Bring Out Your Dead: The Great Plague of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793 PDF
Preview Bring Out Your Dead: The Great Plague of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793
Bring Out Your Dead Publication of this book was made possible through the financial support of Connaught Laboratories, Inc. Bring Out Your Dead THE GREAT PLAGUE OF YELLOW FEVER IN PHILADELPHIA IN 1793 By ].H. POWELL Reprinted with a new Introduction by Kenneth R. Foster, Mary F.Jenkins, and Anna Coxe Toogood PENN University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press Studies in Health, Illness, andCaregiving Joan E. Lynaugh, General Editor A complete listing oft he books in this series can be found at the back of this volume Originally published in 1949 by the University of Pennsylvania Press Reprint edition copyright © 1993 by the University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States ofA merica U.S. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Powell,]. H. Oohn Harvey), 1914-1971 Bring out your dead: the great plague ofy ellow fever in Philadelphia in 1793 / by].H. Powell; introduction by Kenneth R. Foster, Mary F.]enkins, Anna Coxe Toogood. p. cm. - (Studies in health, illness, and caregiving) Originally published: 1949. Withnewintrod. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8122-3210-0 (cloth). - ISBN 0-8122-1423-t (pbk.) 1. Yellow fever-Pennsylvania-Philadelphia-Historf-18th century. I. Title. II Series. RC211.P5P6 1993 614.5'41'097481109033-dc20 93-873 CIP 2nd paperback printing 1996 Contents List of Illustrations Vll Introduction to the 1993 Edition IX Preface to the 1949 Edition XVll Acknowledgments XXlll ''A Merry, Sinful Summer" 1 Infection in Water Street 8 Fever, Domestic and Foreign 29 Prevention, Personal and Civic 45 Crisis 64 Panic 90 "This Excellent Physician" 114 Bush Hill 140 The Committee 173 "Sangrado" 195 The Fugitives 216 Height of the Plague 233 Frost 260 Afterwards 280 Notes 287 Index 295 v of List Illustrations The City ofP hiladelphia, 1793 (drawn byJ ohn H. Geiszel) pages XXIV-XXV Benjamin Rush facing page 18 Matthew Clarkson facing page 19 Absalom Jones facing page 96 Richard Allen facing page 97 Tide page from book by Absalom Jones and Richard Allen facing page 100 Cover ofa 1793 pamphlet cataloging deaths from yellow fever facing page 101 The Bush Hill mansion facing page 144 Broadside bill ofm ortality facing page 145 Stephen Girard facing page 148 Israel Israel facing page 149 VII Introduction to the 1993 Edition In the summer of 1793, the first major epidemic of yellow fever in the United States ravaged Philadelphia, the nation's temporary capital and its largest, most cosmopolitan city. Philadelphia had the most prominent doctors in the New World, but still was not pre pared for the crisis. The city's doctors knew little about yellow fever and quarreled publicly in the newspapers about its causes and treat ment. By the end oft he outbreak, nearly 5000 people were dead and nearly 200 children were orphaned. John Harvey Powell's Bring Out Your Deadvividly tells the tragic story. I ts original publisher, the University ofP ennsylvania Press, has now reprinted the volume on the two-hundredth anniversary of the epidemic. The months leading up to the catastrophe were turbulent. France was at war with Great Britain, Holland, Spain, and Austria, and wanted the United States as its ally. The French Republic's new minister, Citizen Edmond Charles Genet, arrived in Philadelphia in May, 1793 and won enthusiastic public support. Recognizing the danger of war for the new nation, President Washington pro claimed the country neutral and gave Genet a cool reception. By summer, pro-French demonstrations had escalated and, as John Adams later recalled, "ten thousand people in the streets of Philadelphia ... threatened to drag Washington out of his house, and effect a revolution in the Government or compel it to declare war in favor of the French Revolution." The outbreak of yellow fever, Adams later maintained, scattered the rioters and spared the nation political upheaval. Also that summer, many French refugees arrived in Philadelphia from the island of Santo Domingo, fleeing a bloody slave rebellion. i:x
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