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Letter, 1834
John D. Lewis of Kanawha Salines to Bowker Preston of Bedford

Lewis wrote about the 1834 cholera epidemic, blaming cholera on a slave's over-eating:

". . . there have [been] no cases of cholera occurred for the last two days, and I am very much in hopes that the disease has left us, for this season if not forever. . . .

I lost a negro boy two weeks ago from cholera, produced entirely from imprudence in diet. He had been unwell a few days previous to his attack, had taken some medicine, and was apparently restored to perfect health, when he took the advantage of my absence and ate some corn and cucumber with a quantity of milk, which brought on a collapsed stage of cholera. This is the only case that had occurred among my gang, none other approaching even near it."

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