Vampire Panic in New England

Some kind of panic was spreading among the New Englanders in the 19th century; it went through Rhode Island and Connecticut. Young people were dying, everyone was getting sick, and most importantly, there seemed to be some differences in the bodies of the deceased. It was tuberculosis that was causing this chaos among the communities; however, they did not know what tuberculosis was at that time. They called the disease 'consumption' because it appeared as the disease was consuming its victims. Because the sickness spreads swiftly within a family, when a family member dies of consumption, the deceased's household is usually affected and loses their health over time. However, New Englanders believed that this is related to the dead tuberculosis victim sucking the life of their family and friends.

The practice of exhuming bodies and burning the victims' hearts to avoid vampirism is documented in historical sources. Medical experts didn't know much about the sickness or how to treat it. They also did not know that it traveled swiftly among individuals living in the same house, generally with disastrous effects. Recommended bloodlettings and rest were the regular treatments to consumption, neither of which helped in recovery. Finding a method to save lives became an obsession for worried New England residents who suspected something more evil was causing the illness. The bodies of alleged vampires were excavated and examined for signs that they were indeed undead.

Stutley Tillinghast is roused from an unpleasant dream one night in 1799. In his dream, he looks out over his flourishing apple orchard and sees half of it turn dark and die. This dream would come back to torment him in the coming years. Sarah, his 22-year-old daughter, fell sick and died of consumption shortly after the dream. Before any other daughters died, one of them said that Sarah, who was already dead and buried, came in the night and sat on her chest, giving her tremendous pain. Stutley, driven by the community's growing terror, decided to exhume his deceased children in order to save those who were still living. Why? Because the locals assumed it was the work of the undead, believing there were vampirical beings in the area. To check for signs of vampirism in the form of fresh blood in the corpse's hearts, Stutley Tillinghast exhumed the remains of his children. The bodies of most of the children exhibited normal indications of decomposition, but Sarah Tillinghast's hair had continued to grow, her nails had continued to grow, her eyes were wide open and most incriminating, her arteries and heart were full with fresh blood. Sarah's heart was taken out and burnt on a rock in front of Stutley's house. The prophecy of Stutley's dream was being fulfilled as he reburied Sarah and her siblings in his family cemetery.

The shocking part is that these events are not from the middle ages. The people from rural areas of the country were generally not believers in science. These events occurred at the same time that Henry Ford introduced his first car. Many discoveries had been found in science and medicine. If New Englanders believed in these developments, they could have saved many people.