Fever 1793 By Laurie Halse Anderson

Fever 1793 was written by Laurie Halse Anderson in 2000. It was published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers in 2000 in New York City. This book is about a young girl who must overcome challenging obstacles during a horrible epidemic in her hometown of Philadelphia. The author’s purpose throughout this book is to help the reader understand the harsh conditions people were forced to live in during the time of the Yellow Fever while telling an entertaining story about a brave and innocent young girl named Matilda Cook. The main themes throughout the book are death, family, and suffering. Matilda and her closest companions go through heart wrenching experiences, causing them to become quite familiar with the above mentioned themes.

It describes the symptoms of the fever as having yellow eyes, being extremely cold all the time, having a very high fever, coughing up blood, and of course, being very contagious. According to “The Yellow Fever Epidemic of Philadelphia, 1793”, “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…and most believed the fever to be contagious.” Therefore, the author of Fever 1793 was very accurate when describing the effects of the Yellow Fever. The book also mentions how pints and pints of blood were drawn from fever patients in order to try to rid their body of infection. In reality, this was a very common procedure performed by a popular physician, Dr, Benjamin Rush, to help cure those infected with the fever (“The Yellow Fever Epidemic of Philadelphia, 1793”). The book explains how by the end of the epidemic over 4,000 people from Philadelphia had died and thousands of others had fled to the country. “The epidemic depopulated Philadelphia: 5,000 out of a population of 45,000 died, and chronicler Mathew Carey estimated that another 17,000 fled” (“The Yellow Fever Epidemic of Philadelphia, 1793”). Anderson was off by just a few thousand deaths and number of people who actually fled. In general, Anderson’s descriptions and explanations for the Yellow Fever were very accurate and

According to “The Free African Society”, however, the main priority of this organization was to provide comfort and strength for recently freed blacks, so they would one day be able to become important leaders in their town. It was not until after the fever broke out and hundreds of people died that the Free African Society began reaching out to helpless white and black families. Anderson was accurate when saying, “The Africans of Philadelphia have cared for thousands of people without taking notice of color” (p. 176). The society was formed by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones in 1786 as a place where African Americans could gather to pray and discuss important issues within the community (“The Free African Society”). Anderson does a fairly decent job at describing the Free African Society, but she does not go into as much detail as she should in order to make sure the reader completely understands the intentions of the