HI 440 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Poorhouse, Smog
Nature and Health in 19th Century America
Limited Settlement
● Most people who migrate have the intention to farm, but farming was very difficult in the
early 19th century
○ There was soil exhaustion
● A high birth rate, overcrowding, and poor farm lands push Americans to the west as they
look for a better life
● There was an idea of “finishing nature” meaning improving the land for humans to live
on
○ It was a sense humans could both complete the land as a whole and then complete
nature’s purpose through cultivating and civilizing it
○ The cities are a prime example of this idea, but cities had very poor sanitation and
health
Medical Geography
● Branch of science that made correlations between health and location
○ Many believed the idea that African Americans could survive better in hot
temperatures because of where they are from
○ Also believed they were less susceptible to certain diseases
● Saw human beings, if allowed to season, as people that could become acclimated to an
environment if they spent enough time there
● Used to explain why Europeans, coming from the cold, can survive in places very warm
in the Americas
Health Issues (in Merchant)
● Weather change creates sickness that impact your physical and mental abilities
● Moving to new, wet places endangers the lives of new settlers due to new vapors, such as
gasses, humidity and rotting vegetation
○ Huge quantities of insects are present in swamps, too, and there are no protection
from them
● Water was not readily available in the sense of being filtered and disease-free
● Factories (in Merchant, 184) in 1861 had smog, pollution and ash from coal smoke in the
industrial cities they were built in
Landscape
● Rivers with too much water or swaps with too much vegetation were seen as health
hazards
○ Irrigation ditches were built to drain the river
● Note: not every change to the landscape benefitted the people living there
○ For example, what benefitted the Europeans did not benefit the Indians living in
the Americas
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Document Summary
Most people who migrate have the intention to farm, but farming was very difficult in the early 19th century. A high birth rate, overcrowding, and poor farm lands push americans to the west as they look for a better life. There was an idea of finishing nature meaning improving the land for humans to live on. It was a sense humans could both complete the land as a whole and then complete nature"s purpose through cultivating and civilizing it. The cities are a prime example of this idea, but cities had very poor sanitation and health. Branch of science that made correlations between health and location. Many believed the idea that african americans could survive better in hot temperatures because of where they are from. Also believed they were less susceptible to certain diseases. Saw human beings, if allowed to season, as people that could become acclimated to an environment if they spent enough time there.
