From Paradise to Hospital

Peter McCandless

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511977428.008

2 - From Paradise to Hospital

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2011

Peter McCandless

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Peter McCandless: Affiliation:
College of Charleston, South Carolina

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A person with 500 pounds … prudently managed in Carolina shall in a few years, live in as much plenty, yea more, than a man of 300 pounds a year in England; and if he continue careful … shall increase to great wealth … As to the air, it is serene and exceeding pleasant, and very healthy.

John Archdale, 1707

Myrtle Grove a terrestrial paradise? Let me see what paradisial objects present themselves to your mere corporeal view…. charming walks but … they resemble the paths to the heavenly more than the walks to the earthly Garden of Eden.

George Ogilvie, 1774

An opinion generally prevails that South Carolina is unhealthy. This is neither correctly true nor wholly false.

David Ramsay, 1809

“THE SINK OF THE EARTH”

In the 1780s, German traveler Johan David Schoepf coined one of the most frequently quoted descriptions of South Carolina, when he wrote that “Carolina is in the spring a paradise, in the summer a hell, and in the autumn a hospital.” By “Carolina,” Schoepf essentially meant the lowcountry. Schoepf's emphasis on the unhealthiness of the region was not unusual. By the time of the Revolution, the lowcountry was reputed the unhealthiest place in British North America.

Type: Chapter
Information: Slavery, Disease, and Suffering in the Southern Lowcountry , pp. 18 - 38

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511977428.008 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2011

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References

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