Miraculous Plagues : An Epidemiology of Early New England Narrative

"In the summer of 1629, John Winthrop described a series of epidemics that devastated Native American populations along the eastern seaboard of New England as a "miraculous plague." Winthrop was struck by the providential nature of these waves of disease, which contributed neatly to the settlers' justifications for colonial expansion. Taking Winthrop's phrase as its cornerstone, Miraculous Plagues reimagines New England's literary history by tracing seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century epidemics alongside events including early migration, the Antinomian controversy, the evolution of the halfway covenant and jeremiad, and Boston's 1721 inoculation controversy. Moving beyond familiar histories of New World epidemics (often referred to as the "virgin soil" model), Cristobal Silva identifies epidemiology as a generic category with specialized forms and conventions. Epidemiology functions as both subject and method in Silva's argument, as he details narratives that represent modes of infection, population distribution, and immunity. He considers how regional and generational patterns of illness affected the perception of communal identity, and he analyzes the translation of epidemic events into narrative and generic terms, providing scholars a new way to conceptualize the relationship between immunology and ideology. Closing with a discussion of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Miraculous Plagues underscores the portability of its insights into the geopolitics of medicine. Just as epidemiology aided in transforming colonial America, it continues to influence questions of geography, community, and identity that are bound up in global health practices today." -- Publisher Summary Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Introduction......Page 16 1. New England Epidemiology......Page 37 2. Vectors of Dissent......Page 75 3. Puritan Immunology......Page 114 4. Technologies of Inoculation......Page 155 Afterword......Page 193 Notes......Page 206 Works Cited......Page 236 B......Page 244 E......Page 245 H......Page 246 I......Page 247 M......Page 248 O......Page 249 S......Page 250 W......Page 251 Z......Page 252 Miraculous Plagues examines the forms and conventions of colonial epidemiology in order to re-imagine New England's early literary history as a function of the narrative, legal, and theological responses to regional and generational patterns of illness in the seventeenth- and early eighteenth centuries. This title examines the forms and conventions of colonial epidemiology in order to re-imagine New England's early literary history as a function of the narrative, legal, and theological responses to regional and generational patterns of illness in the 17th and early 18th centuries