A History of the New England Vampire

We think of vampire folklore as something that emerges from Eastern Europe, yet there was an outbreak of suspected vampirism in the United States during the nineteenth century. The New England vampires are as much a part of the folklore of the region as Lizzie Borden and her ax, though the name 'vampire' was not used for the phenomenon at the time.

The earliest of the vampire cases happened during the American Revolution to a family named Stukeley. Six of the fourteen children of the family died, one after another. Stukeley's wife began to have dreams about one of the children, Sarah. Stukeley decided to exhume the bodies and found that all of them were decomposed except for that of Sarah. As a preventative measure, the heart of each child was cut out and burned before the bodies were reburied.

Another early case was that of the Ray family of Connectitcut. Between 1845 and 1854, the father and two of the sons died of tuberculosis, and a third son was stricken with the disease. Tuberculosis, then known as consumption, was a much feared disease at the time and believed to have been a spiritual rather than a physical disease. In order to prevent more deaths in the Ray family, the bodies of the deceased were exhumed and burned.

The Brown family of Rhode Island was similarly afflicted. Mrs Brown died of tuberculosis in 1883, followed by her oldest daughter. In 1892, Mercy Brown, another daughter, died of the disease and her brother Edwin became ill. The surviving family decided to exhume the bodies. The mother and oldest daughter were decomposed, but Mercy's body was rosy and untouched by decay, and her body was sideways in the coffin. They burned Mercy's heart and gave the ashes to Edwin as medicine, but he died anyway.

From these examples we can conclude that during the era of the New England vampire, victims of tuberculosis were believed to be suffering from an occult malady. Those who died of the disease were believed to be able to prey upon their family members. This was their explanation for the phenomenon of multiple family members contracting the dread disease and dying.

The remedies for New England vampirism was not found in religious artifacts as was so often the case in Eastern Europe. Perhaps because the heavily Protestant New Englanders lacked the tools of holy water, consecrated Hosts, and blessed crucifixes and medals, a purely physical remedy was sought. The heart of the suspected vampire, and perhaps the entire corpse, was burned.

The belief in the New England vampire died out as science began to be able to explain more about the dread disease tuberculosis, and eventual found a cure for it. But in some areas, legends of a local vampire are still remembered.

Reference:

Melton, J. Gordon - The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead