Fever and Ague: Disease and Life in the South Carolina Colony
Open AccessSouth Carolina residents were subjected to fevers every summer and fall. Planters learned to absent themselves from their plantations during the seasons of high risk and leave their slaves in the sickly rice fields where hot, stagnant waters were thought to give off bad, disease-causing air. Some people who could afford to flee traveled northwards and went to places such as Newport, Rhode Island, but Charles Town, with its seemingly healthy coastal breezes and easy access to commerce and trade, remained the most popular destination. However no amount of cooling breezes in the city could keep disease completely at bay. Smallpox struck at various intervals, and mosquitoes in the city ensured that even the seasoned and Creole populations might die from yellow fever and malaria. Colonists were not unaware of the risks. European immigrants recognized the similarities between South Carolina's climate and fevers and the diseases encountered in the Caribbean. They knew white residents would have to undergo a time of adjustment to their new environment; a time of seasoning which they might or might not survive. Throughout the colonial era, the necessary period of seasoning affected the demographics of the colony as many new colonists died within a few years, poor whites moved inland, African slaves were bought to work in unhealthy marshlands, and rich planters built second homes in areas perceived to be healthier, such as Charles Town or its immediate vicinity. From the founding of the colony to the dawn of the Revolution, only slavery shaped Lowcountry society more than disease.
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