Shifting over to the New World, in colonial America, quarantine was always handled as a local matter by individual colonies. The earliest evidence of quarantine was in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1647. This was implemented because of plague in the West Indies. But this was very much a local jurisdiction, interwoven immensely with commerce. Vessels from the West Indies were forbidden to land or discharge passengers or cargo during this plague outbreak. In Philadelphia, there was a yellow fever outbreak in 1699, and they passed a quarantine act to bar unhealthy or sickly vessels from coming closer than one mile from land without a certified bill of health and a permit.
References:
- http://wearcam.org/decon/decon_showers_for_immigrants_quar2.html
- Melosi V M (2008).The Sanitary City: Environmental Services in Urban America from Colonial Times to the Present
Photo: https://goo.gl/images/Rj88ts