FilmQ03e4_The Black Death

FilmQ03e4_Ch.14: Formation of Western Europe- The “Black Death”

How to Use Video as a Source

Step #1: Familiarize yourself with film questions prior to viewing the film. By reading the questions and understanding the vocabulary contained within, you allow yourself the luxury of viewing the film without having to look at the questions continuously.

Step #2: View and Listen Attentively. Unlike a book, a video provides information via visual images and audio. Both forms of data are ‘more valuable together’ than separately. For example, turn the volume off on your TV during your favorite program. Then, raise the volume while ‘blacking out’ the image. Under which conditions was the data most richly delivered? Always make sure that you have unobstructed viewing of a film and that the sound is audible.

As you view the video, pay attention to visual and/ or audio cues that reflect the issues raised by the questions below. Your responses should refer to video content as well as your current knowledge and understanding of history.

Step #3: Organize Your Thoughts. Unlike a book, the data from a video is often delivered at a constant rate. With a book, you can slow your reading speed when you encounter a particular segment that is complicated. You can also turn back to a previous page to review information. A film is a bit different in that you may not always have the option to use ‘slow motion’ or ‘rewind’. Therefore, maintaining focus on the imagery and sound is important. Targeted Notes will reduce the amount of time you’re looking away from the screen. By writing quick and simple phrases of a few words each, you maintain greater attention to film events.

Targeted notes use key words/ phrases that will ignite a thought or idea when you read them later. There is no concern for grammar or spelling while doing this. After the film has ended, you look at your targeted notes and manipulate the data to compile responses in complete sentences.

Organizational Tip: Vertically divide the sheet of paper where your responses will go. On the ‘left’ half, take targeted notes for each question given. After viewing the video, use the targeted notes to compose complete responses to each question (on the ‘right’ half of the sheet).

When made available, contribute your response, comments, criticism, and questions (in complete sentences) to the class via the Verso application (rather than on paper). The goal is to have everyone contribute at least once in preparing a review sheet of this video. The content you share now will be required on future quizzes and exams.

Your responses to these film questions will supplement your notes for this lesson. While the focus of the films is ‘The Plague’ and the ‘Mini-Ice Age’ of the 14th C., pay close attention to the societal reactions that will become the period’s legacy.

SOURCES: Millennium Video Series: 14th C., The Century of the Scythe.  ©1999. [~15 Min.]
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Context: Europe , The Black Plague & its Impact, c. 1347 – 1400

1. How serious & diverse were the problems generated by the disease and the mini-Ice Age?
2. How did society, or individuals, show the distress in each of these forms?
a. Artistically?     b. Religiously?    c. Towards other Men?    d. Towards Gov’t/ Aristocracy?

Vocabulary
-John Balle (‘Ball’ in modern English): 14th C. English Monk. A chronicler and leader for social change. Leader of Peasant revolts.

-Famine: Starvation due to crop failure.

-Penance: Ritualistic remorse for past misdeeds. The expectation in Catholicism is forgiveness of sins.

-Virulent: The ability of any agent of infection to produce disease. The virulence of a microorganism is a measure of the severity of the disease it is capable of causing. The adjective “virulent” implies an extremely damaging, disease-causing pathogen like a virus, bacteria, or similar microorganism.

AN03e5_Europe’s Response to the Black Death

AN03e5_Formation of Western Europe: Europe’s Response to The Black Death

Timeline: 14th Century
FQ: How could the after-affects of The Black Death contribute to significant changes in Feudal European Society?

Main Idea

In the 1300s, Europe was torn apart by several events. Among these was bubonic plague. The Plague was a biological catastrophe. Its decimation of urban populations left an indelible mark on human events since then. In Europe and elsewhere, the plague’s impact was exacerbated by the famine-causing climate change and ever-present warfare. Social, economic, and political change was inevitable. Devastated communities challenged the inequities embedded in long-standing institutions. Like recent medical crises (eg. AIDS, Bird Flu, West Nile, etc.), this pandemic forced society to react and change.

