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13 - A Migratory Species

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2011

Peter McCandless
Peter McCandless
Affiliation:
College of Charleston, South Carolina
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Summary

I perceive by the loss of my strength that I have but a short time to live. If my superiors think I may be of any use here … I am content to live and die in this place under their favourable protection. But if they would think convenient to employ me in any thing I can do in Barbados … I will submit so much the more cheerfully because in those hot climates I have formerly enjoyed more health, than I did here where in ten years time I have had I really believe by computation six years or more sickness.

Francis Le Jau, 1716

The ‘yawning grave’ has received whole families within a few hours of one another – but this usually happens to strangers. In June, most people who can afford it leave for the eastern states or elsewhere, to avoid the pestilence. Some … merely remove to Sullivan's Island.

Isaac Holmes, 1823

I am miserable; where are we to fly? Like hunted deer – this is the only thicket that promised safety. Oh! Death! That mighty hunter, should it earth us GOD grant we may be prepared.

Adele Vanderhorst?, 1838

PERIPATETIC PLANTERS

In the 1850s, a Charleston planter told Fredrick Law Olmsted, “I would as soon stand fifty feet from the best Kentucky rifleman and be shot at by the hour, as to spend a night on my plantation in summer.” The sentiment, if not the exact wording, had been common for many decades.

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Slavery, Disease, and Suffering in the Southern Lowcountry , pp. 249 - 270
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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References

Mcinnis, Maurie D. et.al., In Pursuit of Refinement: Charlestonians Abroad, 1740–1860 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1999), 9–21Google Scholar
McCandless, Peter, “The Political Evolution of John Bachman: From New York Yankee to South Carolina Secessionist,” SCHM 108 (2007), 12Google Scholar
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  • A Migratory Species
  • Peter McCandless, College of Charleston, South Carolina
  • Book: Slavery, Disease, and Suffering in the Southern Lowcountry
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511977428.020
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  • A Migratory Species
  • Peter McCandless, College of Charleston, South Carolina
  • Book: Slavery, Disease, and Suffering in the Southern Lowcountry
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511977428.020
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • A Migratory Species
  • Peter McCandless, College of Charleston, South Carolina
  • Book: Slavery, Disease, and Suffering in the Southern Lowcountry
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511977428.020
Available formats
×