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6 - Strangers' Disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2011

Peter McCandless
Affiliation:
College of Charleston, South Carolina
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Summary

Our knowledge of this fever is very limited. It appears that there is a certain something in the air of Charleston that is comparatively harmless to the inhabitant, but the source of disease and death to the stranger. What is that something?

David Ramsay, September 1799

At Madame D'Orvals they have sent to the hospital. The poor Irish woman they say with the yellow fever – she waited on them; perhaps she will die there by strangers buried and by strangers mourned.

Vanderhorst diary entry, September 1838

“CHARLESTON'S YELLOW FEVER”

“The mortality is beyond anything known for many years. There are very few strangers … escaping. Those who did not make a seasonable flight have found an untimely grave in a land which they had visited for wealth or pleasure.” The author of these words, Joshua Whitridge, was describing an epidemic of yellow fever in Charleston in 1817. Whitridge was himself a stranger, a doctor who had recently migrated from New England, perhaps lured like others by the fact that the city had been virtually free of the fever since 1807. He had just recovered from the disease and was treating its victims with great success, or so he claimed. Whitridge's observations and experiences reflected the new view of yellow fever as mainly a disease of people who had recently come to the city. Although some came for “wealth or pleasure” most were poor folk looking for work.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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References

Harris, Tucker, “Yellow Fever of Charleston,” Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal 2 (1805), 21Google Scholar
Dickson, Samuel Henry, Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal 3 (1821–1822), 250
King, Susan S., Roman Catholic Deaths in Charleston, South Carolina, 1800–1860 (Columbia, SC: SCMAR, 2000)Google Scholar
Bryan, Charles S., “Yellow Fever and the Church,” Journal of the South Carolina Medical Association 99 (2003), 60–61Google ScholarPubMed
Olmsted, Frederick Law, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States (New York, 1856), 404Google Scholar
Hall, Basil, Travels in North America in the Years 1827 and 1828 3 vols. (Edinburgh, 1829), 3: 166
Chernin, E., “The Disappearance of Bancroftian filariasis from Charleston, South Carolina,” American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 37 (1987), 111–114CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

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  • Strangers' Disease
  • 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/CBO9780511977428.012
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  • Strangers' Disease
  • 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/CBO9780511977428.012
Available formats
×

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.

  • Strangers' Disease
  • 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/CBO9780511977428.012
Available formats
×