It’s important to remember that the belief that the dead can come back to life was never limited to New England. Throughout history, different cultures all over the world have developed their own conception of how a body returns from the dead to haunt the living. But all of these different conceptions have a few elements in common. In every case, the body feeds on the energy of those who are still alive. Usually, this meant their family. And when these creatures fed, the victim would start to wither away and eventually die. But that actually gives us a clue of where the idea comes from.
Many historians have suggested that the idea of the vampire is probably rooted in a disease called tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that targets the lungs and as the disease progresses, the person affected begins to cough up blood. Over time, they grow weak and pale. This is why it was often called “consumption” during the 19th century. It looked as though the disease was literally consuming the patient from the inside. And tuberculosis is often highly infectious. So people staying in a house with someone who had tuberculosis were very likely to contract the disease as well.
You’ll notice that those symptoms are very similar to those of someone who was supposed to be suffering from the influence of a vampire. And it’s likely that most of the stories of vampires are actually the result of a misunderstanding of what causes tuberculosis. It’s easy to imagine how that would happen. Someone contracts tuberculosis and dies. Within a few weeks, the other people in the house begin to waste away as though life were being drained out of them. It fits the narrative of the vampire very well.
And this is probably what was behind the New England Vampire Panic. At the time when the panic was most severe- the mid-19th century- New England was suffering from frequent and widespread tuberculosis outbreaks. This is an obvious explanation for why people in the region suddenly felt like vampire attacks were becoming more frequent. In addition, the Civil War had left the area devoid of young men and the communities were rapidly dying due to the fact that there were few people to tend the local farms. As a result, the bonds that connected these communities were breaking.
The psychological strains that these factors put on the people of the region made them more receptive to the idea that vampires were attacking their families. Combined with the already prevalent superstitions about vampires, all of these factors created the perfect environment for a vampire panic to take root. The old superstitions were a source of comfort for the people dealing with a rapidly changing world. And in the face of an epidemic, they let them feel like there was something they could do to prevent the deaths. It’s just that the method they picked was a particularly strange one.