I. Socio-Economic-Political Impact

A. Social

1. ‘Acts of Passion’: Acts committed because of sudden strong impulses. These impulses are often emotional in nature and do not allow for premeditation (prior planning or forethought).
2. Loss of a Wage Earner: Families become destitute.
3. Orphans
4. ‘Hope’ in Religion: (Religious Rationalization/ Questioning the Faith)

The Flagellant Movement: A movement consisting of Christians who publicly announce their sinful behavior and partially atone for it by physically punishing themselves (self flagellation or whipping oneself). Often groups of people from within this movement would walk from town to town and offer this option to those who seek an escape from divine wrath.

B. Political

1. Peasant Rebellion: The peasant population of European countries turn away from an aristocracy that is increasingly less concerned about the plight of the peasantry. The peasantry, instead, turn to a king who is growing increasingly independent of the nobility that was once the foundation of a feudal society. The growing disaffection between the peasantry and the aristocracy at times explodes into violent clashes. (eg. England & Italy).
2. Revenues decrease while expenses increase.
3. Tax Increase
4. Quelling the Masses

Ponder: “…if the kings and nobles do not address the needs of those from which they derive the bulk of their wealth, then that abused segment of society will force the change…” -John Bolle

C. Economic

1. Loss of Workers/ Labor Shortage
– Free Peasants and Serfs demanded wages for their labor.
– Competition for laborers developed among landowners.
– Landlord’s made an effort to institute laws that kept wages low and workers tied to the land. Imprisonment and fine were penalties often applied.

2. Loss of Consumers
As demand for agricultural products dropped, many landlords ceased trying to cultivate their land and simply leased it out.

3. Volatility in Economic Forces (Supply, Demand, Price, & Production).

II. End of the ‘Old Order’/ Birth of a ‘New Order’.

A. The Aristocracy

Ponder: Plague & Mini Ice Age claim many Serf lives. From where will nobles get their income?

1. Options available to the aristocracy might include the following:
2. Raise rents/ crop payment of serfs and force them to work more? Could lead to rebellion (eg. England).
3. Allow Serfs to acquire economic freedom in return for a payment. (Tried in various localities)
4. Raise rents of townspeople to compensate for loss of serf labor? Could lead to rebellion (eg. Italy).
5. Allow towns to purchase their independence via a payment to the local lord for a town charter. (tried in various localities)

If you combine the loss of life and wealth suffered by the aristocracy (Nobility) resulting from the Crusades, Hundred Years War, battles with Mongols, Mini-Ice Age, and The Plague =\> the nobility is severely weakened while monarchs grow economically and politically stronger.

B. Church

1. Confidence in the Church diminishes. Contributing causes for this would include:
– High mortality rate despite efforts of individuals and local clergy to prevent illness.
– Inappropriate behavior of clergy when addressing the needs of the people, both sick and healthy.
– The Church was the largest feudal entity. It had the greatest reserve of resources to address the needs of Europeans most susceptible to the illness- but didn’t.

2. Heretical Movements: Individuals and communities would turn to religion for answers and a chance to be spared death via The Plague. There were examples of Christian groups who organized religious movements that were not sanctioned by the Church. One such movement was the Flagellant Movement. Some devout Christians would partake of this physical suffering to atone for the sins of others- as did Jesus. These Christians, as were others in similar movements, were branded “Heretics”.

3. The growing popularity of “heretical” movements and activities generated increased pressure for the Church to address this issue. In response, the Church will create an office charged with the task of addressing all issues pertaining to the ‘purity’ of the faith- The Holy Office of the Inquisition.(1)

C. Towns/ Urban Life

1. Though town populations suffered high mortality rates, it was fast becoming host to the surviving agricultural laborers abandoning farming and the manorial estates.
2. Many flocking to the towns pursue occupations in manufacturing.
3. Commercial associations like Guilds and the Hanseatic League continue to survive despite the heavy loss of life.

III. Summary: Why it matters now.

Events of the 1300s led to a change in attitudes toward religion and the state, a change reflected in the Renaissance, and later, modern attitudes.

