1728 — Late Summer to Fall, Yellow Fever, Charleston, SC — <130

— <130  Blanchard guestimate.[1]

— “multitudes” Hewatt in Ramsay’s History of South Carolina... 1858, p. 46.

Narrative Information

Kohn: “Charleston Yellow Fever Epidemics of 1728 and 1732 — Two epidemics of yellow fever that swept through Charleston, South Carolina, and brought the city to a standstill on both occasions. The epidemic of 1728 was the first appearance of yellow fever in 10 years. This pestilence was described as a ‘Bilious Plague’ because it was so widespread and also because it was so mysterious. Doctors in the early eighteenth century did not know how to treat the disease; consequently, the mortality rate was extremely high…” (Kohn. Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence… 2001, p. 62.)

McCandless: “In the fall of 1728, an epidemic killed ‘multitudes,’ according to Alexander Hewatt….Country people avoided Charleston, business came to a holt, food prices soared, and many people went hungry. The assembly, scheduled to meet in September, count not achieve a quorum all autumn and did not convene until January.[2]

“….The number of deaths in the city in 1732 was the highest of the decade 1722-1732. The second highest was 1728, another yellow fever year.”[3] (McCandless, p. 69.)

Ramsay: Cites Dr. Alexander Hewatt: “that the summer of 1728 was uncommonly hot in Carolina…and that an infectious and pestilential distemper, commonly called the ‘yellow fever,’ broke out in town, and swept off multitudes of the inhabitants, both white and black. As the town depended entirely on the country for fresh provisions, the planters would suffer no person to carry supplies t it, for fear of catching the infection and bringing it to the country. They physicians knew not how to treat the uncommon disorder, which was suddenly caught and proved quickly fatal. The calamity was so general, that few could grant assistance to their distressed neighbors. So many funerals happening every day while so many lay sick, white persons sufficient for burying the dead were scarcely to be found. Though they were often interred on the same day they died, so quick was the putrefaction, so offensive and infectious were the corpses, that even the nearest relations seemed averse from the necessary duty.” Ramsay writes: “This is the first direct mention of the yellow fever in the history of Carolina.”

Sources

Kohn, George Childs (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence From Ancient Times to the Present (Revised Edition). NY: Checkmark Books, 2001.

McCandless, Peter. Slavery, Disease, and Suffering in the Southern Lowcountry. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Google digital preview accessed 9-11-2016 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=NMrqxrLAHUgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Ramsay, David (M.D.). Ramsay’s History of South Carolina, From its First Settlement in 1670 to the Year 1808. Published by W. J. Duffie, Newberry, SC, printed in Charleston by Walker, Evans & Co., 1858. Digitized by archive.org and accessed 9-11-2016 at: https://archive.org/stream/ramsayshistorys00ramsgoog#page/n4/mode/2up

[1] We know not how to translate “multitudes” to a number for the purpose of this compilation, particularly not knowing the population base or rate of death. We land upon “less than” 130 in that Kohn writes that “The yellow fever epidemic of 1732 killed 130 whites and many black slaves in Charleston.” [How many black slaves is not estimated.] McCandless cites sources noted in his footnotes to the effect that 1728 deaths were larger than any other year in the 1722-1732 decade except for 1732, which had the larger loss of life and was “another yellow fever year.” Unfortunately the yellow fever toll is not noted for either year by his sources, only that more people died in 1732 than 1728. Our guestimate is made knowing that 160-191 people reportedly died from yellow fever in Charleston (160-180) and the surrounding countryside (10-11) in 1699, a year when one might presume the population to have been smaller.

[2] Footnote 21: “Alexander Hewatt, An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia, 2 vols. (London, 1779)1:316-318; Journals of His Majesty’s Council of South Carolina, Sept. 21, Oct. 31, Nov. 21-23, 1728, SCDAH; JCHA, Jan. 18, 1728/29, SCDAH; Walter Fraser, Charleston! Charleston! The History of a Southern City (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989), 7-44.”

[3] Footnote 24: “Alexander Garden to Bishop of London, Nov 8, 1732, Fulham Palace Mss., Library of Congress, transcript summary of letters from Garden to Bishop of London, copies in SCHS; Coclanis, Shadow of a Dream, 164, Table B1, 169-170, Tables D1-D3.”