1697-1698 — Smallpox, Charleston, SC (pop. >5,000); (plus hundreds Native Americans)-200-300
Blanchard note: We draw attention to Jones, below, citing correspondence from SC stating, after noting “200 or 300” deaths in Charleston, that “a great number of Indians had fell victims to the disease.” This wording gives impression that a large, though unspecified, number of Native Americans lost their lives to smallpox in addition to the numbers noted for Charleston.[2]
— 200-300 Grob, Gerald N. The Deadly Truth: A History of Disease in America. 2002, p. 74.
— 200-300 Lawson citing Governor and Lord’s Proprietors, in Jones. …Diseases… 1883, 197-98.
— 200-300 McCandless. “Epidemics.” South Carolina Encyclopedia. 5-17-2016 and 8-1-2017.
— 200-300 Steinberg. Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in American.
— <300 Hirsh, Arthur H. The Huguenots of Colonial South Carolina. 2009, p. 254.
— >200 Purvis, Thomas L. Colonial America to 1763. NY: Facts On File, 1999, p. 173.
–Hundreds. McCandless. “Smallpox.” South Carolina Encyclopedia. 8-1-2016 and 10-24-2016.
Narrative Information
Grob: “Although sporadic epidemics were common, smallpox was less significant in the Chesapeake and the South. A more dispersed population, n agricultural rather than a commercial economy, and the absence of port towns inhibited the introduction and spread of epidemics. South Carolina was an exception, since Charleston was an important seaport and commercial center with trade links to areas where smallpox was endemic. Like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, it served as a port of entry for infectious diseases. The first outbreak of smallpox occurred in 1697 and took an estimated 200 to 300 lives. The town was hit by additional epidemics in 1711, 1718, 1732, 1738, and 1760.” (Grob, Gerald N. The Deadly Truth: A History of Disease in America. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2002, p. 74.)
Hirsh: “In the smallpox epidemic of 1697-1698 nearly three hundred people died in Charles Town.”[3] (Hirsh, Arthur H. The Huguenots of Colonial South Carolina. 2009, p. 254.)
Jones: “In another portion of his New Voyage to Carolina, John Lawson says…A letter from the Governor and Lord’s Proprietors, dated March 12, 1697-8, states:
We have had the small-pox amongst us nine or ten months, which have been very infectious and mortal; we have lost by the distemper 200 or 300 persons. And on the twenty-fourth of February last, a fire broke out in the night in Charlestown, which have burnt the swellings, stores and out-houses of at least fifty families…
“In a subsequent letter, dated April 23, 1698, they state that the small-pox still continued, but was not so fatal as in the cold weather, and that a great number of Indians had fell victims to the disease.”[4] (Jones, Joseph, M.D., President of the Board of Health of the State of Louisiana. “Small-Pox, and the Introduction of Vaccination into South Carolina.” Contagious and Infectious Diseases. Measures for Their Prevention and Arrest. 1883, pp. 197-198.)
McCandless: “The first major outbreak of smallpox, in 1697–1698, killed between two hundred and three hundred settlers out of a total population of no more than five thousand….
“Smallpox was particularly devastating to South Carolina’s Native American populations. It was largely responsible for the decline of South Carolina’s Indian population from about ten thousand in 1685 to about three hundred east of the mountains by 1790. In 1697 and 1698 smallpox destroyed the Pemlicos and killed untold numbers of Indian people hundreds of miles inland….” (McCandless, Peter. “Epidemics.” South Carolina Encyclopedia. 5-17-2016; updated 8-1-2017.)
McCandless: “Smallpox was endemic (always present) in some large European cities by the eighteenth century, but it was an occasional epidemic import into South Carolina. It arrived via ships from the Old World or the Caribbean, or by sea or land from other parts of eastern North America. Many epidemics of smallpox struck South Carolina between 1697 and 1897. Those of 1697–1698, 1711, 1738, and 1759–1760 were particularly deadly. Each killed hundreds of Europeans and Africans and devastated local Native American populations.” (McCandless, Peter. “Smallpox.” South Carolina Encyclopedia. 8-1-2016; updated 10-24-2016.)
