An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793

Chapters 1-3

Reading Check

1. A “wealthy manufacturer who had used his fortune to help finance the Revolutionary War” (Chapter 1)

2. It was the largest inhabited American city at the time, and it served as the capital of the United States. (Chapter 1)

3. Pigeons (Chapter 1)

4. It can spread easily and kill half of those who fall ill to it. (Chapter 2)

5. The city’s residents “began leaving the city.” (Chapter 3)

Short Answer

1. Murphy’s text opens with a description of a hot summer day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1793. He paints a picture for the reader with details about the stench of dead animals, the uncovered sewer system, and spoiled cargo from incoming ships. (Chapter 1)

2. The French helped the colonists fight the British, forcing their surrender at the Battle of Yorktown and eventually securing “freedom for the United States.” (Chapter 1)

3. Within the span of two weeks, medical professionals in the Philadelphia area began to notice the increase of a strange illness. People’s symptoms followed the same pattern: chills, headache, aches in the body, fever and constipation, a brief respite, and then a yellowing of the skin and vomiting of black bile before falling into a delirium. Medical professionals realized that all the deaths originally occurred near Water Street. (Chapter 2)

4. Dr. Foulke and Dr. Hodge believed that the illness was probably related to the imbalance of “humours” (a concept from ancient Greek medicine); however, Dr. Rush believed it was yellow fever since it resembled a sickness he witnessed in Philadelphia 30 years prior. Rush urged people to take the illness seriously and leave the city. (Chapters 2-3)

5. Most people who stayed in Philadelphia were poor, without a country home to flee to, or lacked relatives/acquaintances to shelter them temporarily. A small minority stayed because “they felt a sense of duty to their city and its trapped inhabitants.” (Chapter 3)

6. Despite their inability to come to a consensus on the nature of the illness, the College of Physicians released “a list of measures” for Philadelphians who remained in the city, including changing linens of the sick, removing patients to a hospital, cleaning up the streets, and cleansing the air with vinegar and gunpowder. Additionally, many citizens began to avoid the presence of possibly sick people, quarantine in their homes, and take various concoctions of supposed remedies with unusual ingredients. (Chapter 3)

Chapters 4-8

Reading Check

1. The doorkeeper to the state house died from the fever. (Chapter 4)

2. Ricketts’ Circus (Chapter 4)

3. As the primary door-to-door caretakers of the fever victims, they were in high demand but short supply, ultimately leading to an increase in bidding costs for their services. (Chapter 5)

4. He continued to see patients. (Chapter 6)

5. The committee took a loan to pay for necessities and for jobs related to the illness. (Chapter 7)

6. “[A]n established work ethic, an endless supply of kindness, and an indomitable spiritual courage” (Chapter 7)

Short Answer

1. Although Mayor Clarkson tried to ameliorate the growing health crisis, the government officials who were tasked with carrying out new ordinances stopped showing up to work. This resulted in shops closing, homelessness increasing, and more institutions turning away people with symptoms of the fever. (Chapter 4)

2. The Free African Society (FAS) was the “first organization in America created by blacks for blacks” in 1787. They convened in early September to discuss providing aid to “their struggling white neighbors.” Despite the racism they experienced in Philadelphia, the group agreed to help and began to visit the homes of the dead. (Chapter 5)

3. John Mitchell’s letter encouraged physicians to support patients with purging to rid the body of blood in the intestines. As a result, Rush began to administer the “Ten-and-Ten” purge to his patients and saw immediate improvements. Dr. Devèze, on the other hand, believed Dr. Rush’s treatments were too harsh; instead, he advocated that the body needed to heal alone and that the patient should be provided only with herbal remedies. (Chapters 6-7)

4. Bush Hill was the house where the Guardians decided to move patients after Ricketts’ Circus. By mid-September, the house was overflowing with patients, and the only reliable help came from nurses from the FAS. Peter Helm and Stephen Girard volunteered to improve the situation. (Chapter 7)

5. Religious leaders, such as Reverend Helmuth, believed that Philadelphia had “brought it all on itself” through its sinful behavior. (Chapter 8)

Chapters 9-10

Reading Check

1. “[It] did indeed seem to be losing strength.” (Chapter 9)

2. He decided that Congress would meet in Philadelphia in December. (Chapter 9)

3. The “first water system” in the US (Chapter 10)

Short Answer

1. Up until this point, Philadelphia had served as the location for Washington’s government. While politicians such as Hamilton believed that the convening of government could be moved due to a plague, Jefferson and Madison believed that only Congress could decide if it could be moved because a president making the decision could be too tyrannical. In the end, it was concluded that it would be unconstitutional to meet outside of Philadelphia. (Chapter 9)

2. Dolly Payne Todd became a widow after she lost her husband and newborn in the yellow fever outbreak. Returning to Philadelphia in the months after, she married James Madison, who eventually became the fourth president of the United States. (Chapter 10)

3. Congress passed two laws regarding future epidemics and health crises: First, the state governor would have special lawmaking and money-spending authority to combat widely transmissible diseases. Second, the federal government could call sessions outside the nation’s capital. (Chapter 10)

4. It downplayed the role of the FAS nurses, arguing that many nurses tried to profit from the sick. In response, several FAS leaders published A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black People during the Late Awful Calamity in Philadelphia, which became the country’s first published document in which “leaders of the black community confronted an accuser directly.” (Chapter 10)

Chapter 11

Reading Check

1. Manhattan “established very strict quarantine rules.” (Chapter 11)

2. The mosquito (Chapter 11)

3. The Spanish-American War in 1898 (Chapter 11)

Short Answer

1. When the French occupied Panama to build a canal, many of its workers and scientists became ill with yellow fever. When the US took over the project in the early 20th century, it had the scientific knowledge to combat the virus so the workers would not become sick. (Chapter 11)

2. DDT, or Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, is an insecticide that was used in the 1960s to eradicate the specific mosquito that carried yellow fever. Critics, such as Silent Spring author Rachel Carson, argued that DDT was a harmful substance to both humans and agriculture. Additionally, it would not completely eradicate the mosquito but instead create “supermosquitoes” that would not succumb to DDT treatment. (Chapter 11)