America's First VAMPIRES Weren't Monsters, They Were FAMILY. Long before Dracula, a real and terrifying vampire stalked New England, turning terrified families against their own dead. But this monster wasn't a caped count—it was a disease they didn't understand. Welcome to the podcast that unearths one of America's darkest and most bizarre chapters: the New England Vampire Panic. In the 18th and 19th centuries, a mysterious plague called "consumption" (tuberculosis) swept through rural towns, wiping out entire families. Lacking any knowledge of germ theory, desperate communities came to a terrifying conclusion: their deceased relatives were rising from the grave as vampires to drain the life from the living. This isn't just folklore. We'll take you into the heart of the panic with the chilling true story of Mercy Brown, the young Rhode Island woman whose body was exhumed and desecrated by her own neighbors in 1892. We'll also examine the hard science, looking at the bioarchaeological evidence from skeletons like "JB-55" that show the grisly reality of these anti-vampire rituals. This is a story of fear, desperation, and the haunting history that may have even inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula. If you're fascinated by the dark corners of history where science and superstition collide, you can't miss this episode. Subscribe now, share it with your favorite history buff or horror fan, and leave us a review to let us know what you think. Let's dig up the truth together.

📣 New Podcast! "America's First VAMPIRES Weren't Monsters, They Were FAMILY." on @Spreaker #19thcentury #americanhistory #archaeology #bramstoker #darkhistory #folklore #gothic #historypodcast #horrorhistory #mercybrown #newengland #newenglandvampirepanic #newepisode #podcast #superstition

I’m not saying New England’s sorted history with vampirism actually helped inspire Dracula, but that’s also exactly what I’m saying.

#NewEnglandVampirePanic
Look it up. Socially, technologically, ideologically—EXTREMELY fascinating micro history!