Death in the time of cholera: pandemics, public health, and burial in 19th-century Havana

Abstract

ABSTRACT Cholera first struck Havana in February 1833. This was the second cholera pandemic in history and the first to spread beyond Asia. The disease ravaged Europe and crossed the Atlantic and arrived in the city with a merchant returning from the United States. Two months later, 8,000 inhabitants of the city were dead. This article considers how the devastating number of cholera dead transformed mourning and burial in Havana. Management of the dead was a matter of urgent public concern in Havana. This was not simply about where the dead should be buried, but how they should be handled, laid out, transported, and even prayed over. By considering how bodies were talked about, interacted with, and regulated before, during, and after the cholera outbreak of 1833, this article illustrates how pandemic cholera was a catalyst that accelerated and normalised the primacy of health measures over spiritual precepts in determining how to handle the dead.