1706 — Aug-Oct especially, Yellow Fever Epidemic, Charleston, SC — ~65

—                ~65.  Blanchard estimate.[1]

— A great many. Boston News-Letter. No. 130, 10-14-1706, p. 401.[2]

—                <65.  Kohn. Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence… 2001, p. 61-62.

— Vast number.  Ramsay’s History of South Carolina… 1858, p. 46.

 

Narrative Information

 

Kohn: “Charleston Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1706 — Pestilence of yellow fever that swept through Charleston, South Carolina, in 1706….The French and Spanish armies stationed in St. Augustine, Florida, heard that the yellow fever was ravaging Charleston, and they saw the epidemic as an opportune time to attack….

 

“The French and Spanish sent five vessels to Charleston, and on August 28, 1706, they asked the English colonial governor Nathaniel Johnson to surrender. He refused and sent the Charleston militiamen after the invading troops. Johnson had stationed the militiamen a half-mile outside the city; thus they were not infected with the yellow fever. The French and Spanish had grossly underestimated the fortifications surrounding Charleston, as well as the strength of the army and the desire of the militiamen to defend their city. In all, the French and Spanish killed only one person from Charleston, while the yellow fever killed nearly 5 percent of the city’s then population of about 1,300.

 

“Like the earlier yellow fever epidemic of 1699, the Charleston pestilence of 1706 killed many prominent townspeople. The fever rated during August and through September and October, but when the winter cold killed mosquitoes that carried the disease, Charleston again was again free of yellow fever.”[3] (Kohn. Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence… 2001, p. 61-62.)

 

Ramsay: Cites a Dr. Hewatt to the effect “that in 1703[4] an epidemical distemper raged at Charlestown, which swept off a vast number of inhabitants;  and as the town was threatened by the French and Spaniards, the Governor, who called the inhabitants to its assistance, held his head-quarters about half a mile distant from the town, on account of the contagious distemper which then raged therein; not wishing to expose his men to the dangerous infection, unless from necessity.’ Ramsay writes: “These circumstances make it probable that this was also the yellow fever. If so, this was its second visit, and only three or four years subsequent to the first[5].”

 

Sources

 

Boston News-Letter. Contains “An account of the attack upon Charleston, South Carolina, by French and Spanish ships of war, in the preceding August.” No. 130, 10-14-1706. Page 401 in: Lyman Horace Weeks and Edwin Monroe Bacon (Compilers and Editors). An Historical Digest of the Provincial Press, Massachusetts Series, Volume One, 1704-1707. Boston. The Society for Americana, Inc., MDCCCCXI [1911]. Digitized by Google from copy at Harvard College Library. Accessed 9-11-2016 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=o2SHATVa5hgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

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

 

Mustard, Harry S. Defense of Charles Town against the French and Spaniards in 1706. Unpublished edited typescript account held at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC.

 

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 use approximately 65 in that Kohn is only source accessed that provides an estimate. We are unable to determine how to translate “a great many” or a “vast number” into a number, even if we knew the population base.

[2] Writes: “The Enemy were the more encouraged to Invade us (as the Prisoners informed us) because they heard that the Sickness raged in Charlstown [sic], and had swept away a great many of our Men…”

[3] Notes as further reading: Duffy, Epidemics in Colonial America; Fraser, Charleston! Charleston!; Ramsay, Ramsay’s History of South Carolina.

[4] Search of several sources indicates that the attack of the French and Spanish was during Queen Anne’s War and was in 1706.

[5] Which he writes was “In the year 1699 or 1700.” (same page)