ipl-logo

1870s Yellow Fever In Memphis

657 Words3 Pages

The 1870s Yellow Fever Epidemics in Memphis
Yellow fever originated in West Africa and was believed to be transported by slave ships although no one really knows. Being an African born disease, it thrives in hot wet weather typically where mosquitos breed. Sky high fever, pounding headache, cramping muscle aches, particularly in your back and knees, sensitivity to light, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, dizziness, red eyes. These are all symptoms of the unforgiveable Yellow Fever. Memphis hasn’t always been a go to place for tourists and the occasional vacationer. During the 1780’s, Memphis used to be very swampy and known at one time as the most fowl smelling city on Earth. The city had open sewers scattered across the landscape which added to the unpleasant odor and provided the perfect breeding ground for mosquitos. The deadly yellow fever didn’t start in Memphis though. The first place to be infected happen to be the New York-Philadelphia area. The disease didn’t make its way south until 1828. New Orleans was the first southern city to be plagued with the Yellow Fever and it …show more content…

The disease worked its way up from New Orleans infecting and killing many on its way. When it finally arrived to Memphis, the entire city was going through reconstruction and was becoming the epicenter of tourists and merchants trying to make a living. Memphis soon became increasingly over populated only feeding the monster and increasing the devastation that would be caused by the yellow fever. This was a confusing period for everyone including doctors and other medical professionals. They couldn’t distinguish where the disease came from or how they could extinguish the fire that was too big to stop it. The epidemic caused panic and challenged the state and local governments of Tennessee to an all-time high and force them to establish changes to it that are still in effect

Show More
Related
401 Words | 2 Pages

Has an ordinary cold ever came out of nowhere and infected you, your friends and your family. This is the case for 14 year old Matilda Cook in Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson but this is not an ordinary cold, it is a raging yellow fever outbreak in the United States capitol Philadelphia (the capitol is later moved to its current location Washington D.C.). Matilda’s personality was altered a great amount over the course of the outbreak for example she started to become a more responsible worker and she was treated and respected more like a grown adult.

Read More
65 Words | 1 Pages

The American-French Doctors in Philadelphia, 1793, tried to treat yellow fever. Foreign ships brought the deadly infected mosquitoes to America. People got this disease by blood to blood contact, which is when an infected mosquito bites someone, and then bites another. Now, because of this blood to blood contact, over 4000 people died. So now, let 's get to the facts.

Read More
650 Words | 3 Pages

(13) First, it was the start of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. Second, Matilda knew Polly pretty well, as a servant and a friend. To lose her first must have been

Read More
427 Words | 2 Pages

Fever Essay History has many amazing events. The Revolutionary War is a great example of one. Another interesting event of history is the yellow fever epidemic which occurred in Philadelphia in 1793. In the book Fever by Laurie Halse Anderson, the author details Mathilda Cook’s personal journey from a typical teen into a young adult while the Yellow Fever epidemic devastates everything around her.

Read More
1579 Words | 7 Pages

Yellow fever affected more than the town of Philadelphia in the novel. It hit in more than one way as well it was also spread from the animals that had thrived through the time the economy was bad. Rats and roaches roamed the streets in large numbers and transmitted it to house animals who in turn gave it to their

Read More
285 Words | 2 Pages

The Antebellum South had a seldom amount of doctors. Unfortunate for both slaves and their owners of this area, they lived in the marshland region, a place where mosquitoes carrying deadly diseases typically lived. Mosquitoes often spread these diseases, killing many slaves (Sullivan 1). The doctors had scarce knowledge about the deadly disease of the south and could do little to prevent the cause or spread of these illnesses. One of the suspected diseases or illnesses that the physicians claimed to harm the slaves was malnourishment.

Read More
802 Words | 4 Pages

During the antebellum period it was not yet known that microorganisms were the cause of the outbreaks. The people did not understand that poor hygiene was the cause of the epidemic. They did, however, begin to try and keep the streets and the cities cleaner, but were not sure it would help. The people started to distrust doctors and would flee the city in hopes of outrunning the epidemics. It did not always work and they would catch it

Read More
177 Words | 1 Pages

No one knew why. After a few months they found out it was called yellow fever because of the mosquitoes that were carrying the disease. The people decided to take action. They found out that they die in cold weather. So they got cold oil or water and sprayed it in all of the grass dry or wet and they did that every day for about a week and eventuly they killed every last one of them.

Read More
825 Words | 4 Pages

In the story, it states: “The sun wasn’t made of fire, it was a monstrous snowball. My teeth clattered together,. What was wrong with me?” and, “My sheets and shift were soaked through with sweat, blood, and the foul-smelling black substance that marked a victim of yellow fever.” (p94, 98) Of course, the various situations Mattie gets in to advance the plot are caused by yellow fever, whether that be her and her family getting sick or her grandfather dying.

Read More
647 Words | 3 Pages

Over 5,000 people died of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. In the book Fever 1973 by Laurie Halse Anderson, Mattie’s family suffered from the Yellow Fever Epidemic. Many people died because of it but unfortunately some still didn’t believe that it was the Fever. Some even had the symptoms but blew it off saying they were just tired. Some blamed it on the heat, others on the Domingan Refugees.

Read More
811 Words | 4 Pages

I know this because an article says,”The disease gets its name from the jaundiced eyes and skin of the victims. Other symptoms include fever, headache, and "black vomit" caused by bleeding into the stomach.” (History Resources). This impacts Philadelphia because of how many deaths, pain and also the sickness being sort of unknown which made the illness very confusing, and very dangerous to everyone because at first they had no cure. Dr. Currie, a pretty well known doctor that was in Philadelphia in 1793, had thought that the cause of the disease was a foul smell that was coming from the docs, and thought that the disease was not Yellow Fever.

Read More
1806 Words | 8 Pages

One of the first important issues that Crosby discusses in her the book is the transmission and spread of yellow fever throughout the country. The epidemic started advancing quickly as countries relied and profited from selling and trading goods from West Africa. A big part of that theory is that Africa had the perfect climate for mosquitos to breed. Yellow fever requires warm weather to multiply and succeeds in hot, wet summers when mosquitoes can breed easily. Steamboats used to transport slaves

Read More
554 Words | 3 Pages

In 1793, Philadelphia, the capital of the United States as well as the country’s most populated city, was ravaged by yellow fever. The lack of public health policies at this time intensified the disease into a full on epidemic. According to Jan Golinski in her article Debating The Atmospheric Constitution: Yellow Fever And The American Climate, the epidemic caused the American people to consider why the virus was able to spread so easily. Citizens eventually came to blame the outbreak on how unsanitary the urban area of Philadelphia was at the time.

Read More
206 Words | 1 Pages

The first yellow fever outbreaks in the United States occurred in late 1690s. Nearly 100 years later, in the late summer of 1793, refugees from a yellow fever epidemic in the Caribbean fled to Philadelphia. Within weeks, people throughout the city were experiencing symptoms. By the middle of October, 100 people were dying from the virus every day. Philadelphia was also known as the seat of the United States government at the time, but federal authorities simply evacuated the city in face of the raging epidemic.

Read More
699 Words | 3 Pages

Jacob Johnson and Jude Theibert Mrs. Beckett ELA 7 1 February 2023 Yellow Fever Informational Essay (Hook) In the recent ebola outbreak of 2019, nearly 29 thousand people died. Similar to how ebola affected many people in a bad way, a disease that once. The ebola virus created fevers, severe headaches and muscle and joint pain, Gastrointestinal symptoms including abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting, and loss of appetite.

Read More

More about 1870s Yellow Fever In Memphis

Related Topics

Open Document