing a major in Biological Science with a minor in Chemistry. She hopes to go to graduate school to become a Physician Assistant, and getting further engaged with patient care. Brooke's research, under Dr. Joseph Gabriel, is about the utilization of inoculation against smallpox in the mid 18th century in the American colonies.

Battling Disease: The Inoculation Campaign Against Smallpox in Revolutionary America

Abstract

The purpose of this research project is to investigate smallpox in the late 18th century United States, the inoculation campaign led by George Washington, and how the public reacted to this response. Inoculation is the practice of infecting one individual with the pus from a smallpox sore of another person. The decisions made in Washington’s inoculation campaign—and the broader acceptance of the practice of inoculation— is important because it established a precedent for how the public reacted to later government public health orders.

My research revealed far more intimate details about how the smallpox outbreak was initially handled by the colonies, such as by quarantine, and later how inoculation was handled and delegated by the colonies. I found that there was much discourse surrounding inoculation between those for and against it. What these findings demonstrate is that public health in America has always been met with public backlash towards the protective measures that have been implemented, or suggested, by the government.

Keywords: History, Disease, Medicine, America, Biology