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

Murphy, Jim. An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. 2003. 165p. ISBN 9780395776087. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

The summer of 1793 was stifling hot in Philadelphia. The sights and smells of a city without sewers and perennially behind on garbage removal were overpowering. Detritus piled everywhere. A large quantity of rotting coffee had been dumped on the wharf and remained there, slowly rotting away. But for most people, it was business as usual in Revolutionary America.

Lurking in the shadows was what became known as yellow fever, a sickness that made the person turn yellow. At the time, it was thought by doctors that humors, or atmospheres, affected individuals and unbalanced their body, thereby making them sick. Without microscopes, people could not observe the microbes that caused yellow fever. Distributed by mosquitoes, this disease could be fatal. And the recipe for a perfect storm (standing water, garbage, and carriers) was present. Philadelphia in the summer of 1793 was a biological time bomb.

When the first people came down with yellow fever, it looked like a regular fever. But as the number of people dying increased rapidly, doctors and local officials realized this was no ordinary sickness. As panic gripped the city of Philadelphia, the U.S. and State governments fled, George Washington returned to Virginia, and surrounding States and communities barricaded themselves against travelers from the City of Brotherly Love. For the inhabitants left in the city, the worse was yet to come …

A historical thriller, the reader will remain on the edge of his or her seat as the catastrophic outbreak of yellow fever kills thousands while doctors fruitlessly search for a cure. One of the worse pandemic in U.S. history, the plague of 1793 continues to fascinate and provide a morbid look at revolutionary society.