1739 — Yellow Fever, “severe” extensive, “raged…violently,” Charleston, SC –Dozens
— Dozens. Blanchard estimate.[1]
— Severe. Duffy. Epidemics in Colonial America. 1953, reprinted 1979, p. 152.
— Extensive. La Roche. Yellow Fever (Vol. 2 of 2), 1855, p. 120.
— Raged violently. Ramsey. Ramsay’s History of South Carolina. 1858, p. 47.
Narrative Information
Duffy: “…In 1739 Charleston was again the scene of a yellow fever attack. More than likely the infection was imported from St. Christopher where earlier in the same year a major epidemic had brought death to hundreds. The Charleston outbreak, although severe, was not quite as bad as the previous one in 1732. Two S.P.G.[2] missionaries reported their congregations thinned by the many fatalities during the summer; it had been a ‘Sickly Season everywhere,’ one of them wrote, ‘especially in Town, where a Pestilential Fever carried off an abundance of its Male Inhabitants, but, God be praised, it made little Progress in ye Country.’[3] The infection seemed to attack Europeans more often than Negroes, which was logical since the slaves, coming from the African West Coast, were more likely to have an immunity to yellow fever. The comment on the failure of the disease to spread far from the city should be noted, for the characteristic limitation of yellow fever to a small locality was frequently observed.” (Duffy. Epidemics in Colonial America. 1953, reprinted 1979, p. 152.)
La Roche: “Dr. Shecut[4] [of Charleston]…remarked that the years in which the yellow fever prevailed most extensively in Charleston — 1732, 1739, 1745, and 1748 — were, with some exceptions, either excessively hot and dry, or excessively hot and moist…” (La Roche. Yellow Fever (Vol. 2 of 2), 1855, p. 120.)
Ramsey: “In the year 1739, the yellow fever raged nearly as violently as in the year 1732.[5] It was observed to fall most severely on Europeans.” (Ramsey. Ramsay’s History of South Carolina. 1858, p. 47.)
Sources
Duffy, John. Epidemics in Colonial America. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1953, reprinted 1979.
La Roche, Rene, M.D. Yellow Fever, Considered in its Historical, Pathological, Etiological, and Therapeutical Relations, Including A Sketch of the Disease as it has Occurred in Philadelphia from 1699-1854… (Vol. 2 of 2). Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1855. Google preview accessed 3-17-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=YTrUAOOJXCAC&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] Have found no death estimates, though Duffy notes this outbreak “was not quite as bad as the previous one in 1732” (which claimed between 130 and 150 lives). Thus, given other remarks that it prevailed “extensively” or “raged nearly as violently as in the year 1732,” I make assumption that at least several dozen people died.
[2] Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
[3] Cites in footnote 27, p. 153: Ramsay, History of South Carolina, Vol. II, p. 84; Andrew Leslie to Secretary, St. Paul’s S.C., January 7, 1740, in S.P.G. MSS., B7, Pt. 2, fpp. 593-94; Stephen Roe to Secretary, ibid., fpp. 591-92.
[4] Essays, Preface, I. 92, 105.
[5] The estimated death toll from yellow fever in Charleston that year ranges from 130 to 150.