Hidden terrors : the scourge of cholera in Jackson's America / Paul Kelton

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kelton, Paul, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cholera--Social aspects--United States--History--19th century.

Cholera.

Cholera--United States--History--19th century.

Epidemics--United States--History--19th century.

Epidemics.

Cholera--Social aspects.

United States.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations

illustration

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2026]

Summary:

Drawing on family papers, letters, and newspaper accounts written during the pandemic, Hidden Terrors tells the comprehensive story of the first cholera pandemic in the United States. Paul Kelton humanely captures the experiences of ordinary Americans living in fear of a mysterious disease and exposes the disastrous consequences of a deadly germ intersecting with the great injustices of Jacksonian America

"Between 1832 and 1836, the bacteria Vibrio cholerae caused numerous episodes of mass mortality in cities, small towns, prisons, worksites, and plantations throughout the United States. These outbreaks were part of a larger global pandemic, which occurred before the discovery that sewage-contaminated water spread the disease. Believing their nation to be filled with prosperous, self-disciplined, and independent citizens, Americans of perceived respectability and influence imagined that cholera would find few victims among them, especially when compared to the tyrannical regimes of Asia and Europe, which kept teeming masses in a state of dependence and degradation. They were wrong. Cholera thrived in Jackson’s America. Causing massive diarrhea, painful spasms, blue skin, and death within twenty-four hours of symptoms, Vibrio produced horrifying scenes. The disease not only found victims among the poor and oppressed, of which the US had plenty—recently arrived Irish immigrants, enslaved African Americans, and dispossessed Indigenous peoples—but struck down people of all ranks and inflicted heavy losses in communities thought to be safe. Through the pandemic’s duration, however, powerful people used their public voices to minimize and obscure what was a terrifying reality for diverse Americans. Temperance advocates, medical authorities, newspaper editors, and civic leaders attributed deaths to individual failings, especially drinking alcohol, and disregarded the injustices that enhanced vulnerability. They ignored the numerous deaths among their own ranks, stuck to a delusive narrative that blinded Americans to contradictions to their democracy, and denied a shared humanity that united all people amid the threat of a mysterious killer"-- Oxford Academic

Contents:

Entertaining fear : A distant pandemic stokes American imaginations

“An Irish emigrant died at Montpelier” : Cholera arrives in North America

“It is all a humbug” : Mortality peaks in New York City

Terror on Arch Street : Incarceration’s fatal consequences in the Northeast

A preacher, a banker, a judge, and a Quaker : Convincing the Northeastern elite

Ms. Maury’s prophecy : Virginia in the pandemic’s grip

“Poor exiles of Erin” : Irish laborers in Mid-Atlantic work zones

“So much for freedom” : Dismissiveness and death in Baltimore

What happened in New Orleans : The first wave in the West

“They just covered it up” : Cholera strikes Choctaws on the Trail of Tears

Isaac Franklin’s dark deeds : Trafficking enslaved people into the hot zone

Noise over troubled waters : The deafening consequences of temperance

The lessons of Lexington : The second wave, 1833

Back to Charleston : The pandemic ends, 1834, 1835, and 1836

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from home page (Oxford Academic, viewed August 31, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: Kelton, Paul Hidden terrors

ISBN:

9780197772119

0197772110

OCLC:

1593670503

Publisher Number:

CIPO000401087

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license