In the year 1793, Philadelphia was still the capital of Pennsylvania as well as the capital of the newly founded United States of America. It was the largest city in North America at the time and like many large cities both back then and now, it had a diverse population. It was home to many religious movements and sects as well as home to ever growing community of free Black Americans — more than any other city in Revolutionary War America. While yellow fever as a disease was no stranger to the city of Philadelphia, the ferocity with which it struck in the summer and fall of 1793 sent the city into a state of panic and fear.

Today, we are joined in conversation with Michael Idriss, the African American Interpretive Fellow at Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution, to discuss the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. Michael has spent a great deal of his career interacting with, interpreting, and educating others on the history of Philadelphia with an emphasis on the experiences of the African diaspora in Philadelphia’s story as well as the greater American story. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in History with a minor in African American Studies from Temple University. In addition to his experience as a tour guide and director in Philadelphia’s Historical District, Michael served as the Educational Consultant at Christ Church, Philadelphia — a church that was built in 1695 as a part of the Anglican Church. Christ Church is also notable as fifteen signatories of the Declaration of Independence as well as the First President himself, George Washington, attended services there.

Micheal Idriss, African American Interpretive Fellow at Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution, joins Historic America to give insight into the 1793 epidemic and how it impacted Philadelphia as a whole. — Michael Idriss, African American Interpretive Fellow at Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution, joins Historic America to give insight into the 1793 epidemic and how it impacted Philadelphia as a whole.

During our conversation regarding Philadelphia’s 1793 epidemic, we first asked Michael: what exactly was the Yellow Fever Epidemic? How did it start and who did it impact?

His answer: To begin with Philadelphia in particular, there were a lot of different outbreaks that would take place in a city like this. It was so populated for the mid 1750s as it was the most populated city in the North American colonies. The population was nothing compared to European cities however. When you think about the size of London, which at the time had a couple million people, versus Philadelphia with its population of 50,000 people, the difference between the two is similar to that of Scranton, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. It would have been a lot different as on scale. You also have to account for how dirty the city was, as it wasn't exactly a city that was clean all the time due to the work that people did as well as the open markets. Sanitation isn't what we think of when we think of 1750s Philadelphia, so it was a breeding ground for different outbreaks of cholera, smallpox, and other maladies of that era. What makes yellow fever that much more potent was that it came from somewhere else. It came from French refugees coming to the city after or in these seeds of the Haitian Revolution. In 1792, French refugees started to come into Philadelphia as the seeds of the Haitian Revolution are starting to spread on Saint-Domingue. Some of those people on the ships over didn’t realize the mosquitoes on board with them carried yellow fever. It might have taken six to eight weeks for those ships to get to Philadelphia and in that time the mosquitoes had mutated on the ship. By the time it got to the pier, considering that the ports here were very busy ports as they are bustling import and export centers, it compounded in that area. Many people lived in the docks community and thus yellow fever was able to spread like wildfire, especially among the French refugees who were getting off the boats, but also to the dock workers, so that's how it really begins to impact the city. It’s a horrific ailment. Your skin turns yellow due to bilirubin, you get jaundice, you bleed from your eyes, nose, and gums, and you are sweating profusely. These symptoms really brought out the fear in the people of Philadelphia’s docks because family members were seeing their loved ones passing away very brutally.

Q: Did many people evacuate the city due to the fear of getting sick? What happened to those who were infected? And what exactly was it like to live in an epidemic such as this in the year 1793?

A: Similarly to the COVID outbreak now, those that were in cities like New York were more likely to be affluent and thus, they had a second home to go to in more of a rural community. It’s the same thing that people did in Philadelphia during the outbreak in 1793. If you had a summering home and had the means, you went out there to get out of the bubble or the epicenter of yellow fever. Some individuals, if they were able to do that, ended up leaving the outbreak center but if you didn't have that option, you were left to fester in your dwelling. There was not much upward mobility for you to be able to just go and leave to other cities. Some cities even prohibited people from Philadelphia to go into their areas, cities such as Baltimore as well as others up and down the East Coast. They heard about what was going on in Philadelphia from letters and other correspondence, so slowly but surely they began to buffer, quarantine, and keep people from coming to their cities. The state and federal government were suspended as well. Imagine, you're in the nation's capital, you've only been the capital for a little under three years, since it's moved from New York in 1790, and you see your state government shutdown and then you see the federal government flee. Washington forgets to even take some of his papers with him as he flees out of Philadelphia and goes back to Mount Vernon. Everything escalated very quickly and you can only imagine the fear that might have come to the people of Philadelphia upon seeing the highest level of government leave you alone in an infected city.