(1) This office is now called Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Resources:
– Textbook: World History: Patterns of Interaction
– Slide Presentation
– CNN’s Millennium Series- The Century of Scythe: The Black Death
– Verso App
– King Henry II’s Charter for the city of Lincoln
– Sources of Western Tradition: Fourteenth Century Pestilence by Friar Jean Venette
– Additional Source: Lecture by Prof. Morris Rossabi, Columbia Univ. 28 Sept. 2000 (Stuyvesant H.S.)/ Author of “Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times”

R03e_Jean Venette and The Black Death

THE BLACK DEATH

by Jean de Venette

Note: The progress of the plague as it made its way through Europe, speculation on its causes, the terrible toll of victims, and various moral responses to the crisis are described in the reading that follows. It is extracted from the chronicle of Jean de Venette, a fourteenth-century French friar who lived through the events described.

This document should be read and analyzed in conjunction with R03e_The Black Plague and Labor, and R03e_Medieval European Jews and Muslims. Mr.V has edited the document for clarity and brevity.

The text has been edited for clarity and brevity by Mr. V for classroom use.
—- —-

Fourteenth-Century Pestilence

Until the fourteenth century, the population of Europe had increased steadily from its low point in the centuries immediately following the fall of the Roman Empire in the West; particularly from the eleventh century onward when landlords tried to raise their income by bringing new land into cultivation.

By improving farming technology, building dikes, draining marshland and clearing forests European peasants produced much more food, which permitted more people to survive and multiply. The advance in population tapered off by the early fourteenth century due to many crop failures and wars, which wasted the country-side and led to economic stagnation.

But the greatest catastrophe began in the fall of 1347, when sailors returning to Sicily from eastern Mediterranean ports brought with them a new disease, bubonic plague. Within the next three years, from one quarter to one third of the population of Europe died from what became known, because of some of its symptoms, as the Black Death.

Most who caught the plague died. Though some survived, no one knew its cause or cure. We now know that the bacteria were transmitted by fleas from infected rats. The unsanitary living conditions of medieval towns and low standards of personal cleanliness helped to spread the disease. The people were so terrified by the incomprehensible pattern of the disease’s progress that superstition, hysteria, and breakdown of civility were common.

[This ‘Forward’, above, was taken from the document’s source]

[What follows are the words of Jean Venette with Mr.V’s edits]

[1] In A.D. 1348, the people of France and of almost the whole world were struck by a blow other than war. For in addition to the famine which I described in the beginning and to the wars which I described in the course of this narrative, pestilence and its attendant appeared again in various parts of the world. […]

[2] All this year and the next, the mortality of men and women, of the young even more than of the old, in Paris and in the kingdom of France, and also, it is said, in other parts of the world, was so great that it was almost impossible to bury the dead. People lay for little more than two or three days and died suddenly, as it were in full health. He who was well one day was dead the next and being carried to his grave. Swellings appeared suddenly in the armpits or in the groin (in many eases both) and they were infallible signs of death.

[3] This sickness or pestilence was called an epidemic by the doctors. Nothing like the great numbers who died in the year 1348 and 1349 has been heard of or seen or read of in times past. This plague and disease came from imagination or association and contagion, for if a well man visited the sick he only rarely evaded the risk of death. Wherefore in many towns timid priests withdrew, leaving the exercise of their ministry to such of the religious as were more daring. In many places not two out of twenty remained alive. So high was the mortality at the Hotel-Dieu an early hospital in Paris that for a long time more than five hundred dead were carried daily with great devotion in carts to the cemetery of the Holy Innocents in Paris for burial. A very great number of the saintly sisters of the Hotel-Dieu who, not fearing to die, nursed  the sick in all sweetness and humility, with no thought of honor, a number too often renewed by death, rest in peace with Christ, as we may piously believe.

[4] This plague, it is said, began among the unbelievers Muslims, came to Italy, and then crossing the Alps reached Avignon site of the papacy in that period where it attacked several cardinals and took from them their whole household. Then it spread, unforeseen, to France, through Gascony now part of the south of France and Spain, little by little, from town to town, from village to village, from house to house, and finally from person to person. It even crossed over to Germany, though it was not so bad there as with us. During the epidemic, God of His accustomed goodness designed to grant this grace, that however suddenly men died, almost all awaited death joyfully. Nor was there any man who died without confessing his sins and receiving the holy viaticum the Eucharistic bread given to the sick or dying….

