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51 Carolina and malaria: McNeill 2010:203–09; Packard 2007:56–61; Coclanis 1991:42–45 (more than three out of four); Wood 1996:63–79 (population, 152); Silver 1990:155–62; Dubisch 1985 (differential mortality, 642); Merrens and Terry 1984 (“ague,” 540; “hospital,” 549); U.S. Census Bureau 1975:vol. 2, 1168; Childs 1940 (arrival of malaria, chaps. 5–6); Ashe 1917:6 (“Complexions”); Archdale 1822:13. A somewhat similar process occurred in Georgia, which began in 1733 as a free colony (slavery was banned). Scurvy, beriberi, and dysentery, all related to inadequate or contaminated food, were common. Infectious disease was not. The colony became the crown’s property in 1752. Slavery was permitted. Malaria and yellow fever quickly followed. Soon it became hard to farm without slaves. The disparity in death rates shrank as Europeans survived and acquired immunities. But it didn’t go away. In the 1820s whites in South Carolina were still dying of intermittent, remittent, bilious, and country fevers—the terms then used for malaria—at rates more than four times higher than blacks (Cates 1980).

52 Indian disease deaths: Snyder 2010:65 (Chickasaw), 101–02 (Chakchiuma), 116 (“distressed tribes”); Gallay 2002:111–12 (Quapaw); Laubrich 1913:285–87; Archdale 1822:7 (“answer for”).

53 Duffy negativity: E-mail to author, Louis Miller; Webb 2009:21–27; Seixas et al. 2002; Carter and Mendis 2002:572–74; Miller et al. 1976.

54 Sickle-cell: Interviews and e-mail, Spielman; Carter and Mendis 2002:570–71; Livingstone 1971:44–48.

55 Immunities as pivot for slavery: Webb 2009:87–88; Coelho and McGuire 1997; Wood 1996:chap. 3; Dobson 1989; Menard 1977. Some economists have argued that there was little economy of scale in crops climatically suited for New England. But wheat was grown in Piedmont Virginia on big plantations with lots of slaves. Still others have argued that Africans couldn’t run away, because their appearance was too distinctive. The obvious retort is that slaves did run away all the time—and that in any case indentured servants could have been branded or tattooed, something already done for criminals. Ultimately, disease counted. “The decimation of a native labor supply in the face of disease, the weakness of the Europeans in their new disease environment and the apparent resistance of blacks to diseases of hot climates led to the massive importation and exploitation of African slaves” (Dobson 1989:291).

56 Arrival of falciparum: Rutman and Rutman 1980:64–65; idem 1976:42–45.

57 Comparisons of mortality rates: Curtin 1989; 1968:203–08 (48–67 percent, 203; “of the European,” 207); Hirsch 1883–86:vol. 1, 220 (malaria in Antilles). Many of the original figures are in Tulloch 1847, 1838.

58 Geography of malaria: My discussion follows McNeill 2010; Webb 2009:chap. 3; Packard 2007:54–78.

59 Falciparum line: Author’s interview, National Weather Service (temperatures); Strickman et al. 2000:221.

60 Plantations and South: The debate is summarized in Breeden 1988:5–6. Tara was supposedly in Georgia.

61 Intractable malaria regions: Duffy 1988:35–36; Faust and Hemphill 1948:table 1. Texas had more malaria cases, but also more people.

62 Quadrimaculatus habitat and housing: Author’s interview, Gaines; Goodwin and Love 1957. The hills don’t have to be tall; medical researcher Walter Reed observed that people in the uplands of Washington, D.C., just 200–250 feet above the Potomac, rarely contracted malaria, while “those who live on the low plateau bordering both the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers are affected annually by malarial diseases” (Gilmore 1955:348). See also, Kupperman 1984:233–34.

63 Malaria and culture: Rutman and Rutman 1980:56–58 (all quotes); Dubisch 1985:645–46. Fischer (1991:274–389 passim) makes an extended characterization of Virginia mores.

64 No initial awareness of immunity: Arguing that malaria resistance “must have done a great deal to reinforce the expanding rationale behind the enslavement of Africans,” Wood (1996:83–91, quote at 91) and Puckrein (1979:186–93)