cholera | Jane Takes On History

Louis and dorothea sophia wellendorf

A guest post by David Brook

David Brook is retired from the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources where he was director of the Division of Historical Resources. He has also written two books on the history of historic preservation in North Carolina.

Before modern vaccines and antibiotics, generations of Americans were routinely plagued by contagions including yellow fever, typhus, measles, and diphtheria. Cholera, however, topped them all in sheer terror. Caused by a bacterium not identified until 1884, cholera is a horrible intestinal disease, spread through contaminated food and water. With a short incubation period, cholera kills through severe dehydration. Untreated victims can die within hours of onset. In the 19^th century, crowded immigrant communities were especially hard hit.

The coronavirus pandemic brings to mind the impact of cholera on the life of my great-great grandfather, Ludwig “Louis” Wellendorf (1831-1899). Louis was from Bresewitz, a small town on the Baltic Sea near Rostock, in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Germany. According to family lore, he had participated in the failed Revolution of 1848, and fled to Denmark to hide for a time. Continue reading “Cholera, Stormy Seas, and Survival: A Family Story”

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News about History and Historians

Editors will love this list of five important typographical errors in history. One was on Abraham Lincoln’s monument; another was in a Bible, leading it to become known as the “Wicked Bible.” See History Facts.

Real Clear History provides two different views of what used to be called Columbus Day.

Christopher Columbus. Image from Pixabay.

“Columbus Day’s origins are much bloodier and more complicated than many realize,” writes C.W. Goodyear in the Washington Post.

Revisionists “have taken pains to denounce this event by exaggerating facts and creating others as they go along . . . while neglecting, suppressing or ignoring events which do not,” writes Miguel A. Faria from Hacienda Publishing.

The 18th-century polymath physician Benjamin Rush considered work as a cure for mental illness. Richard Gunderman discusses on Law & Liberty.

World War II led to changes in Americans’ everyday habits—from wearing T-shirts to taking a daily vitamin pill. Nicole Villeneuve compiles some of them on History Facts.

This month (October) marks the 250th anniversary of the “Edenton Tea Party.” Much like the Boston Tea Party, it was a rebellious act—and the colonies’ (and thus the nation’s) first known political action by women. I (Jane Shaw Stroup) write about it in the Carolina Journal.

Misguided Enlightenment ideas of progress lie behind the opposition to Israel by today’s progressives, says Richard Samuelson in Law & Liberty.

Victor Davis Hanson corrects the record about World War II. He is responding to the views of Darryl Cooper, a recent guest of Tucker Carlson on Carlson’s TCN show.

There was a brief blossoming of women literati in China in the 1920s and 1930s. Megan Yao describes what happened to it on humanprogress.com.

Did the decline of Christianity in the U.S. pave the way for socialism? Roger McGrath suggests that in an article in Chronicles.

If you like sports, you might like to learn how past U.S. presidents kept fit. Bennett Kleinman tells you about them in History Facts.

Why did the U.S. drop a second atom bomb? Sarah Pruitt of History.com explains the role it played in sending a message to Stalin. (The article is an updated version of a 2017 article.)

About 5,000 black soldiers from North Carolina served in the Union Army; one black regiment helped the Union take over Wilmington, the last remaining Confederate port. I (Jane Stroup) write about it in the Carolina Journal.

Is competition between the United States and China “eerily similar to the origins of World War I”? Ramon Bellin thinks so, writing in Law & Liberty.

Fifty Famous Assassinations

Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary.

In a reprise of an amazing past article, the BBC’s History Extra lists and discusses 50 assassinations that “resonated around the world.” (This image of Leon Trotsky is in the public domain. The Russian revolutionary, ousted by Stalin, was killed in exile in 1940.)

Current views about races have their roots in 17th-century concepts of “polygenism,” says Jacob Zellmer. He discusses the strange evolution of these ideas in Aeon.

Learn about major heat waves since 1858. Jennie Cohen describes the big ones in the U.S. and Europe.

Restrictive covenants are back: The Chicago school system is selling excess property but requiring the deed to include a statement that it won’t be used for a “K-12 charter school.” John F. Harnes discusses such covenants in his RealClearHistory article, “How Chicago Has Revived Its Legacy of Jim Crow.”

Yes, History and Fantasy Can Be Mixed

Mountain Folk, the first in John Hood’s series about the early United States.

On his blog, author John Hood discusses past examples of mixing history and folklore. He says doing so is
“nothing new.” He quotes a reviewer of Mountain Folk: “Sounds crazy — but it works!”

Why did Napoleon lose the Battle of Waterloo? To Graeme Callister, the surprise is how the brave but “makeshift” French army came as close to winning as it did. In War on the Rocks.

Lessons from the American Indian Experience

Image of Osage Indian woman and child, courtesy of DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.

Paul Gottlieb considers the tragedy of the American natives and their cultures, and finds lessons for current American culture. On Chronicles.

History amateurs rediscover a long-lost Tudor palace in Collyweston, England, reports Megan Specia in the New York Times.

Egyptians were trailblazers in medicine, writes Jesse Greenspan in Inside History. Even the Greek poet Homer acknowledged their advances.

Yes, North Carolina has May 20, 1775, on its flag. But it may all be a big misunderstanding—even a hoax. I explain in the Carolina Journal.

In 1854, President Franklin Pierce vetoed the use of federal land to raise money for social welfare. A wise and courageous decision, says Lawrence Reed on the FEE website.

Could Beethoven’s deafness have been caused by cheap wine?

Bust of Beethoven on Wakefield (U.K.) Opera House. Image by Tim Green, licensed by Creative Commons SA BY 2.0.