Smallpox

Smallpox is an inflammatory fever most noted for the appearance of rash-like spots all over the body. Additional symptoms include drowsiness, delirium and fits, intense sweating, fatigue, headaches and backaches, fever, vomiting or nausea, swelling of the hands or eyelids, and nosebleeds. While each case differed depending on the patient, smallpox usually had four stages of infection: the “feverish state,” which was the first indication of smallpox; the “eruptive state,” where pustules began to form; the “state of maturation or ripening,” where the pustules began to scab; and the “state of declination or scabbing,” where the pustules fully hardened and fell off the body. Physician Thomas Dimsdale described how "the whole surface of the skin is covered with a rash… "first in the head and face; then in the neck and breast, hands and arms, and then afterwards all over the body” (Mustakeem). Doctors often also noted that the wounds would change color as the disease progressed, with the spots being white and glue-like as first before turning black and yellow.

Unlike the majority of diseases that plagued slave ships, smallpox had an existing vaccine created in the late eighteenth century, and many slave traders purchased vaccines for themselves, the crew, and occasionally for the slaves. Physicians also recommended dietary restrictions for additional treatment, particularly oatmeal and barley gruel. Drinking herbal teas, barley water, diluting liquors, and beer mixed with orange or lemon juice were also suggested.