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Yellow Fever Resources. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania offers a wide range of sources from original letters to prominent members involved in the epidemic such as Dr. Benjamin Rush, to visuals of Philadelphia from the time of Yellow Fever, as well as a list of all persons admitted to Bush Hill Hospital during the epidemic.
be diagnosed as a fever for the back lands of Pennsylvania. Time and research have identified the anopheles as the little devil that depopulated Philadelphia in 1793. From the perspective of a century and a half we may also see what induced the land fever of that decade.
- Norman B. Wilkerson
- 1953
This map records the intensity of the fever, with darker colored lines marking the streets with highest mortality. Yellow fever was most deadly near the northern wharves, where poorer people lived, and where Hell Town was located.
In 1793, Philadelphia was struck with the worst outbreak of Yellow Fever ever recorded in North America. The fever took a devastating toll on the city as nearly 5,000 individuals died, among them close to 400 African Americans.
This 1797 map still depicts a city with neighborhoods clustered closer to the waterfront, where mosquitoes could easily spread yellow fever among the people of Philadelphia. Philadelphia proved an ideal climate for the spread of yellow fever in the summer of 1793.
Apr 13, 2023 · Widespread disease seems to bring out the best and the worst in people. Despite periods of exclusion in their history, Quakers experienced the terror of yellow fever much as many other Philadelphians: as victims, fugitives, caregivers and problem-solvers.
The first major American yellow fever epidemic hit Philadelphia in July 1793 and peaked during the first weeks of October. Philadelphia, then the nation’s capital, was the most cosmopolitan city in the United States.
