'We live in the midst of death': Yellow fever, moral economy, and public health in Philadelphia, 1793--1805

摘要

This dissertation is a study of the yellow fever epidemics that struck Philadelphia in the 1790s and early 1800s. The study explores the effects of repeated epidemic disease on the social structure and political economy of early national Philadelphia. Recent interest in Philadelphia's yellow fever outbreaks has focused solely on the 1793 epidemic. By focusing on the impact of this one infestation, current studies miss the full impact of endemic disease on Philadelphia society over the course of more than a decade. While the 1793 outbreak devastated the lives of Philadelphians, especially the laboring poor, this was not the only visit from "the malignant fever" in the early national period. Between 1793 and 1805, yellow fever visited Philadelphia eight times, each time causing massive evacuation of the city, primarily by the elite, and death and suffering for those left behind.;Because it invaded every area of society, the fever, whether in Philadelphia or neighboring cities, dominated public policy in everything from trade to health. By examining newspaper accounts, personal letters, city records, and medical literature, this dissertation shows that the yellow fever outbreaks fundamentally changed Philadelphia on both a political and social level. The fever, and the social chaos that accompanied it, threatened the order and stability of early national Philadelphia as much as did the Whiskey Rebels or the perceived threat of war with France. Governmental responses included the establishment of a Board of Health with the powers to forcibly remove the sick from their homes, to close neighborhoods, and to close the port of Philadelphia to trade. Lower sorts, reacting to increasing governmental control over their lives, rejected much of the new health policy---accepting only those portions they truly benefited from. Finally, facing growing oppression, lower-sort Philadelphians increasingly turned toward the Democratic Republicans, viewing them as the party most likely to listen to their needs. However, rejecting health policies developed by Federalist-dominated organizations afforded lower-sort Philadelphians some measure of political participation in a system that generally excluded them.