Anthology Project

After the material we have studied this semester and our class discussion of colonial South Carolina, I became most interested in researching the issue of disease during this time period. In conducting my archival research, my goals were to find documents that gave information on the different types of disease, cures and symptoms that effected colonial South Carolina. The two documents that I hope to draw upon for our anthology project reflect on the medical issues colonial South Carolina was facing during this time. The first document, which I selected from the South Carolina Historical Society, is “Papers of Gideon Johnston”, a collection of personal letters and accounts. This document was published in 1946 by the University of California Press. Frank Joseph Klingberg, the editor, complies a number of Commissary Johnston’s personal letters in which Johnston discusses religious, social and personal accounts of his life in South Carolina. The date of the letters range from 1707 to 1716. Johnston describes the difficulties he faced while ill in his letters.This document will be beneficial in our anthology project because it provides personal information about the effects disease had on the people of South Carolina during the 1700s. The second document I hope to draw upon for our anthology project I found through the database, Early American Imprints, Evans series. The document is a letter from Dr. John Lining, who was a physician at Charleston, to Dr. Robert Wyatt, who was a professor of medicine at the University of Edinburg. The document is titled, “Description of the American Yellow Fever, Which Prevailed at Charleston, in South Carolina, in the Year 1748”. This document was published in Philadelphia in 1799. Dr. Lining addresses the history of yellow fever during the year of 1748 in Charleston, South Carolina. Lining provides descriptions of the disease during this time in the hopes that Dr. Wyatt can provide possible cures to the disease.