1800 — Yellow Fever, esp. Baltimore, Charleston SC, Norfolk, Providence RI –1,509-1,806

–1,509-1,806  Blanchard tally based on State breakouts below (Baltimore figures explain range).

 

Maryland                   (900-1,197)

–1,197  Baltimore, by Oct 27.            Quinan. Medical Annals of Baltimore… 1884, p. 22.[1]

–1,000  Baltimore                               Simonds, W. E. The American Date Book. 1902, p. 83.

— ~900         “                                      Bramucci. Medicine in Maryland 1752-1920. “Baltimore.”

 

Massachusetts            (            60)

–60  Boston                                        Sternberg, George M. 1908, p. 720.

 

New York                  (            21)

–21  NY Marine Hospital.                  Keating 1879, 80; US Marine-Hospital Service. 1896, 432.       

 

North Carolina          (           86)

–86  Wilmington                                 Sternberg 1908, 720.

 

Pennsylvania              (           20)      

–20  Philadelphia, Jul-Sep                  Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, p. 554.

 

Rhode Island             (         134)

–134  Providence,                               Keating 1879, 80.

 

South Carolina          (         184)

–184  Charleston                               Keating 1879, 80; Sternberg 1908,  719; USMHS 1896, 432

–184   “  NYT. “Yellow Fever. Epidemics in Charleston, S.C. – Statistics from 1700.” 9-18-1871

–184   “  Ramsay. “Medical History From 1670-1808,” Ramsay’s History of SC, 1858, p. 47.

 

Virginia                      (         250)

—   250  Norfolk                       Keating 1879, 80; NYT, Yellow, 10-7-1888; USMHS 1896, p. 432

 

Narrative Information

 

Baltimore

 

Bramucci: “In 1800, the city was once again held hostage by a yellow fever epidemic that began in August and lasted approximately sixty-five days. Scores of businesses and residents evacuated the city, resulting in a suspension of trade that brought the city to a near halt. The task of treating the ill was not helped by the fact that all but two members of the city’s Board of Health also fled town and the signatures of a Board member and attending physician were required for admittance to the hospital. By the time the epidemic ended with the first frost in October, nearly 900 residents had died, with over 46% of the deaths taking place in Fell’s Point.”[2]  (Bramucci. Medicine in Maryland 1752-1920. “Baltimore in the Nineteenth Century and the State of Public Health.”)

South Carolina

 

Ramsay: “For forty-four years after 1748, there was no epidemic attack of this disease [yellow fever], though there were occasionally in different summers a few sporadic cases of it. In the year 1792 a new era of the yellow fever commenced. It raged in Charlestown in that year, and in 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1804, and 1807. The number of deaths from it in these, its worst years, were…In 1799, 239; in 1800, 184; in 1802, 96; in 1804, 148; in 1807, 162.”

 

Sources

 

Augustin, George. History of Yellow Fever. New Orleans: 1909; reprinted by General Books, Memphis, TN, 2010.

 

Bramucci, Nancy. Medicine in Maryland 1752-1920. “Baltimore in the Nineteenth Century and the State of Public Health.” Accessed 2-14-2009 at:   http://mdhistoryonline.net/mdmedicine/cfm/dsp_pt1.cfm

 

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&pg=PA81&dq=Portsmouth+NH+Yellow+Fever+1802&ei=4SozSczeOoSUzASS7Z3VAQ#PPA454,M1

 

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

 

New York Times. “Yellow Fever Retrospect.” 10-7-1888. Accessed at:  http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9D03EFD81F38E033A25754C0A9669D94699FD7CF&oref=slogin

 

Quinan, John R., M.D. Medical Annals of Baltimore From 1608-1880, Including Events, Men and Literature, to Which is Added A Subject Index and Record of Public Services. Baltimore: Press of Isaac Friedenwald, 1884. Google digitized. Accessed 1-14-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=xNcRAAAAYAAJ&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

 

Simonds, W. E. The American Date Book. Kama Publishing Co., 1902, 211 pages. Digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=JuiSjvd5owAC

 

Sternberg, George M. (U.S. Public Health Service, U.S. Marine Hospital Service). “Yellow Fever: History and Geographic Distribution.” Pages 715-722 in Stedman, Thomas L., M.D. (Ed.) Appendix to the Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences. NY: William Wood & Co., 1908. Google digitized and accessed at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=3ezqX415M5wC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#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 and accessed at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=aTnxAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

 

 

[1] “Oct. 27. Pestilence has ceased [preceding items had to do with Yellow Fever]. Total deaths reported 1197 (978 adults and 219 children), 234 deaths between August 21 and September 4, of whom 204 died in East Baltimore. Legislature appropriates $2000 and City $3000 for the Yellow Fever sufferers in Baltimore.”

[2] Cites:  Douglas F. Stickle. “Death and Class in Baltimore:  The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1800.”  Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. 74, 1979.