Nativists and strangers: Yellow fever and immigrant mortality in antebellum Charleston, South Carolina

In the wake of the 1858 yellow fever epidemic, Dr. William Hume criticized Charleston’s establishment for prioritizing commerce over the lives of immigrants: “It seems to be conceded by one party that the importation of one thousand hogsheads of sugar and molasses, advances the prosperity of the city more than the immigration of one thousand Irish and German candidates for permanent citizenship.” Between 1849 and 1858, five epidemics struck the city, and each took a greater toll on immigrant populations than on any other group. For many Charlestonians, that was an acceptable solution to the problems posed by mid-century immigration. “Opinion is divided between the receipt of an annual income from commerce, and a permanent capital from population,” Hume continued, “for, in the state of our knowledge, derived from the experience of the past, an increase of population is incompatible with the occasional prevalence of a mortal pestilence.” Since yellow fever “destroys those who settle, and deters others from settling,” the doctor urged the city to develop public health policies to protect its human resources. Failure to protect all Charlestonians, Hume concluded, emanated from Anglo-American Charlestonians’ resentment of “petty German traders and Irish laborers [who] supply their places.” “Our pride and prejudices are excited against them,” he continued, “and it is not uncommon for a native to rejoice at the advent of fever, because he knows that the evil is to be diminished by the funerals of many.” Yellow fever was a regular visitor to the Old South, and Charleston had the displeasure of bearing the brunt of yellow fever mortalities, rivaled only by New Orleans and Savannah in death rates. Yellow fever first appeared in Charleston in 1699 or 1700, and its virulence varied over the next century and a half. It returned in 1703 and again in 1728, when the fever killed “an immense number” of whites and some blacks. Fearing the disease, colonial planters refrained from contact with the city, reducing the import of foodstuffs and adding to Charlestonians’ misery. Physicians could not successfully treat the disease.