Healthcare in the Colonies
Native Americans on the North American continent met settlers from a variety of European and African countries in the 17th and 18th centuries. Each group was faced with new diseases as they interfaced with each other. The Native Americans sought to combat disease and illness with various plants and herbs, accompanied by prayers and rituals. The early settlers brought with them different perceptions of causes of disease and their treatments, though their medicines were also extracted from plants and herbs. Unless they brought the medicines with them, however, the settlers needed to rely on Native American remedies.
The first hospitals in the American colonies were in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1722, the Royal Hospital opened a small military infirmary that soon became a major hospital for the public. In 1736, the Charity Hospital was built as an addition to serve the poorer classes who could not afford care at the Royal Hospital. (en.wikipedia.org/Charity Hospital [New Orleans])
In 1735 in Boston the first medical society was established. During the first half of the 18th century, 117 Americans (from wealthy families) had traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland, for a medical education. But most other early American doctors learned medicine as apprentices to physicians who had been educated abroad. The first medical schools in the colonies were established in Philadelphia in 1765 and New York in 1768.
Large numbers of manual laborers and farm laborers moved from rural areas to cities during the Industrial Revolution (1760 to 1840). Even though health care facilities were starting to appear in the late 1700s, new social problems were rising due to crowding, poverty, crime, and large numbers of immigrants. Recognizing the tragedies of these social problems, reformers, both American and European, sought to champion laws or revise social systems to improve living conditions for city dwellers.
