The Yellow Fever of 1793

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The Yellow Fever of 1793

• Mrs. Hughes

2
Saturday, August 3, 1793

• Setting Philadelphia, PA
• Capital of the U.S
• Extremely hot weather
• Great deal of water lost to the heat
• Cats dropping dead
• Tons of mosquitoes, especially near rain barrels,
  gutters, and sewers
• Sewers really large holes dug at street corners
  that would collect run-off and anything else
  washed up (especially dead animals)

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Saturday, August 3, 1793

• Crowded streets
• Most populated city in North America
• 51,000 people (Elmira 31,000)
• George and Martha Washington living here
• Washington D.C. under construction
• Odd things happening
• Tons of dead pigeons
• Believed to bring sickness and unhealthy air
• Series of illnesses
• Mumps, jaw and mouth infections, scarlet fever,
  influenza

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Saturday, August 3, 1793

• Increasing number of people shunning church
• Going to the taverns instead
• Gambling
• Today a young French sailor was desperately ill
  with a fever
• Seizures and a few days later died

5
The Following Week

• 7 additional deaths in two houses on the same
  street
• No one really noticed because of the location
• More an alley
• Confined, ill-aired, disagreeable

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Monday, August 19, 1793

• It was clear that thirty-three-year-old
  Catherine LeMaigre was dying, and dying horribly
  and painfully. Between agonized gasps and groans
  she muttered that her stomach felt as if it were
  burning up. Every ten minutes or so her moaning
  would stop abruptly and she would vomit a foul
  black bile . . . Catherine LeMaigres condition
  worsened. Her pulse slowed, her eyes grew
  bloodshot, her skin took on the pale yellow color
  that gave the disease its name. More black vomit
  came spewing forth (Murphy 12).

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What was wrong with LeMaigre?

• Yellow fever ???
• Sickness begins with chills, headache, and a
  painful aching in the back, arms, and legs
• Tiny reddish eruptions appeared on the skin
  resembling mosquito bites
• A high fever developed, accompanied by
  constipation
• This stage last about three days
• Then the fever suddenly broke
• The patient seemed to recover

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Yellow Fever

• But only for a few short hours
• The next stage saw the fever shoot up again
• The skin and eyeballs turned yellow as red blood
  cells were destroyed and bilirubin accumulated in
  the body
• Nose, gums, and intestines began bleeding
• The patient vomited stale, black blood

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Yellow Fever

• The pulse finally grew weak
• The tongue turned a dry brown
• The victim grew depressed, confused, and
  delirious
• It was one of the most vicious diseases in the
  world
• Appeared suddenly, savaged its victims bodies,
  and killed at an alarming rate
• At least 50 of its victims
• It was a deadly, unstoppable plague

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Tuesday, August 20, 1793

• LeMaigre dies
• Wednesday, August 21, 1793
• 12 more people die
• Thursday, August 22, 1793
• 13 more die

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Sunday, August 25, 1793

• People begin leaving the city
• Hundreds exited the city to the surrounding
  countryside
• More and more people died
• The church bells were continuously tolling
• Historians estimate that 20,000 people abandoned
  the city
• The majority of those that stayed were either
  poor or had nowhere to go

12
Differing Doctors Opinions

• Some doctors think it is yellow fever (Dr.
  Benjamin Rush)
• Others think it is a fever imported from another
  area
• Probably from the West Indies by the recently
  arrived Santo Domingans (Dr. William Currie)
• All doctors agreed
• Clean up the streets
• Set up a hospital for fever victims
• Avoid fatigue
• Limit the intake of beer and wine
• Put patients in airy rooms
• Remove fouled clothes and bed linens frequently
• Stay away from anyone with the fever

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Wednesday, August 28, 1793

• 22 people die
• Thursday, August 29, 1793
• 24 people die
• Friday, August 30, 1793
• 20 people die

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September 8, 1793

• Deaths in the city increased to 42 on this day
• Whole families were swept away in a matter of
  days
• Every morning dead bodies were lying in the
  streets
• The state government was driven from Philadelphia
• The federal employees were moved to Germantown (5
  miles away)

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September 10, 1793

• George and Martha Washington headed south to
  Mount Vernon
• Constitutional crisis set in motion
• Many felt Washington could not legally convene
  Congress anywhere but within the city limits of
  Philadelphia
• Without Congress to pass laws and appropriate
  money, the working of the federal government
  ceased

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The Free African Society

• Founded in 1787
• First organization created by African Americans
  for African Americans
• Purpose was to help members who were destitute
  and to provide care for widows and fatherless
  children

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The Free African Society

• Believed that African Americans could not get the
  disease
• Untrue
• Small number that had grown up in Africa or West
  Indies had the disease as children and survived

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The Free African Society

• Two elders, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen,
  asked how they could help
• The volunteers were the first to enter homes of
  fever victims
• This was the one and only group to step forward
  and offer its services

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Freneaus Pestilence (editor of The National
Gazette)

• Hot, dry winds forever blowing,
• Dead men to the grave-yards going
• Constant hearses,
• Funeral verses
• Oh! what plagues--there is no knowing!
• Priests retreating from their pulpits!
• Some in hot, and some in cold fits
• In bad temper,
• Off they scamper,
• Leaving us--unhappy culprits!
• Doctors raving and disputing,
• death's pale army still recruiting
• What a pother
• One with t'other!
• Some a-writing, some a-shooting.

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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

• There is still no cure for yellow fever today
• Many people still suffer from yellow fever
• Especially in sub-Sahara Africa and South America