The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Digital Library

Revolutionary War-era document of a smallpox meeting at Johnston, Rhode Island, 1776, deciding to quarantine infected townspeople in their homes

About This Item

Title

Revolutionary War-era document of a smallpox meeting at Johnston, Rhode Island, 1776, deciding to quarantine infected townspeople in their homes

Subject

Meetings
Smallpox
Quarantine--Rhode Island--Revolution, 1775-1783

Description

Written in brown ink on a 7 1/2 x 12 inch piece of hand laid paper, in a fine state of preservation, with remnants of two seals. This unique American Revolutionary War era document from 1776 is a record of a town council meeting in Johnston, Rhode Island to discuss the smallpox outbreak that was occurring. Several people in the town of Johnston were suspected of being infected with smallpox, a highly contagious disease. The council decided that the people infected would be restricted (quarantined) to their respected houses and those family members not infected would be removed.

Creator

Johnston (R.I.) Town Council

Publisher

Digitized by the rights holder

Date

October 1, 1776

Language

English

Type

Resolutions (administrative records)

Identifier

smallpox_quarantine

Provenance

Armory Antiques

Temporal Coverage

Eighteenth century

Spatial Coverage

Johnston (R.I.)

Rights Holder

Anonymous. Name available upon request.

Citation

Johnston (R.I.) Town Council, “Revolutionary War-era document of a smallpox meeting at Johnston, Rhode Island, 1776, deciding to quarantine infected townspeople in their homes,” The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Digital Library, accessed March 29, 2024, https://cppdigitallibrary.org/items/show/8155.