Description
Philadelphia, 1776. A killer is spreading faster than the British Army — and you can't see it, outrun it, or shoot it.
In this episode of On This Day... 1776, Martha Washington tells how smallpox was killing more soldiers than bullets, and why she chose to be deliberately infected to survive it. With Washington's army collapsing, she undergoes variolation — a brutal procedure that gave her a mild case to build immunity before she joined her husband at the front.
On This Day...1776 is an ongoing filmmaking experiment from the artists at Primordial Soup.
Created by @primordialsouplabs in collaboration with Google DeepMind.
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0:00 Martha Washington and the Smallpox Epidemic
0:34 What Is Smallpox? Symptoms and Dangers
1:05 Smallpox During the American Revolutionary War
1:53 George Washington's History With Smallpox
2:12 Why Martha Washington Chose Smallpox Inoculation
2:31 George Washington Objects to the Risk
2:53 Preparing for Smallpox Inoculation in 1776
3:12 How Smallpox Inoculation Worked
4:19 Martha Washington Recovers From Smallpox
4:38 Martha and George Washington Reunite
4:56 George Washington and the Continental Army's Smallpox Inoculations
5:05 Did Smallpox Inoculation Help Win the Revolutionary War?