The American Nation A History of the United States, Combined Volume (14th Edition)

499

Gulf of

Mexico

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

RedR.

Ark

ans

as

R.

MissouriR.

Mis

sis

psi

piR

.

Ohio

R.

L.Superior

L.M

ich

iga

n

L.H

uro

n

L.Er

ie

OntarioL.

New York

CANADA Montréal

Charleston

New Orleans

Fort Gibson Fort Smith Memphis

Route of cholera, 1832

General trend of the

route of cholera, 1873

The Routes of Cholera, 1832, 1873In 1832, cholera initially spread inland from

port cities—New York, Charleston, and New Orleans; in 1873, cholera spread down

the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys.

Bro

wn

’sC

reek

Cumberland Rive

r

Low-lying ground

Chief site of cholera

Edgefield

Newly

built

area

Army

barrack

State

capitol

Prison

Pump

house

City

Hall

City

reservoir

The Cholera Epidemic in Nashville, 1873Most cholera cases in Nashville were in low-lying areas

where sewage seeped into water supplies.

Question for Discussion

■At the time, many people chafed at the broad new pow-

ers and the higher taxes that city governments claimed

in order to address health problems. What arguments

can be derived both in support of those expanded pow-

ers and against them?

as the city rapidly filled out a forty-block region east of city
hall and the state capitol, sewage seeped into the
Cumberland River above the pumping station. In 1873 a
cholera epidemic swept through the area. The prison was
especially hard hit. The Capitol Hill district, on high ground
to the west of Brown’s Creek, had few cholera cases. In all,
647 people from Nashville died of cholera that summer.