The Beginning Of The Anti-Vaccination Movement
Leicester, England, March 23, 1885
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction. Albert Einstein (1879–1955)”
Since 1800 the smallpox vaccination had been in use, there was no forced vaccinations on the general public until 1840 and 1853. By 1853 the government mandated every child vaccinated within 3 months of birth date. The vaccination laws had been growing in power, complexity, and girth. By the time the protests erupted in Leicester England, refusal of the smallpox vaccination was enforced by fines and prison sentences.
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Martin Luther King Jr.
.Government Control
1867 Vaccination Act
The consolidation of previous vaccination laws were enforced with fines and prison time if parents didn’t bring their 3 month old infant in for it’s firsts smallpox vaccination. Despite years of high vaccination rates and religiously enforced laws England was hit with a tidal wave of smallpox outbreaks across the country and many parts of the world.
The town of Leicester suffered many thousands of smallpox cases and hundreds of deaths even though it had a high vaccination rate. The citizens of Leicester started questioning the validity of the countries vaccination program. Why weren't they protected from smallpox?
People started refusing to let their children be vaccinated. Not only because of the smallpox vaccinations inability to protect the population but because the vaccination sickened and killed hundreds of infants and children. With this last epidemic open rebellion ensued. The government reacted with more force when parent’s refused to allow their children to be vaccinated using vaccination officers to harass and prosecute parents.
During the early days of vaccines children suffered horrible side effects and death from vaccination. Many people who witnessed the illness and death of infants and children started saying no to vaccination programs enforced by the government.
by 1884 the poor suffered the most through the government mandated vaccination programs. They were unable to pay fines or fight jail sentences in court. The poorest had their furniture confiscated and auctioned off to the highest bidder. Furniture was the only property they owned that were worth any money.
Revolt was the only recourse for the poor who suffered the most during the worlds first vaccination programs. The governments fanatical enforcement through fines and prison large numbers of the poor and middle class formed organized demonstrations in the town of Leicester’s streets. Leicesters protesters came from many counties in England and included a crosscut of people from the social and economic strata.
“of the country, while many letters of sympathy were received not only from England, Scotland, and Ireland, but from Jersey, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, and America. Most of the large towns in the kingdom sent special banners, the Yorkshire, Irish, and Scotch being very prominent. The anti-vaccinationists in Jersey sent a very elaborate banner setting forth that the Acts had been four times defeated there, while the Belgium banner had this inscription in French—“Neither fines nor imprisonment will prevent vaccine being a poison nor the vaccination laws an infamy.”“Anti-Vaccination Demonstration at Leicester,” The Times, March 24, 1885.
The streets of Leicester were lined with people playing music and waving flags and banners proclaiming “Liberty Is Our Birthright, and Liberty We Demand.” From history I have seen this happen time and again over oppressive laws and people who feel they have no power over their person and property. The families of the innocents caught in this power play demanded “The Three Pillars of Vaccination a fraud, force, and folly. The mothers of children demanded, “We no longer beg but demand the control of our children.” Sound familiar?
“The mayor of the city received the procession, and a member of the municipal council presided. An effigy of Jenner considered the father of vaccination was hung from the gallows and given the “long drop” at intervals as the procession advanced. Those men who had suffered the extreme penalty of imprisonment made a prominent figure, and others, whose goods had been seized, displayed samples of the otherwise rather commonplace utensils to admiring eyes. The obnoxious parliamentary acts were enthusiastically burned. A wagon carrying unvaccinated children bore the motto: “They that are whole need not a physician.”
The most important feature was a large number of men who had undergone the extreme process of imprisonment rather than submit to the law. Next came a larger detachment, consisting of men who had their household goods seized and sold by public auction, samples of the goods which had been seized and sold being conveyed in wagons. The next detachment consisted of a conveyance filled with unvaccinated children… This was followed by a large number of delegates, many of whom were from London, Leeds, Manchester, Halifax, Blackburn, Keighley, Bedford."“Birmingham, Lincoln, and Norwich. Among other features in the procession were a horse and cow, drawn in wagons and exhibited as sources of vaccination.”“Anti-Vaccination Demonstration at Leicester,” The Times, March 24, 1885.
Both the devices and mottoes were of the most profuse order. One of the devices was an effigy of Dr. Jenner inscribed “child-slayer;” a second was a complete funeral cortège, consisting of a coffin on open bier, mourners, etc., and inscribed “another victim of vaccination"
“Anti-Vaccination Demonstration at Leicester,” The Leeds Mercury, March 24, 1885.”
