Blog 2: Epidemic in Philly

I chose to look back all the way to the issues of 1793. Interestingly enough, I found the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 which took place in Philadelphia and is the largest epidemic in the history of the United States. This was around the time that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were stationed in Philadelphia, and they, along with 20,000 others fled to the countryside when death rates reached nearly 5000 people. At this time, Benjamin Rush believed that blacks could not contract the disease, so they were commissioned to care for the sick as nurses, drivers, and grave diggers. This belief, however, was obviously proved wrong as 240 blacks died of the fever.

Although there was not much information offered on this topic and it occurred quite a long time ago, the location of it surprises me that I never learned about it in class or had it at least mentioned at some point.