The Voices of Need: From Petition to Patient in Early Massachusetts, 1730-1820

Revealing how people in need advocated for and negotiated their own care until the development of standardized medicine The Voices of Need uncovers how men and women in Charlestown, Massachusetts, who turned to municipal authorities for aid, actively shaped how their need was understood and addressed.Through a close examination of Charlestown's care networks, Angela Keysor shows how town selectmen relied on sufferers themselves to articulate what would relieve their distress, while local women-paid by town authorities-provided hands-on care in homes and neighborhoods.These networks flourished in the early and mid-eighteenth century, but their flexibility and responsiveness were increasingly strained by crisis and change.A devastating smallpox epidemic in 1763, followed by racialized debates over belonging after the legal end of enslavement in Massachusetts in 1783, exposed the limits of community-based care. After the American Revolution, rising numbers of aid requests prompted town of