1732 — May-Oct, Yellow Fever outbreaks, Charleston SC (130-150), NYC NY (70)–200-220

Charleston, SC          (130-~150)

–130-~150  Blanchard guestimate.[1]

—           130  (whites only — noting “many black slaves” as well).  Kohn 2001, p. 62.[2]

 

New York City, NY  (         ~70)

— ~70  Duffy. Epidemics in Colonial America. 1953, reprinted 1979, p. 150.

—   70  Purvis. Colonial America to 1763. 1999, p. 173.

 

Narrative Information

 

Charleston, SC

 

Duffy:  “In 1732 yellow fever again became epidemic in New York and Charleston. In the latter city it began in May and continued until September or October. At the height of the epidemic from eight to twelve whites were buried daily, as well as many Negroes.[3] Practically all business ceased, and because of the excessive number of fatalities, the tolling of bells was forbidden. One of the local physicians diagnosed the disease as yellow fever and asserted it was imported from the West Indies. The Reverend Thomas Hassell, an S.P.G. missionary,[4] wrote to the Society that his congregation had been diminished by the ‘recent sickness.’ By December, Governor Johnson was able to report that the province was healthy and ‘the great sickness that carried off so many last summer over.’”[5] (Duffy, John.  Epidemics in Colonial America. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1953, p. 151.)

 

Keating:  “1732. – Charleston, S.C. In this year it commenced in May and continued until October, a period of nearly four months, some weeks beyond the limit it usually takes – ninety days.”  (Keating, J. M.  A History of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tenn. Memphis, TN:  Howard Association, 1879, p. 78.)

 

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….In 1732, yellow fever…began in May and lasted until October. The epidemic reached its height in July when eight to 12 whites were buried daily. The city prohibited the tolling of funeral bells because there were so many funeral each day. Many of the wealthier residents fled to plantations in the countryside, hoping to escape the disease. The English colonial governor, Nathaniel Johnson, refused to abandon the city however, his obstinacy caused him to lose his wife, a son, and three servants.

 

“The yellow fever epidemic of 1732 killed 130 whites and many black slaves in Charleston. The yellow fever halted nearly all private and public business during the summer and fall of 1732. Business, however, was very profitable in Charleston during this era, and prosperity soon returned once the cold winter weather killed the mosquitoes that carried the yellow fever.”[6]  (Kohn, George Childs (Ed.).  Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence From Ancient Times to the Present (Revised Edition).  NY:  Checkmark Books, 2001, p. 62.)

 

Lining:  “That fever, which continues two or three days, and terminates without any critical discharge by sweat, urine, stool, &c. leaving the patient excessively weak, with a small pulse, easily depressible by very little motion, or by an erect posture; and which is soon succeeded with an icteritious[7] colour in the white of the eyes and the skin, vomiting, hemorrhages, &c. and these without being accompanied with any degree of a febrile pulse and heat, is called in America, the yellow fever.

 

“This fever does not seem to take its origin from any particular constitution of the weather, independent of infectious miasmata, as Dr. Warren has formerly well observed.

 

“For within these twenty-five years, it has only been four times epidemical in this town, namely, in the autumns of the years 1732, 39, 45 and 48, though none of these years (excepting that of 1739, whose summer and autumn were remarkably rainy) were either warmer or more rainy (and some of them less so) that the summers and autumns were in several other years, in which we had not one instance of any one being seized with this fever….But that this is really an infectious disease, seems plain, not only from this, that almost all the nurses catched [sic] it and died of it; but likewise, as soon as it appeared in town, it soon invaded newcomers, those who never had the disease before, and country-people when they came to town, whole those who remained in the country escaped it, as likewise did those who had formerly felt its dire effects, though they walked about the town, visited the sick in all the different stadia of the disease, and attended the funeral of those who died of it. And lastly, whenever the disease appeared here, it was easily traced to some person who had lately arrived from some of the West-Indian Islands, where it was epidemical. Although the infection was spread with great celerity through the town, yet if any from the country received it in town, and sickened on their return home, the infection spread no further, not even so much as to one in the same house.

 

“The subjects which were susceptible of this fever, were both sexes of the white colour, especially strangers lately arrived from cold climates, Indians, Miftees [?], Mulattoes of all ages, excepting young children and of those only such as had formerly escaped the infection. And indeed it is a great happiness that our constitutions undergo such alterations in the small-pox, measles and yellow fever, as for ever afterwards secure us from a second attack of those diseases.[8] There is something very singular in the constitution of the Negroes, [9] which renders them not liable to this fever; for though many of these were as much exposed as the nurses to the

infection, yet I never knew one instance of this fever amongst them, though they are equally subject with the white people to the bilious fever.”  (Lining, John, M.D.[10] A Description of the American Yellow Fever, which Prevailed at Charleston, in South Carolina, in the Year 1748. Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson, 1799, pp. 5-7.)

