Gallop's Island in 2005 - A "Quarantined" Quarantine Island

Chronology of American and Boston Quarantine - 1647 to 2020

Key National, Commonwealth and Municipal events affecting the Boston Quarantine Establishment: 1647- 2020 Event/Date 1. The First American Maritime Quarantine : The Massachusetts General Court imposes quarantine on all vessels coming from the West Indies that land in Boston. Order repealed May 2, 1649. This was the first quarantine order in America March 1647 2 . Maritime Quarantine imposed to Thwart English Plague : The Massachusetts Bay Colony issues its second quarantine order this time against ships coming from England suspected of carrying plague. This order was repealed on October 9, 1667. October 11, 1665 3. First American Quarantine Law : The first permanent American quarantine law was enacted by the General Court to control the spread of smallpox, plague and pestilential fevers. It authorized island quarantine for immigrants and seamen and landside isolation of the sick June 25, 1701 4. Quarantine Hospital : The town of Boston, to quarantine smallpox patie...

Communicable Disease Trends in Boston: 1811-1963

Epidemics of measles, scarlet fever, typhus, cholera, smallpox and the Spanish flu wrought devastating loss of life on Boston throughout the 19th and early 20th century. As can be seen in the table, nearly 40 out of every 1,000 persons died during the cholera epidemic of 1849. Deaths were caused by variety of communicable diseases even though Cholera predominated durng that year. Similar spikes in the mortality rate were quite in the 1872 smallpox epidemic and the 1918 Spanish flu. Boston is the only city in America where there is such an extensive record of mortality statistics that provide disease specific mortality rates.

Boston Quarantine

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