Noise over Troubled Waters

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>As the first wave encompassed a broad swath of the US, the American Temperance Society called for a jubilee day to be held on February 26, 1833. The organization claimed the inebriated should sober up because cholera had proven itself to be a predator that almost exclusively preyed on them. Temperance advocates before, during, and after their jubilee day repeated the same common refrain and circulated flawed statistics to make their case. Thomas Grimké of Charleston, South Carolina, was one of those advocates. The movement grew significantly from 1832 to 1833, with the pandemic giving it a boost. At the same time, individual voices emerged, claiming that cholera struck people through the water they drank, but these voices could not be heard amid the noise of moral reformers.</jats:p>