A procession over 2 miles long marched through town for several hours with the cheers of bystanders lining the streets of Leicester.
“Many present had been sufferers under the Acts, and all they asked was that in the future they and their children might be let alone. They lived for something else in this world than to be experimented upon for the stamping out of a particular disease. A large and increasing portion of the public were of opinion that the best way to get rid of smallpox and similar diseases was to use plenty of water, eat good food, live in light and airy houses, and see that the Corporation kept the streets clean and the drains in order. If such details were attended to, there was no need to fear smallpox, or any of its kindred; and if they were neglected, neither vaccination nor any other prescription by Act of Parliament could save them.”“J.T. Biggs, Leicester: Sanitation Versus Vaccination, 1912, p. 117.”
“That the principle of the Compulsory Vaccination Acts is subversive of that personal liberty which is the birthright of every free-born Briton; that they are destructive of parental rights, tyrannical and unjust in operation, and ought therefore to be resisted by every constitutional means.”“Anti-Vaccination Demonstration at Leicester,” The Leeds Mercury, March 24, 1885.”
“That the Compulsory Vaccination Acts, which make loving and conscientious parents criminals, subjecting them to fines, loss of goods, and imprisonment, propagate disease and inflict death, and under which five thousand of our fellow-townsmen are now being prosecuted, are a disgrace to the Statute Book, and ought to be abolished forthwith.“J.T. Biggs, Leicester: Sanitation Versus Vaccination, 1912, p.120.”
Know The Rights Of The Children
Know how To Stand
Records show an estimated number of the protesters to be between 80,000 to 100,000, which would rival any protest we have today. Councillor Butcher of Leicester represented the towns rebellion and congratulated everyone involved organizing the amazing display of unity against the medical injustices of government mandated vaccine programs.
William Young the secretary of the London Society also spoke at the Leicester vaccine protest. He gave a resounding speech at a meeting after the rebellious demonstration at the behest of Rev. J Page Hopps the president of the Temperance society. The meeting was held at the Temperance Hall, there were delegates from over 60 towns on the platform. Mr. W Stanton announced a resolution to start isolation and hygiene protocols and revoke the states power to mandate vaccines.
“The fearful mortality from smallpox in completely vaccinated and presumably well “protected” Leicester during the years 1871-2 had the effect of destroying the people’s faith in “protective” vaccination. The result was that poor and rich alike, the toilers, the aristocrats, and the municipal authorities, began to refuse vaccination for their children and themselves. This refusal continued until 1890, when, instead of ninety-five per cent the vaccination reached only about five per cent of the total births.”“ J. W. Hodge, MD, “How Smallpox Was Banished from Leicester,” Twentieth Century Magazine, vol. III, no. 16, January 1911, p. 337.
We Know Who We Are!
We Are Free People
The demonstration was successful along with new mandates enforcing isolation of the sick and installing sanitation protocols. Many well educated people, doctors, lawyers, and scientist were in attendance. Dr. Spencer T. Hall, a man in his 70s was in tears, overcome with emotions when speaking of the demonstration. He was overjoyed that he had lived long enough to see the vaccination program being challenged by so many people of every walk of life.
Facing fines and prison time thousands of heroic people rebelled against the established view of science and the allopathic profession
The medical profession proclaimed that the Leicester residents would suffer greatly for their decision to turn their backs on vaccination. They prognosticated that this unvaccinated town with its “highly flammable material”(2) would suffer with the “dread disease”(1) that would spread like “wild-fire on a prairie”(2) and decimate the population.“ 1. J. W. Hodge, MD, “How SmallPox Was Banished from Leicester,” Twentieth Century Magazine, vol. III, no. 16, January 1911, p. 337.”-- 2. “B. O. Flower, “Fallacious Assumptions Advanced by Advocates of National and State Medical Legislation,” Twentieth Century Magazine, vol. IV, no. 24, September 1911, p. 537.”--
The allopathic medical institution warned Leicester citizens they would all experience great suffering and death if they did not follow their vaccination program. They warned that Leicester would spread smallpox across the world and set it on fire with plagues and death! The citizens and their leaders did not budge. They knew from experience the new hygiene, sanitation and isolation protocols worked from experience.
Their plan worked and set an example that grew throughout the Western world. If you look around you now, clean streets, water, food and safe housing it is because of the courageous people of Leicester England. They stood up to an overreaching government and medical institutions and won their freedom through rational arguments and non compliance.