 

McCandless:  “An epidemic of 1732 was the first to be reported in the recently established South Carolina Gazette. On July 15, the paper announced that a number of people had ‘died suddenly’ of fevers in town. By early August, an ‘uncommon mortality’ raged. The dead included the son of Governor Robert Johnson. The assembly was prorogued several times until December.[11] Anglican Commissary Alexander Garden wrote to the Bishop of London in November that ‘a plague’ had been raging since July, with as many as ‘ten funerals a day.’ Garden was not exaggerating, at least not much. On July 23, the St. Philip’s Parish register records ten people buried, and on July 26, nine. In July and August, the parish alone buried ninety-three people, and there were several other churches (or meeting houses) in the town. 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.”[12] (McCandless, Peter. Slavery, Disease, and Suffering in the Southern Lowcountry. NY: Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 69.)

 

NYT:  “1732.  It [yellow fever] began in May and continued until October.  During its severest period eight to twelve died daily.  The population of the city was then about 10,000.”  (New York Times. “Yellow Fever. Epidemics in Charleston, S.C. – Statistics from 1700.” 9-18-1871.)

 

Porter: “1732. ‘Yellow fever began to rage in May, and continued till September or October. In the height of the disorder there ere from eight to twelve whites buried in a day, besides people of colour. The ringing of bells was forbidden, and little or no business was done.’”  (Porter, John B., M.D., Surgeon, U.S.A. On the Climate and Salubrity of Fort Moultrie and Sullivan’s Island, Charleston Harbour, S.C., with Incidental Remarks on the Yellow Fever of the City of Charleston. P. 92 of pp. 86-101 in American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Isaac Hays, M.D. (editor), Vol. 29, Philadelphia: Blanchard & Lea, 1855.)

 

Ramsay: “From the information of Dr. Prioleau, derived from the manuscripts of his accurate and observing grandfather, the venerable Samuel Prioleau, who died in the year 1792, at the age of seventy-four, it appears ‘that in the year 1732 the yellow fever began to rage in May, and continued till September or October. In the heighth [sic] of the disorder there were from eight to twelve whites buried in a day, besides people of color. The ringing of the bells was forbidden, and little or no business was done.”  (Ramsay, David, M.D. Ramsay’s History of South Carolina, From Its First Settlement in 1670 to the Year 1808. Newberry, S.C.: W. J. Duffie, 1858, p. 47.)

 

US MHS:  “1732 E…Charleston, S.C. … West Indies [Origin] … [Remarks] Severe epidemic, 8 to 12 deaths daily from May to October. (Toner.) Brought to port by a vessel from the West Indies (Montrie and Linning) and Simon’s Trans. S.C. Med. Assn., 1851, p. 37 (Toner.)”[13]  (U.S. Marine Hospital Service. Annual Report of the Supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service of the United States for the Fiscal Year 1895. 1896, p. 428.)

 

New York City, NY

 

Duffy: “In 1732 yellow fever again became epidemic in New York and Charleston….

 

“The outbreak in New York was on a much smaller scale than that in Charleston. Webster called it a ‘malignant infectious fever’ and estimated that about seventy persons died. Since the city’s population was between 8,500 and 9,000, these seventy deaths represent less than one per cent — a minor loss in those days.”[14]

 

Sources

 

Currie, William (Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia). An Historical Account of The Climates and Diseases of The United States of America; and of the Remedies and Methods of Treatment, Which Have Been Found Most Useful and Efficacious, Particularly in Those Diseases Which Depend Upon Climate and Situation. Collected Principally From Person Observations, and the Communications of Physicians of Talents and Experience, Residing in the Several States. Philadelphia: Dobson, M,DCC,XCII (1792). Digitized by U.S. National Library of Medicine and accessed 12-29-2013 at: https://archive.org/details/2548025R.nlm.nih.gov

 

Duffy, John.  Epidemics in Colonial America. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1953, reprinted 1979.

 

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

 

Keating, J. M.  A History of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tenn. Memphis, TN:  Howard Association, 1879. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=WEIJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Lining, John, M.D. A Description of the American Yellow Fever, which Prevailed at Charleston, in South Carolina, in the Year 1748. Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson, 1799. Digitized by U.S. National Library of Medicine and accessed at: https://archive.org/details/2561035R.nlm.nih.gov

 

McCandless, Peter. Slavery, Disease, and Suffering in the Southern Lowcountry. NY: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Google digital preview accessed 12-29-2013 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=NMrqxrLAHUgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=scdah&f=false

 

New York Times. “Yellow Fever. Epidemics in Charleston, S.C. – Statistics from 1700.” 9-18-1871. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0C13F938541A7493CAA81782D85F458784F9

 