[5] Some said that this pestilence was caused by infection of the air and waters, since there was at this time no famine nor lack of food supplies, but on the contrary great abundance. As a result of this theory of infected water and air as the source of the plague the Jews were suddenly and violently charged with infecting wells and water and corrupting the air. The whole world rose up against them cruelly on this account. In Germany and other parts of the world where Jews lived, they were massacred and slaughtered by Christians, and many thousands were burned everywhere, indiscriminately. The unshaken, if fatuous, constancy of the Jewish men and their wives was remarkable, for mothers hurled their children first into the fire that they might not be baptized and then leaped in after them to burn with their husbands and children. It is said that many bad Christians were found who in a like manner put poison into wells, but in truth, such poisonings, granted that they actually were perpetrated, could not have caused so great a plague nor have infected so many people. There were other causes; for example the will of God and the corrupt humors and evil inherent in air and earth. Perhaps the poisonings, if they actually took place in certain localities, reinforced these causes.

[6] The plague lasted in France for the greater part of the years 1348 and 1349 and then ceased. Many country villages and many houses in good towns remained empty and deserted. Many houses, including some splendid dwellings very soon fell into ruins. Even in Paris several houses were thus ruined, though fewer here than elsewhere.

After the cessation of the epidemic, pestilence, or plague, the men and women who survived married each other. There was no sterility among the women, but on the contrary fertility beyond the ordinary pregnant woman were seen on every side […] But woe is me! the world was not changed for the better but for the worst by this renewal of population. For men were more avaricious and grasping than before, even though they had far greater possessions. They were more covetous and disturbed each other more frequently with suits, brawls, disputes, and pleas. Nor by the mortality resulting from this terrible plague inflicted by God was peace between kings and lords established. On the contrary, the enemies of the king of France and of the Church were stronger and wickeder than before and stirred up wars on sea and on land. Greater evils than before swarmed everywhere in the world. […]

[7] In the year 1349, while the plague was still active and spreading from town to town, men in Germany, […] uprose and began a new sect on their own authority. Stripped to the waist, they gathered in large groups and bands and marched in procession through the crossroads and squares of cities and good towns. There they formed circles and beat upon their backs with weighed scourges, rejoicing as they did so in loud voices and singing hymns suitable to their rite and newly composed for it. Thus for thirty-three days they marched through many towns doing their penance […] . They flogged their shoulders and arms with scourges tipped with iron points so zealously as to draw blood. But they did not come to Paris nor to any part of France, for they were forbidden to do so by the king of France, […]. He acted on the advice of the masters of theology of the University of Paris, who said that this new sect had been formed contrary to the will of God, […] Mother Church and to the salvation of all their souls. […] Pope Clement VI was fully informed concerning this fatuous new rite […] through emissaries reverently sent to him and, on the grounds that it had been damnably formed, […] he forbade the Flagellants, under threat of anathema excommunication, to practice […] public penance […]. His prohibition was just, for the Flagellants, supported by certain fatuous priests and monks, were enunciating doctrines and opinions which were beyond measure evil, erroneous, and fallacious. For example, they said that their blood thus drawn by the scourge and poured out was mingled with the blood of Christ. Their many errors showed how little they knew of the Catholic faith. […]

Questions

I. In the absence of any scientific knowledge about the nature and cause of bubonic plague, what did the chronicler (Fr. Jean Venette) suggest?
2. What did the chronicler observe as consequences of the plague?
3. According to the chronicler, why did Church authorities take steps to suppress the Flagellant movement?

Source: Sources of the Western Tradition, vol. 1, 3rd ed. Houghton-Mifflin Co., 1995. p 271-274.

Vocabulary:
Chronicler- Someone who records the events he/ she witnessed during their life.
Scourge- a whip used to inflict punishment. (Synonym- Flagellum)
Penance- Ritualistic act of showing remorse for a past misdeed.

