The Nineteenth-Century Quarantine Narrative

This essay articulates the literary and political consequences of a sub-genre of nineteenth-century travel writing that I call the quarantine narrative. Twelve texts, once fashionable but now little-known and understudied, published between 1832 and 1847 are examined herein. Written primarily by itinerant Americans—including titans of the antebellum periodical scene, Knickerbocker authors Nathaniel P. Willis, Theodore S. Fay, and Henry T. Tuckerman—these works collectively disseminate an anticontagionist perspective that derides the practice of quarantining “dangerous elements” to protect the well-being of a population. Linked together by an exposé prose style aimed at demystifying and debunking medical detainment, and by the use of irony intended to prompt new thinking about national identity formation, these narratives convey a surprisingly positive attitude toward foreign influence during an early period of global travel, commerce, and cultural circulation.