Sickness

This area examines a selection of letters pertaining to sickness in disease Sarah Hicks Williams experienced and wrote her parents about between the 1840's and late 1850's.

Figure 5.a: These are the Terms Williams referred to the most in her letters when she mentioned the sick and any death due to illness. Williams mentioned measles, dysentery, and dropsy on one or two occasions as well as her own affliction from salt-rheum. The above mentioned are common illnesses during the 1800's. What is most interesting in this section is that we can see all but one death occurs in between November and March, which indicates that winters were particularly punishing on the health of Sarah and her friends and family.

Figure 5.b: From this StreamGraph we can see which terms she used frequently and how these terms are related to one another in a particular letter. Most common illnesses wrote about are dropsy and dysentery. What makes this graph interesting is that we can see how the terms are interconnected. For instance, we can see Williams mentioned health many times throughout this selection of letters and the type of sickness functions as a description of health in these letters.

Figure 5.c: Analyzing the Context of how Williams wrote about illness and death allow us to see who and what affliction someone suffered. By looking at the terms sick, sickly, and sickness we can see she visited her sick neighbors, took care of herself and her children through illness. We can also see that Sarah pays attention to when the season are more sickly than others, particular the winter season. Though we can only search one form of a word at a time, we can add or change the term. Additional words to search: dysentery, health, death, cough, salt rheum, dropsy, scarlet fever, and measles.

How Williams handled sickness and disease

Sickness and disease were commonplace in during the 1840s-1860s. Williams herself suffered from salt-rheum in her hands. Salt-rheum, is a skin condition similar to eczema diagnosed in the 1840s. Salt-rheum left her in great pain, often unable to write. She is surrounded by sickness and disease throughout her life and writes of dysentery and scarlet fever regularly.

Sick domestic slaves fell into the realm of Williams's care. As mistress she is responsible for sick slaves and she found this to be a bit irritation. Williams explained to her parents that when several slaves and her mother-in-law have dysentery, the event tries her patience because she has "too much Yankee spirit in her" to be a good caregiver (June 14, 1854). Having sick slaves meant having more work to do herself in addition to her own sewing and cooking. Williams expressed sadness when a slave died from sickness, especially because Anne "expressed true sorrow for her sins and for two or three months appeared very different from her former headstrong course" (March 11, 1860). This was not uncommon as mistresses frequently expressed concern over a slave dealing with illness or grief over the loss of one. Despite feeling this bit of remorse, Sarah was also concerned with the loss to the plantation, in terms of "capital" and "prosperity of the plantation" (Fox-Genovese, 129). Sick slaves not only added to work for Williams but also slowed down efficiency on the plantation.

Though she accepted sickness, at times she is shook and upset by quick and sudden death. Ms. Dwight, a teacher at Albany Academy had been sick only three and a half days when she passed in 1845. Williams expressed that though "[Ms. Dwight] was not a teacher of mine, yet I have formed a strong attachment to her, she was so mild so gentle that all who knew her loved her" (February 23, 1845). Williams's experience with death is both one of concern and acceptance.

As Williams grew older she wrote about healing, and often mentioned how much better those around her are getting, rather than discussing details of dropsy or measles. Williams does seem affected by the sick around her, but she enjoys fairly good health herself. Williams rarely details how the sick got better, but her letters show how death and sickness were a part of everyday life.