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Jun 11, 2020 · Bettmann Archive/Getty Images. Arch Street Wharf in Philadelphia, where some of the first cases were identified. At the time, no one knew what caused yellow fever, or how it spread. Some thought it...
- Sarah Pruitt
Yellow fever is known for bringing on a characteristic yellow tinge to the eyes and skin, and for the terrible “black vomit” caused by bleeding into the stomach. Known today to be spread by infected mosquitoes, yellow fever was long believed to be a miasmatic disease originating in rotting vegetable matter and other putrefying filth, and ...
During the 1793 Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia, 5,000 or more people were listed in the register of deaths between August 1 and November 9. The vast majority of them died of yellow fever , making the epidemic in the city of 50,000 people one of the most severe in United States history.
The yellow fever epidemic of 1793 struck during the summer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the highest fatalities in the United States were recorded. The disease probably was brought by refugees and mosquitoes on ships from Saint-Domingue. It rapidly spread in the port city, in the crowded blocks along the Delaware River. About 5,000 ...
1. Philadelphia; August-November 1793; approximately 5,000 dead. This outbreak killed about 10% of the city's population, and thousands more fled, including an infected Alexander Hamilton...
Home. Philadelphia Under Siege: The Yellow Fever of 1793. By Ryan P. Langton. Spring 2022. County: Philadelphia. In early August 1793, lodgers at the North Water Street boardinghouse of Richard Denny fell violently ill.