AN03e4_Ch.14-The Black Plague

AN03e4_Ch.14-Formation of Western Europe: The Black Plague

Timeline: 12th – 16th C.
FQ: To what extent did pre-existing conditions (14th C. Europe) impact the spread and severity of The Plague?

Main Idea: In the 1300s, Europe was torn apart by several events. Among these was bubonic plague. Like modern diseases, Bubonic Plague originated and thrived under the economic, social, and environmental conditions prevailing at the time. These included poverty, increased communication with other regions, poor sanitation, lack of knowledge (& tradition) regarding hygiene, and climatic change.

I. Vocabulary and Background Facts (Refer to Crossword Puzzle)

A. Black Death: Refers to the color of the buboes that grew on the bodies of many plague victims (neck, groin, armpits=\> areas near glands). Causes, as believed by many of that time, involved Humors and Miasmas.

B. Mortality: Death, in the worst case, can occur within 24hrs from onset of visible symptoms. From 1347 – 1351, 33% of Europe ’s population dies (~25 million). The mortality rate, which is different from the percentage of deaths, would be higher since not everyone contracted the disease. Some showed signs of contracting the illness, but would later survive without further ill effects.

C. Transmission: Vectors (carriers) were predominantly fleas and rats. Humans can also be considered a vector since they could transport fleas on their bodies and rats in the hulls of trade vessels.

D. Heretics: Members of the Christian community who challenge and/ or modify Church teaching. They do not practice the faith in accord with Church teachings. (eg. Flagellant Movement)

II. Pre-existing Conditions in Europe (leading to 14th C.)

A. Rising Population (Agricultural Advances- refer to earlier lesson)

B. Exponential Population Growth
1. Clearing of forest lands for cultivation.
2. Depletion of soil
3. High Population Densities

C. Mini-Ice Age
1. Wetter in Summer: Flooding. Crops don’t ripen.
2. Colder in Winter: Glacial Expansion. Growing seasons are shortened.
3. The 13th and 14th centuries witnessed an average drop in temperature ~3º in Asia and then Europe. This had become a ‘mini’ ice-age. (We will revisit this climatic change in a future lesson focusing on Mongol expansion.)

D. Poor Sanitary Conditions
This involved everything from lack of sewer systems to cultural traditions impacting on personal hygiene. It should be noted here that one of the greatest advances in the fight against illness was the development of public sanitation policies. The physical well-being of urban populations was closely tied to the quality of sanitation. (View the logo for NYC Sanitation Dept.)

E. Mongols as Carriers
Prof. Morris Rossabi [Columbia Univ., 28 Sept. ’00] doesn’t see any connection between Mongol expansion and the spread of plague. He attributes this belief to scholars who focus on Ming dynastic accounts. These accounts would be constructed to reflect loss of the Mandate of Heaven by the Yuan (Mongol) emperor’s.

III. CASE STUDY: Barcelona , Spain (See map in presentation)
A. 1333 –  Famine
B. 1347 – 1351 Plague
C. 1358 – 1359 Famine
D. 1362 – 1363 Plague

Ponder
– Is there any possible explanation for the alternating of famine and plague?

– Since Barcelona is a large town, how does population density affect this alternating sequence?

– How do you explain the gaps (measured in years) between each outbreak of famine and plague?

IV. Summary Activity: Why it matters now.
Events of the 1300s led to a change in attitudes toward religion and the state. Such changes will come to impact the Renaissance.

Resources:
– World History: Patterns of Interaction
– Slide Presentation
– Secrets of the Dead: Mystery of The Black Death (Part I, II, III, IV)
– CNN’s Millennium Series- The Plague & The Century of Scythe
– Sources of Western Tradition: Fourteenth Century Pestilence by Friar Jean Venette
– Lecture by Prof. Morris Rossabi, Columbia Univ. 28 Sept. ’00 (Stuyvesant H.S.)/ Author of Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times

On Vaccinations and the Small Pox epidemic of 1894 | Brooklyn Historical Society Blog

http://brooklynhistory.org/blog/2014/07/21/on-vaccinations-and-the-small-pox-epidemic-of-1894/?utm_source=Brooklyn+Historical+Society+E-Newsletter&utm_campaign=6da8eb8601-September+Programs+Week+1+%2809022014%29&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_556fa60cc0-6da8eb8601-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&ct=t%28September+Programs+Week+1+%2809022014%29%29&goal=0_556fa60cc0-6da8eb8601-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&mc_cid=6da8eb8601&mc_eid=%5BUNIQID%5D

 

On Vaccinations and the Small Pox epidemic of 1894

Brooklyn Life, March 1894.

