Prevalent diseases in 1776

The answer is B. During the American Revolution, smallpox caused havoc on the American soldiers, especially during their invasion of Canada. Apparently, smallpox was present in Canada when the American troops arrived. Once it began to spread in their camp, it had devastating effects.

After July 4, 1776, George Washington ordered for all his troops to be inoculated. Perhaps without this order the British force may have defeated the American troops. George Washington himself had been infected by this virus in 1751.

In her book Pox Americana, Elizabeth Fenn writes about this outbreak of the smallpox epidemic during the years of the revolutionary war. She indicates that at that time, inoculations were common because the smallpox vaccine had not been invented yet. Many people, including Thomas Jefferson and Martha Washington traveled to Philadelphia to get inoculated because the procedure had not been banned there.
The Europeans brought this disease to the Indians in the 1500s. The British also used smallpox as a weapon in the 1800s against the Indians, especially in a particular genocide where Native Americans were gifted army blankets infected with smallpox.

It was in 1776 again that Dr. Edward Jenner performed an experiment that led to the eradication of smallpox 180 years later.

Resources:

Learn more about smallpox in colonial America.

Information and excerpts from Pox Americana.

July 5, 2003