Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793

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The Arch Street wharf, mistakenly thought to be the source of the outbreak^[1]

The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 was the largest yellow fever epidemic in American history. The epidemic killed as many as 5,000 people in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—roughly 10% of the population.^[2] At the time, the port city was the largest in the United States, as well as the seat of U.S. government (prior to establishment of the District of Columbia). Philadelphia had recently seen the arrival of political refugees from the Caribbean. The summer that year was especially hot and dry, leaving many stagnant water areas as ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes. The yellow fever outbreak began in July and continued through November, when cold weather finally eliminated the breeding ground for mosquitoes, although the connection had not yet then been established.

1 Background
2 See also
3 External link
4 References

[edit] Background

Thousands of Philadelphians, including prominent government officials like George Washington and Alexander Hamilton fled the national capital. Washington took up residence in the Deshler-Morris House in nearby Germantown.

Benjamin Rush, the city's leading physician and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, had been an eyewitness to the 1762 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia.^[3] Rush advocated the bloodletting of patients to combat the disease, but the treatment was controversial. Stephen Girard also helped supervise a hospital established at Bush Hill, a mansion just outside Philadelphia. Though many high-ranking people of Philadelphia fled, a few officials stayed. Mayor Matthew Clarkson as well as the mayor's committee tried to hold the city together as the death toll mounted.^[4]

Matthew Carey published a fast-selling chronicle of the yellow fever crisis, A short account of the Malignant Fever, Lately Prevalent in Philadelphia, which went through four editions. Carey wrote that African Americans took advantage of the tragedy to extort money from sick white people in exchange for assistance. This notion was based on no reliable information. Prominent African American leaders Richard Allen and Absalom Jones had in fact rallied their church community to assist victims and paid for the expenses out of their own pockets. Allen and Jones subsequently wrote a pamphlet, Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black People, During the Late Awful Calamity in Philadelphia, which detailed the contributions of the African Americans during the epidemic and questioned Carey's assessment of the situation since he had fled the city along with most other wealthy white people.^[5]^[6] Many of the victims were buried in mass graves in what was then Southeast Square.^[7]