This is the latest in a series of posts on the records of Brooklyn’s Corporation Counsel, which are currently being processed with funding provided by a Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) “Hidden Collections” grant.

The U. S. Supreme Court recently upheld New York City’s policy of preventing unvaccinated students from attending public schools while another student has a vaccine-preventable disease. This is just the latest in long line of judicial decisions which addresses the limits of government control over the health of the individual. Over one hundred years ago, during a smallpox epidemic which ravaged the city, the very same situation was addressed in the courts of Brooklyn. The city’s Department of Health was determined to actively control the spread of the disease, often coming into conflict with those citizens whom they were trying to protect.

Prior to the development of a vaccine, smallpox was one of the most feared diseases on the planet – it was extremely contagious, and had killed and disfigured millions since ancient times. The first traditional vaccine was developed in England in the late 18^th century, and by 1800 it was introduced to the United States. While the vaccine was highly effective at reducing the spread of the disease, from the beginning there was resistance to state imposed vaccination programs. Laws varied from region to region.  In Europe, Germany and England had made vaccination compulsory. Massachusetts introduced the first mandatory vaccination policy in the U.S. In New York, there were no compulsory vaccination laws, excepting children who attended public schools.[i]

New York Times, 24 March 1894.

In 1892, about 20 years since the last epidemic, small pox returned to Brooklyn. At first the cases remained isolated. Then, from December 1893 to February 1894, there were about 70 newly diagnosed cases a month. By March of 1894 the number of infections had increased to 150. Brooklyn’s Department of Health, led by Dr. Z. Taylor Emery, decided it was time to take action. The department operated under the premise that the masses (i.e. the poor, but also business owners and landlords), “needed the guidance of enlightened and scientifically trained professionals to ensure the public good.”[ii] To that end, they began a policy of vaccination and quarantine that sometimes overstepped the bounds of New York law.

The department’s strategy of vaccination and quarantine was something akin to the military tactic of “shock and awe.” The 1894 annual report of the Department of Health describes the typical response to a reported case of smallpox: “As occupants of infected houses were sometimes known to escape therefrom to other parts of the city, before the removal of the patient, it was found necessary to put a police quarantine on the house pending arrival of the ambulance, the disinfection of the premises, and vaccination of the inmates. As soon as precautions were complied with, quarantine was raised, so as to inconvenience the occupant as little as possible.” As you can imagine, many residents found the process to be somewhat more severe than a mere inconvenience, as they were essentially placed under house arrest while their clothes, beddings, and other household goods which might be harboring the disease were destroyed.[iii]

Kingston Ave. Hospital disinfecting station. Annual Report of the Department of Health of the City of Brooklyn, 1894.

Sometimes the afflicted were allowed to convalesce at home, but more often than not they were sent to the Kingston Avenue Hospital, also known as the Contagious Disease Hospital, in Flatbush (the hospital was located at Kingston Ave. and Fenimore St., today the site of the High School for Public Service). The hospital was soon filled to capacity, and tents were erected to house even more patients. Naturally, local residents were alarmed by the influx of disease carriers. The hospital was threatened with arson, and soon guards were stationed on the premises to protect both the patients and staff.[iv]

The city was pro-active in its vaccination efforts. Over two dozen free vaccination clinics were set up across the city. A team of vaccinators was sent to the 27^th Ward (Bushwick), where a large German population (which was largely resistant to vaccinations) resided. The city focused on areas where large groups of people congregated, specifically schools, factories, and lodging houses. In one day, 2,000 workers were vaccinated at the Havenmeyer & Elder sugar refinery alone. [v]

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 26 March 1894.

