RPTM Podcast Episode Seventeen: Smallpox, Women, Blacks and Latinos in the Revolution

History is a passion to me. I love studying it. When I got started, I was not too fond of US history (but another story for another time). But one of my all-time favorite passions is Star Wars. I love the stories, the world, the characters. Those in the Ryan Lancaster fan club know that every birthday I sit down and play a few rounds of Star Wars Battlefront on the PlayStation 2. I remember the only time I ever skipped a class was freshman year to download and watch the Phantom Menace trailer on Apple (it took over an hour).  So, anytime I can intersect with two passions, I will do that.

A documentary about the Phantom Menace Creator and director George Lucas speaks about the similarities between the prequel movies and the original films. He says, “It’s like poetry, it’s—sort of— they rhyme. Each stanza kind of rhymes with the last one.” This is a sentiment that is true also about history itself. The lazy idiom is “History Repeats Itself.” But that is not true. We will never have another Hitler because the person who was Hitler existed in his own time and tainted the future vision. Now, we definitely can (and sadly will) get world leaders that mimic or imitate Hitler. As historians, we use these events and people like cautionary tales and can almost predict the outcomes. History is virtually formulaic that way.

Living through this Pandemic has regrettably changed all of us. Some good, some bad. In March of 2020, when the nation began to panic as we slid into quarantine, I walked over to my bookshelf and grabbed a copy of Pox Americana by Elizabeth Fenn. The book chronicles the smallpox epidemic that sweeps the Americas during the 1770s. Why would I subject myself to that, you ask?

I wanted to see how this all was going to play out.

HIGHLIGHTS

• A smallpox epidemic occurred during the years of the American Revolutionary War. There was no medical technology widely available to protect soldiers from outbreaks in crowded and unhygienic troop camps during this time. Thus, this virus posed a significant threat to the Continental Army's success.
• On November 16, 1776, Margaret Corbin fired her husband's cannon after being killed; she was herself severely wounded in the battle. 
• During the Revolutionary War, more soldiers died from disease than from combat. Soldiers had a poor diet, worn-out clothes, damp shelters, and lived in unsanitary conditions. 
• One important Latino figure during this time was Governor and General Bernardo De Galvez. Born in Spain and Latino governor of the Louisiana Territory during the American Revolution, he was a significant factor in assisting General George Washington in fighting British soldiers who were advancing into the United States' southwestern part.
• Thousands of enslaved African Americans in the South escape to British lines, as they were promised freedom to fight with the British. In South Carolina, 25,000 enslaved African Americans, one-quarter of those held, escape to the British or otherwise leave their plantations. 

​CHAPTERS
​0:00​ Start
0:37​ Intro
2:56​ Smallpox
16:00​ Women in the Revolution
24:08​ The Physical Toll
27:50​ Latinos in the American Revolution
31:28​ African Americans in the Revolution
38:40​ Outro

RESOURCES
1775–1782 North American smallpox epidemic
Mary Hays (American Revolutionary War)
History of women in the United States
Deborah Sampson
Revolutionary War 1776-1783: Pensions
“Latino Patriots” of the American Revolution
African Americans and the War for Independence​

Episode 16

RPTM Podcast

Episode 18