Epidemic and Encampment: 19th Century Soldiers of the Smallpox Bay Site
Author(s): Leigh Koszarsky
Year: 2025
Summary
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology at an Atlantic Crossroads: Bermuda’s Smith’s Island Archaeology Project (SIAP), 2010-2024", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
During the 19th century, the Smallpox Bay site was utilized as a location to separate healthy soldiers of the British Regiment from those infected by an outbreak of yellow fever. An analysis of the material culture left behind by these soldiers and their family members sheds light on their lives in quarantine and their roles within the army. Additionally, letters from the Bermuda Archives detail how people understood health and the transmission of disease. The study of this site provides a unique perspective on how an epidemic response was formulated based on the understanding of disease during that time.
Cite this Record
Epidemic and Encampment: 19th Century Soldiers of the Smallpox Bay Site. Leigh Koszarsky. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2025 ( tDAR id: 508964)
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Contact(s): Nicole Haddow