1873

January–March

 * Event 1

April–June

 * June 6, 1873

OLD-SOUTH SANITATION, NEW-SOUTH BOOSTERISM

The month-long Nashville Exposition, a grandiose ancestor of Summer Lights, is winding down. Local newspapers, reflecting an emerging culture of civic boosterism, are full of self-congratulation over the Expo's success in drawing visitors from faraway localities. Little notice is given to the fact that many of those cities have lately been racked by disease.

Curiously, though, a local newspaper chose yesterday to begin campaigning for a city-wide garbage removal service and improved sanitary standards for outhouses, many of which "do not even have the necessary pits, but set on top of the ground, cleaned into the alleys."

Today's papers speak the word for the first time: Cholera. Under the headline "Not Epidemic," and cautioning against "exaggerations run riot," the Nashville Republican Banner reveals that dozens have died in the past few days. Complaining that the "panic" is hurting business, the paper pronounces the pestilence "abating" as it announces 13 deaths on June 12.

On June 17, 52 die, most of them in the "Negro shanties" where Nashville's "most degraded people" dwell. The Banner blames the "fear, filth and folly" of "superstitious blacks" for needlessly creating an epidemic.

Wealthier residents flee the city for mountain refuges-- but some die on the way. Denial persists among the boosters: On June 26, the paper denounces "professional croakers" in the "panic business." And it hails a "decrease"-- only 29 dead.

--by Tom Wood

Source: Nashville Republican Banner, 6/5-8/6/1873, Nashville Union and American, 5/2/1873

(Originally published in Nashville Scene, 6/3/93)