Porter, John B., M.D., Surgeon, U.S.A. On the Climate and Salubrity of Fort Moultrie and Sullivan’s Island, Charleston Harbour, S.C., with Incidental Remarks on the Yellow Fever of the City of Charleston. Pp. 86-101 in American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Isaac Hays, M.D. (ed.), Vol. 29, Philadelphia: Blanchard & Lea, 1855. Google digitized. Accessed 12-29-2013 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=AFY9AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

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

 

Ramsay, David, M.D. Ramsay’s History of South Carolina, From Its First Settlement in 1670 to the Year 1808 (Vol. II). Newberry, S.C.: W. J. Duffie, 1858, p. 47. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=uUkOAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

United States Marine Hospital Service, Treasury Department.  Annual Report of the Supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service of the United States for the Fiscal Year 1895 (Document No. 1811).  Washington:  GPO, 1896.  Digitized by Google at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=aTnxAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Wikipedia. “USPG,” 9-10-2013 modification. Accessed 12-29-2013 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USPG

 

 

 

 

 

[1] It appears that there were some undetermined number of days during which 8-12 deaths of whites occurred during the height of the epidemic. While it is true that blacks were more resistant to yellow fever than whites, we know that blacks died as well as whites, though we do not have an estimate from that time-period or anytime since. The only definite number we have located is the number of 130 white deaths from an unclear source in Kohn. This number appears to us to be low if indeed there were days during much of a four-month period in which 8-12 whites died. Ten such days would tally to 80-120 yellow fever deaths. We know from a long history of yellow fever in the U.S. that deaths would curve upwards to a peak and then again downwards as the frosts of Fall occurred. If the number of 130 white deaths is under-estimated, if there were deaths among whites who fled Charleston, if sailors visiting the port contracted the disease and died after leaving, or if blacks experienced any significant number of fatalities, the total number of fatalities could well be at least 200. We can only guess. We will thus guestimate a translation of “many black slaves” into approximately 20 in order to derive a figure for both whites and blacks.

[2] Noting “many” deaths among blacks. Kohn does not specifically note where he derived the number 130. He cites three sources (Duffy, Fraser, and Ramsay). We have access to Duffy and Ramsay and can find no specific estimate of fatalities. Thus the number would seem to derive from Fraser, whose book on Charleston we have not seen.

[3] Lining, however, a Charleston physician, wrote that “…I never knew one instance of this fever amongst them, though they are equally subject with the white people to the bilious fever.”

[4] Formed originally as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SMP) in 1701. Renamed the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG) in 1965. (Wikipedia. “USPG,” 9-10-2013 modification.)

[5] Cites in footnote 21: Ramsay, History of South Carolina, II, 84; John Lining, A Description of the American Yellow Fever… (Philadelphia, 1799), 5; Currie, An Account of Climates and Diseases, 389; Thomas Hassell to Secretary, S.C., November 10, 1732, in S.P.G. MSS., A24, fp. 273; Governor Johnson to Duke of Newcastle, Charleston, S.C., December 15, 1732, in Collections of the South Carolina Historical Society (Charleston, 1857), I, 248. The Currie book, which we include in our “Sources” for those who wish to investigate, does not add new data on the Charleston epidemic, other than to take issue with Dr. Lining for calling it Yellow Fever, due, in Currie’s words to “the greater yellowness of the skin” than “bilious Remittents of hot climates, or very hot seasons of any climate.”

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

[7] “Yellow; of the color of the skin when it is affected by the jaundice.” Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, C. & B. Merriam CO., publishers, 1913. Accessed 12-29-2013 at: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Icteritious

[8] Overstated. Resistance is increased.

[9] It is believed yellow fever originated, or endemic, in Western Africa for generations so that resistance was built.

[10] Practiced in Charleston.

[11] Cites, in footnote 23: SCG, July 15, Aug. 5, 12, 19, Sept. 2, 15, 23, Oct. 20, Dec. 16, 1732; Council Journals, August 30, Nov. 9-10, Dec. 5, 1732, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia; Collections of the South Carolina Historical Society 5 vols. (Charleston, 1897), 3: 316-317; Robert Johnson to Board of Trade, Dec. 15, 1732, British Public Record Office, Records re South Carolina, 16: 4.

[12] Cites, in 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 South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston; Coclanis, Shadow of a Dream, 164, Table Bi, 169-170, Tables D1-D3.

[13] Given our reading of other sources we believe this wording gives an exaggerated impression of fatalities. Eight to 12 deaths daily for the months May through July would come to a minimum of 1,200 and a maximum of 1,800 deaths (based on 30 days per month). Other sources indicate that the epidemic was of an about four month duration. Yet other sources give the impression that 8-12 deaths occurred just on sporadic days during the height of the epidemic.

[14] Cites: Webster. History of Epidemic Diseases, I, 341; A Century of Population Growth, 11.