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3 - “A Scene of Diseases”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2011

Peter McCandless
Affiliation:
College of Charleston, South Carolina
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Summary

At Midnight when the Fever rag'd

By Physick Art still unasswag'd,

And tortur'd me with Pain:

When most it scorch'd my aching Head,

Like sulph'rous Fire, or liquid Lead,

And hiss'd through every Vein.

South Carolina Gazette, July 28, 1732

I was ill with fever in Purrysburg about three months and afterwards in Georgia at Savannah … I had the bloody flux for six months. Also a great swelling befell me. My whole belly was swollen so that I might have burst.

Samuel Dyssli, 1737

I am heartily tired of Carolina and dread the approach of summer which I am afraid will renew my intermittent complaint, from which I have never been thoroughly free since August last.

John Murray of Murraywhat, 1763

“A COMPLICATION OF DISORDERS”

In 1711, Gideon Johnston, Anglican Commissary in Charleston, described his body as “a scene of diseases.” The phrase could have been a metaphor for the lowcountry, for it encapsulated the experience of much of the population. Another Anglican missionary aptly summed up the situation when he wrote that he had endured “a complication of disorders.” Many people suffered almost continually from one disease or another, sometimes several at once. It is not always possible to determine what people suffered or died from in particular cases, but we can identify the major culprits. The most visible suffering was that caused by deadly epidemics, mainly smallpox and yellow fever but also other epidemics from time to time. Such “malignant” epidemics were part of the public sphere: Official documents and newspapers (after 1731) often discussed them, at least once they could no longer be denied to exist. Harder to detect in public sources are the endemic disorders that claimed numerous victims every year.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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  • “A Scene of Diseases”
  • Peter McCandless, College of Charleston, South Carolina
  • Book: Slavery, Disease, and Suffering in the Southern Lowcountry
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511977428.009
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  • “A Scene of Diseases”
  • Peter McCandless, College of Charleston, South Carolina
  • Book: Slavery, Disease, and Suffering in the Southern Lowcountry
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511977428.009
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • “A Scene of Diseases”
  • Peter McCandless, College of Charleston, South Carolina
  • Book: Slavery, Disease, and Suffering in the Southern Lowcountry
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511977428.009
Available formats
×