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Blog Post 9 (for Thursday, 4/3)
In his book “The Cholera Years”, which I reviewed, Charles Rosenberg demonstrates an interesting meta-narrative about disease and public health in America during the 19th century. Reading “The Cholera Years” helped me realize that the 1832 Cholera epidemic in New York is part of a much bigger story; as a result, I decided it was necessary to narrow down my topic.
Almost all of my sources have mentioned a place called the Five Points in some capacity. Today, the Five Points is situated on Worth Street in lower Manhattan, between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. During the 19th century, however, this convergence formed the heart of New York City. It was a melting pot inhabited by individuals of various races, religions and nationalities, all of whom struggled to survive in complete destitution.
The Five Points played an important role in the 1832 Cholera epidemic, and its experience implicates many of the meta-narrative themes that Rosenberg described. This quagmire of filth and poverty represented a serious threat to the public health of the entire city: it was the perfect incubator for disease. Records from the 1832 epidemic attribute the greatest number of Cholera cases to the Five Points (Rosenberg, 33). I plan to explore the specific ways in which poverty contributed the remarkable virulence there— shared water sources, unsanitary methods of food preparation, etc. I also plan to describe the social effects of disease in such a densely populated and culturally diverse area.
Furthermore, I plan to demonstrate how perceptions of the Five Points demonstrated the extent to which epidemiology and morality were intellectually associated during the early 19th century. Well-to-do New Yorkers understood epidemiology through the lens of morality. Lacking sufficient medical explanation for the spread of Cholera, they reasoned that Cholera was a form of divine retribution, and that inhabitants of the Five Points had exposed themselves by succumbing to vice. The Five Points had a reputation for immorality, after all; Rosenberg called it a “the city’s red light district” (33). Violent crime, unemployment and prostitution were commonplace. Gangs such as the Dead Rabbits and Bowery Boys famously clashed here during the 1860s.
In short, I’ve found a great case study, which I can use to make generalizations about the 1832 Cholera epidemic, its social effects, and its implications about the intersection of morality, medical science and public health in 19th century American thought.