1763 – Aug-Feb 1774, Yellow Fever, Natives, Nantucket & Martha’s Vineyard Islands, MA-200-261
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 3-24-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
— 261 Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor Andrew Oliver in Pelrine, 1991.
— 259 Keating 1879, 78; U.S. Marine-Hospital Service. Annual Report…1895. 1896, 430.[1]
— 200 New York Times, “Yellow Fever Retrospect,” 7 Oct 1888.
Martha’s Vineyard, Dec start
— 39 Pelrine. “The Indian Sickness in the Town of Miacomet.” Historic Nantucket 39/4, 1991.
Nantucket Island, Aug-Feb 20
— 222 Pelrine. “The Indian Sickness in the Town of Miacomet.” Historic Nantucket 39/4, 1991.
Narrative Information
Pelrine: “In October 1764 Governor Andrew Oliver of the Massachusetts Bay Colony wrote from Boston to Israel Mauduit, a Fellow of the Royal Society, who was then in London as the Agent for the Commonwealth:
“Considering your connexions, both as a member of the Royal Society, and of the Society for propagating the gospel among the Indians, I transmit you an account of an uncommon sickness, which prevailed last year at the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard which lie about six or seven leagues distant from the Indian plantation of Mashpee on the Continent, where it did not make its appearance at all. I had my account from the English minister, and from the physician Dr. Benjamin Tupper at Nantucket, and from the society’s missionary at the Vineyard, of each of whom I made the most scrupulous inquiry, you may depend on the truth of it.
“About the beginning of August, 1763, when the sickness began at Nantucket, the whole number of Indians belonging to that [island] was 358: of these, 258 had the distemper betwixt that time and the 20th of February following, 36 only of whom recovered: of the 100 who escaped the distemper, 34 were conversant with the sick, eight dwelt separate, 18 were at sea, and 40 lived in English families. The physician informs me, that the blood and juices appeared to be highly putrid, and that the disease was attended with a violent inflammatory fever, which carried them of fin [?] about five days. The season was uncommonly moist and cold, and the distemper began originally among them; but having once made its appearance seems to have been propagated by contagion; although some escaped it, who were exposed to the infection. The distemper made its appearance at Martha’s Vineyard the beginning of December, 1763. It went through every family, into which it came, not one escaping: fifty-two Indians had it, 39 of whom died; those, who recovered, were chiefly of the younger sort.
“The appearance of the distemper was much the same in both islands; it carried them off in each, in five or six days. What is still more remarkable than even the great mortality of the distemper is, that not one English person had it in either of the islands, although the English greatly exceed in numbers; and that some persons in one family who were of mixt breed, half Dutch and half Indian, and one in another family, half Indian and half Negro, had the distemper, and all recovered; and that no person at all died of it, but such as were intirely of Indian blood. From hence it was called the Indian Sickness.
“There had been a great scarcity of corn among the Indians the preceding winter: This, together with the cold moist season, have been assigned by some as the causes of the distemper among them. These circumstances, it is true, may have disposed them, to a morbid habit, but do not account for its peculiarity to the Indians: The English breathed the same air, and suffered in some measure in the scarcity, with the Indians; they yet escaped the sickness.”
“Governor Oliver thus documents both the immunity of the English and Black inhabitants and the susceptibility of the Native Americans to the contagious “distemper” without understanding either. Nor does he indicate how the disease started on Nantucket.
“This and other details were provided some thirty years later by Richard Mitchell and related in the correspondence of Christopher Starbuck and historian Zaccheus Macy with Moses Brown of Providence, Rhode Island. Brown was a very successful Quaker merchant with Nantucket interests. In 1797 he wanted to learn more about yellow fever and hoped to show it was not necessary to quarantine ships from the West Indies to control this disease. Macy, who resided on Nantucket and was noted for his skill in surgery and bonesetting and for his medical knowledge, wrote:
“In the eighth or beginning of 9. mo, 1763, this uncommon mortality here among the Indians began (as near as I can find by enquiry of Richard Mitchell & some other), a brig from Ireland, having a number of passengers on [board], were cast away near Long Hill upon the North side of this Island. Some few days afterward two women were found in the surf who died on board the vessel & were thrown into the Sea & so drove on shore. Soon after it was discovered many were sick on board with what is called the Yellow Fever and some of the crew, having their cloaths washed at a home here by an Indian woman, it was thought occasioned the spreading of ye disease, as this Indian woman was, soon after washing their cloaths, taken sick with the same yellow fever (which was prevalent on board this Brig or snow) & died in a few days among the Indians….
[From this the sickness spread and continued] “till near the middle of the winter or beginning of the 2nd month, notwithstanding the time and the inclemency of the weather…. What seems most observable in this sickness, then among the Indians, no Negro or white person took the distemper, although some white people frequently assisted them, and came among them. In particular Richard Mitchell tells me he went several times into their homes to help them to some necessaries; also, there was 2 or 3 of the surviving Indians continually among them in helping bury the dead & yet they escaped the sickness.
