Īfter becoming president in 1801, Jefferson expanded his commitment to smallpox inoculation. But it is a testament to Jefferson's confidence in smallpox inoculation that just two months after the devastating loss of his wife, he had their daughters inoculated. Jefferson did not make the trip to Philadelphia, and it is uncertain whether she ever received inoculation before her death in September 1782. Nelson shall nurse her in the small pox and take all possible care of her." Mrs. His friend Thomas Nelson encouraged him, "You must certainly bring Mrs. This increased presence of the disease in Virginia may have prompted Jefferson to encourage his wife, Martha, to accompany him to Philadelphia in 1776 with one objective being smallpox inoculation. Virginians feared that the sick slaves were being deliberately used by the British to spread the disease. In 1776, Jefferson was appointed to a congressional investigating committee and, according to his notes, one witness before the panel claimed, "The small pox was sent out of Quebeck by Carleton, inoculating the poor people at government expence for the purpose of giving it to our army." This issue arose again during the British invasion of Virginia, as an indeterminate number of slaves who had fled to the British army had contracted smallpox. It was feared a similar action had taken place during the failed American campaign in Canada. During the French and Indian Wars, the Ottawa Indians threatening the British at Fort Pitt were deliberately given blankets used by smallpox victims. The spread of smallpox became an issue in the American Revolution, as the British were accused of conducting biological warfare. Jefferson would give up his law practice before the case was resolved, but he later served on a committee that placed a bill before the Virginia General Assembly to reduce the 1769 restrictions on smallpox inoculation. Archibald Campbell, whose house had been burned as a result of the inoculations carried out there. Jefferson, then practicing law, became involved when he agreed to defend victims of the Norfolk riots, including Dr. When the procedure was brought to Norfolk County, Virginia, in 1768 and again in 1769, it provoked riots on both occasions. Smallpox inoculation was discouraged in many of the colonies, including Virginia, when Jefferson traveled to Philadelphia at age 23 to undergo inoculation. It may seem surprising, then, that Thomas Jefferson, who boldly opined in 1799 that the "state of medecine is worse than that of total ignorance," would be an early advocate of smallpox inoculation and later as president would openly support the introduction of the less virulent but still controversial cowpox vaccine into the United States. Consequently, inoculation often encountered fear and opposition. There was also the not-unfounded concern that smallpox could be spread through an inoculated person not properly quarantined. There were deaths associated with the inoculation process, as it initiated the disease, though in a milder form. Inoculation, however, was not without risks. Inoculation against the disease had been introduced into Europe from the Middle East early in the century and subsequently conveyed to the American colonies. A high percentage of those infected died many who survived were blinded or badly disfigured. One of the most feared diseases in the eighteenth century was smallpox.
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