O’Donnell: Notes that the number of Cherokee in 1685 was about 30,000 people living in about 60 settlements. “By 1715, however, the impact of foreign diseases had reduced that population to fewer than 11,000 in 53 towns.”[5] (O’Donnell. “Cherokee.” In Gallay, Alan (editor). Colonial Wars of North America, 1512-1763: An Encyclopedia. 1996. p. 117.)[6]
Purvis: “1697-98. Smallpox. South Carolina (More than 200 deaths).” (“Table 6.7 Outbreaks of Epidemic Disease in Colonial America,” pp. 173-174 in Purvis, Thomas L. Colonial America to 1763. NY: Facts On File, Inc., 1999.)
Steinberg: “Smallpox erupted in 1697, killing ‘200 or 300 persons.’” (Steinberg, Ted. Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in American. 2000.)
Sources
Anderson, William L. and Ruth Y. Wetmore, with the research assistance of John L. Bell. “Cherokee.” Encyclopedia of North Carolina, William S. Powell, editor. University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Accessed 1-10-2018 at: https://www.ncpedia.org/cherokee/disease
O’Donnell, James H. “Cherokee.” Pp. 116-121 in Gallay, Alan (editor). Colonial Wars of North America, 1512-1763: An Encyclopedia. First published in 1996 by Garland Publishing Inc. Routledge Revivals edition (NY) published in 2015. Google preview accessed 1-10-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=jmnbCQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Grob, Gerald N. The Deadly Truth: A History of Disease in America. Cambridge, MA: President and Fellows of Harvard College, Harvard University Press, 2002. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=U1H5rq3IQUAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Hirsh, Arthur H. The Huguenots of Colonial South Carolina. Genealogical Publishing Co., 2009,
Jones, Joseph, M.D., President of the Board of Health of the State of Louisiana. “Small-Pox, and the Introduction of Vaccination into South Carolina.” Contagious and Infectious Diseases. Measures for Their Prevention and Arrest. Baton Rouge: Leon Jastremski, State Printer, 1883. Google preview accessed 1-10-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=3VTboPycbBgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
McCandless, Peter. “Epidemics.” South Carolina Encyclopedia. 5-17-2016; updated 8-1-2017. Accessed 1-10-2018 at: http://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/epidemics/
McCandless, Peter. “Smallpox.” South Carolina Encyclopedia. 8-1-2016; updated 10-24-2016. Accessed 1-10-2018 at: http://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/smallpox/
Purvis, Thomas L. Colonial America to 1763. NY: Facts On File, Inc., 1999. Google preview accessed 1-9-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=BZRJSx3uMYEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Steinberg, Ted. Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in American. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2000. Google preview accessed 1-10-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=-NYuaJ-CgFcC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
[1] We derive “hundreds” from accounts below by Jones, McCandless and O’Donnell. They indicate a substantial mortality, but do not note an estimated mortality range. Thus we speculate that it appears that hundreds, if not many hundreds, died from smallpox in South Carolina as well as in North Carolina.
[2] See, for example Anderson and Wetmore article on the Cherokee in the Encyclopedia of North Carolina, which notes that “Probably their first exposure was in 1698, when a smallpox epidemic decreased their population measurably.” Since the Cherokee were located as well in what is today South Carolina, it is reasonable to assume a connection — and mortality.
[3] Cites: MS letter to Lords Proprietors, March 12, 1697-8, in MS Sec’y. Rcds., 1685-1712, 130.
[4] Footnote text: “An Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina from the first settlement of the Province to the War of the Revolution, etc.; by Frederick Dalcho, M.D., Assistant Minister of St. Michael’s Church; Charleston, p. 32.
[5] This is for all diseases. We know from other sources cited herein that smallpox had a large detrimental impact.
[6] O’Donnell cites as references: David Corkran, The Cherokee Frontier: Conflict and Survival, 1740-1762 (1962); Verner W. Crane, The Southern Frontier 1670-1732 (1929); Charles Hudson, The Southeastern Indians (1976); John Philip Reid, A Law of Blood: Primitive Law of the Cherokee Nation (1970); Robert Weir, Colonial South Carolina: A History (1983); Samuel C. Williams, ed., Lieut. Henry Timberlake’s Memoirs (1972).