“The manner in which they were taken or seized with this disorder was by complaining of much pain and a high fever & then soon appear yellow, some dying in two, some in three or four days, seldom any living more than four or five days. After they were taken sick, there were some instances when the whole number in the house were sick at one time, and all found dead in the house at one time. As they had scarcely any well persons sufficient to bury the dead among them — they would sometimes dig a hole near the
house or wigwam door, and so pull the dead ones out and cover them up without putting the copse [sic] into any coffin. Then they would set fire to the wigwam to burn up all that was left in the house.”
In 1797 Moses Brown learned further from Christopher Starbuck that:
“…the sickness began 16 of 8th month, 1763 & continued until the beginning of 2 mo., 1764, in which time 222 died with the yellow fever, as it was called. 34 that were sick recovered; 36 lived among them & did not have the sickness; 18 were at sea, a whaling, in Canada River, etc.; 40 lived in town among the English & none had the disease; 8 lived at the west end of the Island & none had the disease…. This mortality among them in 1763 was very great indeed; out of 358 that had ye sickness 222 died.”
“On January 1, 1798, Starbuck again wrote to Moses Brown:
“I am not able to procure any knowledge of what part of Ireland that vessel was from which we suppose brought the sickness, or whether the sickness was brought over in her, or whether took its rise on board after she left Ireland. The vessel, I believe, made no tarry here, &r did not come into the harbor, but soon got off again after being on shore (and sailed for New York, the port to which she was bound). All the knowledge I can procure about, partly by memory & by enquiry of Richard Mitchell (who seems to know the most of anybody about it) is as I mentioned in my last to thee that is, it was thought the sickness spread from the washing of some of the people’s cloaths here.
“The cloaths were washed by an Indian woman [Mary Norquarta], at the house of Joseph Quin [located near the corner of York and Pleasant streets (not far from the town of Miacomet)], about 1/4 of a mile or less to the south and eastward of the easternmost windmill. The wife of this Joseph Quin, named Molly Quin also had the sickness very severe & was very yellow with it, but recovered, and I believe is yet living.
“The Indian woman, as before mentioned, when first taken sick or soon after, was removed among the Indians further south to a place called by the Indians Miacomet, where she died. Most, if not all in that Indian town where she died were soon taken sick and died also. From there it spread among all the Indians on the Island….
“The two or three dead bodies that were found on shore I believe were taken up & buried by the people of the Vessel but am not certain…. The bodies… I suppose could not be infectious, or not much, by reason of laying in the water which was cold at that time [in August?], and especially, as I before observed, if they were taken up and buried by the ship’s crew, then it is most likely it spread as said before from this washer woman.
“There appears something very observable in this Indian sickness formerly and seems to be differing from the yellow fever lately in these parts. That is, it seems the yellow fever in Philadelphia decreased as the winter or cold weather came on, and this yellow fever among the Indians did not, but continued almost through the winter. What is further very wonderful is that it should not spread among the white people, except with this Irish woman Molly Quin….
“Doctor Tupper seemed unwilling to go among the Indians in this sickness. I remember being of opinion he said that it was infectious like the plague in Europe, but upon the whole it was very wonderful and remarkable. Whether any Negro went among them I am not certain but I think I have heard some Negroes went among the sick Indians and did not have the sickness.
“That it did not spread among the white people here may at least serve to show us that the works of the Almighty are beyond our Comprehension & what human knowledge cannot forsee or prevent.”
“From the actions of sailors aboard the brig and of the townspeople, it is apparent that isolating the sick was the prevalent medical opinion for suspicious diseases that could be epidemic. On October 19, 1763, there was a vote by town meeting that “2 houses be built for the reception of such persons as are infested with the Small Pox…on Coatue point” and a decision to “suffer inoculation of the Small Pox to be practiced in said Town by a major vote of 68 against 41.” However, in the minutes of the five town meetings held between August 1763 and February 1764, the period of the Indian sickness, not one mention of their serious illness appears.
“While the Indians lay dying of perhaps yellow fever, friends and townspeople prepared to battle small pox by quarantine and inoculation. No record of panic here, but certainly worry and concern over their own safety is in evidence. The same town meeting went on to vote a committee to inspect the affair of inoculation and to determine when it shall be proper for persons to come into the town after they have been inoculated. Sailors, merchants, Indians and islanders all knew full well the devastating results of epidemics and disease on board ship and on island.
“Medical-care records of the probable yellow fever epidemic of 1763-64 are brief and blunt. The physician examined the afflicted; Richard Mitchell went among them as did others of English descent. Whites and Blacks were not affected by this epidemic. Out of an entire Indian population of 358, 222 died within a six-month period. From this medical information and his correspondence with Zaccheus Macy and Christopher Starbuck, Moses Brown, successful Quaker merchant of Providence, Rhode Island, built a strong case against the quarantine of vessels from the West Indies. Were it not for his inquiry, little would remain of the history of the Indian sickness at Miacomet….”
Sources
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
New York Times. “Yellow Fever Retrospect.” October 7, 1888. Accessed at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9D03EFD81F38E033A25754C0A9669D94699FD7CF&oref=slogin
Pelrine, Donald. “The Indian Sickness in the Town of Miacomet.” Historic Nantucket, Vol. 39, No. 4, Winter 1991. Nantucket Historical Association website. Accessed 9-6-2012 at: http://www.nha.org/history/hn/HN-1991-winter-sickness.html
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
[1] Cites: Toner. Med. Rep. 1853, p. 107.