When a new case of smallpox was reported, not only was the entire household vaccinated on the spot, but teams would canvass all surrounding residences to prevent the spread of the disease.  While the health department was not empowered to coerce the vaccination of citizens, they used quarantines (which were allowed by New York state law to prevent the spread of disease) to strong arm anyone who resisted. Quarantined homes were marked with a yellow flag, and policemen were stationed outside to prevent anyone was entering or leaving the home. Sometimes even food deliveries were prevented from entering the quarantined homes.[vi]

The policies of Brooklyn’s Department of Health led to a number of legal problems for the city, and there are several cases related to the epidemic in the records of Brooklyn’s Corporation Counsel.

Mary A. Ferrer sued the city for false imprisonment.  She claimed to be misdiagnosed with small pox (while actually suffering from malaria), and was held at the Kingston Avenue Hospital for a week, all the while being exposed to the deadly disease.[vii]

Testimony of John Salmon. Salmon, John – Vaccination injury, 1894. Brooklyn, N.Y., Department of Law, Corporation Counsel records, 2013.015; Brooklyn Historical Society

John Salmon sued for injuries received as a result of his vaccination. According to the plaintiff, a health department official came to his home and asked if he was vaccinated. When Salmon indicated that he was not, the health official falsely declared that the vaccination was mandatory, and Salmon reluctantly submitted. Three days later his skin began to blister all over his body and he was confined to a hospital for three months.[viii]

Robert W. Goggin filed suit against city for the deaths of both his wife and daughter.  He claimed that city failed to remove a small pox carrier from his apartment building, and as a result his wife and two children contracted the disease and were quarantined at the hospital. His wife soon died, and his daughter, who was later sent to the Home for Destitute Children, died of measles and pneumonia.[ix]

N.Y. state law regarding vaccination and public schools. Scrimshaw, Frederick and Charles A. Walters – Public school admittance and vaccination disputes, 1894-1895. Brooklyn, N.Y., Department of Law, Corporation Counsel records, 2013.015; Brooklyn Historical Society

The most significant legal case found in the collection involves the vaccination of school children. In 1893, the New York state legislature passed an act to provide for the compulsory education of children, which also allowed school boards to appoint physicians to vaccinate students. Children were inspected for vaccination scars by the physicians, and any student who was suspected of being unvaccinated was prevented from attending public school.

This practice was challenged by the Kings County Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League, which was led by Dr. Charles A. Walters. He argued that the city had no right to exclude unvaccinated children from public schools. The case was heard by Judge Bartlett, who ultimately sided with the city. In his decision, he indicated that public school education was a privilege, not a right. Since the public school system was a creation of the state it was subject to reasonable regulation, especially regarding the health and welfare of the community. He still did not go so far as to endorse compulsory vaccination for all citizens, noting, “To vaccinate a person against his will, without legal authority to do so, would be an assault.”[x]

While this case ended in the city’s favor, their aggressive quarantine policy would not hold up in the courts. That same year a judge ruled that the health department had no right to quarantine the homes of citizens who had not contracted small pox. Legal challenges to compulsory vaccination continued into the 20^th century, culminating in 1905 when the U.S. Supreme Court, “affirmed the right of the majority to override individual liberties when the health of the community required it.”[xi] Of course, as the recent Supreme Court ruling regarding school vaccinations indicates, the debate over the government’s role in public health remains unsettled to this day.

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[i] “Between persuasion and compulsion: Smallpox control in Brooklyn and New York.” Colgrove, J. Bull. Hist. Med. 2004 Summer;78(2):349-78.

[iii] Annual Report of the Department of Health of the City of Brooklyn, 1894.

[iv] “Brooklyn’s Smallpox Outbreak,” N.Y. Sun, 29 March 1894.

[v] “Between persuasion and compulsion: Smallpox control in Brooklyn and New York. Colgrove, J. Bull. Hist. Med. 2004 Summer;78(2):349-78.

[vii] Brooklyn, N.Y., Department of Law, Corporation Counsel records, 2013.015; Brooklyn Historical Society.

[xi] “Between persuasion and compulsion: Smallpox control in Brooklyn and New York.” Colgrove, J. Bull. Hist. Med. 2004 Summer;78(2):349-78.