The New England Vampire Panic

Why Did They Burn The Heart of A Cadaver in New England?

• Why Did They Burn The Heart of A Cadaver in New England?
• The Mercy Lena Brown Case
• Frederick Ransom, South Woodstock, Vermont
• Sarah Tillinghast, Exeter, Rhode Island
• Nancy Young, Foster Rhode Island
• The Spaulding Family, Dummerston, Vermont
• Rachel Harris, Manchester, Vermont
• The Ray Family, Jewett City, Connecticut
• The Barber Family, Griswold, Connecticut
• The New England Vampire Panic: Conclusion
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We imagine that vampire hysteria was mainly located in Central and Eastern Europe, but that is not so. There were vampire epidemics in the United States of America too. In the 19th century, there was an outbreak of tuberculosis in Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut, southern Massachusetts, Vermont, and other parts of the New England states. This led to the New England vampire panic.

For context, “Dracula” by Bram Stoker was published in 1897 and “Carmilla” by J S Le Fanu in 1872 and “The Vampyre” by John Polidori in 1819, so the idea of the vampire was known to English…