490 



CAROLINA, 



South 

 Carolina. 



Diseases. 



Popula- 

 tion. 



the upper country enjoy as salubrious a climate as 

 any part of the United States. 



The low country of South Carolina is infested 

 with all the diseases which spring from a warm, moist, 

 and unelastic atmosphere. Of these, the most fre- 

 quent are fevers, from which the inhabitants of Ca- 

 rolina suffer more than from any, or perhaps than 

 from all other diseases together. In their mildest as- 

 pect they appear as intermittents ; in their next de- 

 rree they are bilious remittents ; and, in their 

 highest degree, and under particular circumstan- 

 ces, they are converted into yellow fever. That 

 dreadful distemper has made frequent ravages in 

 Charlestown. From the year 1700 to 1748, it ragsd 

 at five different periods in that town, and numbers 

 perished by its attacks. For 44 years after that pe- 

 riod, there was no epidemic visitation of it, though it 

 appeared in different summers in a few sporadic cases. 

 A new sera of this fever commenced in the year 1792. 

 It raged in Charlestown in that year, and in 1794, 

 1795,1796,1797, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1804, 

 and 1807- The number of its victims in its worst 

 years, were, in 1799, 239 ; in 1800, 184 ; in 1802, 

 96; in 1804, 148} in 1807, 16'2; in the year 1793, 

 98. In 1808 it is not mentioned at all. In 1803 

 and 1805 it appeared slightly : in both years its vic- 

 tims did not exceed 69. lu 18Cfe, it is mentioned 

 as having occurred in a very few cases under par- 

 ticular circumstances. In its visitations it extend- 

 ed from July to November, but was most ripe in Au- 

 gust and September. With a very few exceptions, 

 chiefly children, it fell exclusively on strangers. Un- 

 seasoned negroes were not safe from its attacks, but 

 they escaped oftener than other strangers. When at- 

 tacked, they had the disease in a slighter degree, and, 

 with proper treatment, were more generally cured. 

 The variable weather of Carolina often produces in- 

 flammatory affections of the throat. A disease of 

 that organ, accompanied with the scarlet fever, fre- 

 quently recurs, but is seldom fatal. Measles, influ- 

 enza, hooping cough, and small-pox, are the other epi- 

 demic diseases of South Carolina. The practice of 

 vaccination was introduced into Charlestown by Dr 

 Ramsay in 1802 ; and we are happy to have his au- 

 thority for stating, that, among many thousands who 

 have been inoculated, no instance has yet occurred 

 of a clearly marked small- pox following a clearly 

 marked case of vaccination. 



The colony which sailed from England, under the 

 auspices of the proprietors in 1(569, and which was 

 continually increased by new accessions of adventu- 

 rers from the same country, was the stock from which 

 the present population of South Carolina has sprung. 

 On this stem, however, several foreign branches have 

 been at various times engrafted. France, Switzer- 

 land, Holland, and Germany, have each contributed 

 largely to the population of this country, which was 

 long regarded as the best asylum for the oppressed and 

 unfortunate. Of these foreign emigrants by far the 

 largest proportion were French Protestants and Ger- 

 man Palatines. Ireland supplied an immense number 

 of adventurers ; Scotland no inconsiderable share ; 

 and many likewise emigrated from the more northern 

 states of America. In the course of 141 years, the 

 population of South Carolina has increased from a 

 handful of adventurers to 414,935 inhabitants, its po- 

 pulation in 1810. Now, however, the new states, and 



territories to the southward and westward, draw to South 

 them so many of the inhabitants of South Carolina, Carolina, 

 that any casual accessions to its population are more T""" 

 than counterbalanced by its emigrations ; so that its 

 future population must depend chiefly on the natural 

 increase of its own inhabitants. 



A population derived from so many various sources, Manner* 

 cannot yet be expected to present such an uniformity and eha- 

 of manners as is necessary to establish a national cha- ract f r of _ 

 racter. The various groupes of emigrants, particu- >"hatu 



i i r r ' i J tants. 



Jarly from foreign countries, having s^ttlea in so ma- 

 ny separate colonies, still reta> many of those pecu- 

 liarities, in manner and habits, which characterized 

 the nations to which they originally belonged. As 

 the connection between the different parts of the state 

 is becoming daily more intimate, these peculiarities 

 are gradually disappearing. The native languages 

 and dialects of the different colonies are beginning to 

 give place to the English ; and there is even now 

 such a similarity among the present inhabitants of 

 Carolina, that a stranger would find it difficult to as- 

 certain, from the language or manners of any por- 

 tion of them, from what country their ancestors hgtd , 

 emigrated. People living under the influence of the 

 same climate, and the same government, must neces- 

 sarily, indeed, acquire a strong resemblance in many 

 of their physical and moral qualities. While there 

 prevails among the Carolinians a diversity of charac- 

 ter, which marks them out as the descendants of dif- 

 ferent races, there are at the same time a few gene- 

 ral properties which they all possess, and which may 

 therefore be regarded as the endemic qualities of the 

 nation. Of these qualities the most pernicious are 

 indolence, intemperance, and a propensity to contract 

 debts ; all of which have been induced either by the 

 influence of climate, or by some peculiar circum- 

 stances in their condition. 



These faults, however, are more than redeemed by 

 several valuable qualities, though some even of these 

 are apt to be carried to an excess that becomes cul- 

 pable. A jealous regard to individual and public li- 

 berty, the surest bulwark of their civil rights and privi- 

 leges, is the leading feature in the character of the Ca- 

 rolinians. It is only to be regretted, that the love of 

 liberty is carried, particularly by the young Carolinians, 

 to an excess, which seems rather to threaten the sub- 

 version of public order, than to promise security to the 

 invaluable rights which their ancestors have purchas- 

 ed by their blood. So jealous are these republican 

 sparks of what they conceive to be the natural pri- 

 vileges of men, that they spurn the restraints even 

 of parental authority ; and are so impatient of sub- 

 ardmatipn, that many people of business choose to 

 import from Europe clerks trained to obedience, ra- 

 ther than be teazed by the refractory insolence of the 

 saucy youths of Carolina. 



With this love of liberty is connected a nice sense 

 of honour, which, though favourable in general to 

 politeness and propriety of behaviour, is indulged to 

 such an extreme sensibility, that the slightest breach 

 of respect, however unintended, must be atoned for, 

 either by a submissive apology, or by a meeting in 

 the field. So fiery, indeed, are the Carolinians, and 

 so jealous of their honour, that more duels are fought 

 in Carolina, than in all the nine states north of Mary- 

 land. In Carolina, as in our own country, the duel- 

 list who kills his antagonist, may be prosecuted for 