Benjamin Rush, one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, played a key role in Philadelphia’s civic history as well as the American field of medicine. He was a leading doctor during his time and is additionally recognized as the "fat… — Benjamin Rush, one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, played a key role in Philadelphia’s civic history as well as the American field of medicine. He was a leading doctor during his time and is additionally recognized as the "father of American psychiatry."

Q: What were some of the treatments used to try to cure those who had yellow fever?

A: There were snake oil salesmen with false advertisements of “this will cure you of this.” There were notions of holding vinegar up to your nose, people were keeping garlic in their pockets and chewing it regularly because they thought offensive odors would repel the disease. There was even thoughts that yellow fever came because of bad coffee that had rotted on the ports of Philadelphia on the banks of the Delaware River. It left a really putrid odor in the air. The spring and summer 1793 was also a record hot, so the smells and the putrid air naturally led to a feeling of sickness. There were also reports that wild pigeons had been dying off in the weeks leading up to the outbreak, so it was almost felt like there was death in the air. When it comes to actual treatments, again people thought certain odors would help with purification. People were laying down lye and vinegar, or hanging fragrant items in their door jambs and door frames. When you start talking about actual medical procurements, now you're talking about a time in American history where the doctor came to you. You didn't go to hospitals as those were places you went to die. In 1751, Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond helped to found Pennsylvania Hospital. They were hoping to change perceptions of medical care and Benjamin Rush will also play a huge role in that as well. Benjamin Rush’s treatments weren't exactly on par with what some of his methodology was, especially when you talk about mental health. There were two doctors, Benjamin Rush and a French doctor named William Currie. Now, Rush is very well known in Philadelphia and Currie is a French doctor. Although Currie has some expertise, but he's not as well known in the colonies as Rush is. When Rush says something, people listen. On the other hand with Currie, he had to really work to get people to hear what he was saying. There were some other folks like Alexander Hamilton who did understand what Currie was talking about and were hoping to convince Rush to listen to him. However, one of the things about Benjamin Rush was that he could be a little arrogant and he wasn’t trying to hear what this young doctor had to say. Rush believed in treatment such as bloodletting. This was a period of time too where there was still a balance between medieval conceptions of medicine with some semblance of scientific practices in the medical field. There was this thought that the body had fluids or humors, and if the fluids were off balance in the body, such as mucous, blood, all these different things then it would cause illness. The logic was that, if you blood let, then the person would be able to recuperate because you've let the ill blood out of their system. This is not exactly how this works and a lot of people ended up dying because they lost too much blood. For example, they weren't able to stop the bleeding or they were already too weak from yellow fever to really recuperate. It was considered very aggressive and Rush did it on himself when he got yellow fever. Another common treatment was drinking mercury to make you vomit, as a way of releasing from the body what was thought to be bad such as bile, vomit, and other things. They have no idea of the mosquitos transmitting the disease or any conceptions of modern germ theory, nor will they for another hundred years. It wasn’t until the early 1900s that they began to think about mosquitoes potentially carrying a disease like yellow fever. William Currie, on the other hand, aligns more with treatment that you would see today such as fluids, rest, teas, cool baths, limiting overeating, limiting spirits or alcohol, and instead just trying to let the body naturally calm itself and stay relaxed. That clash saw many people end up taking Rush’s advice instead of Currie’s.

Absalom Jones was another one of Philadelphia’s important civic leaders who played a key role in the handling of the 1793 epidemic. Jones was also a religious leader and a leading figure in Philadelphia’s free Black community. He co-founded the Free… — Absalom Jones was another one of Philadelphia’s important civic leaders who played a key role in the handling of the 1793 epidemic. Jones was also a religious leader and a leading figure in Philadelphia’s free Black community. He co-founded the Free African Society in 1787 alongside Richard Allen.

Q: Who were Absalom Jones and Benjamin Rush, who we briefly discussed, and how were they connected to the Yellow Fever Epidemic in Philadelphia?

A: So they're interesting because Rush is one year older than Jones. Rush was born in 1745 just outside of Philadelphia and Jones was born in Delaware in 1716, enslaved to a member of the Wynkoop family. He was transferred from the original owner to his son Benjamin, who moved to Philadelphia in the 1760s to become a merchant in the city. He opened up a store and he started to attend St. Peter's Church becoming a member of the vestry there. Absalom Jones worked as an enslaved person at the store, but also did work within the church as well. He was considered really smart and was someone who found a religious calling as well. He moved through the Episcopal Church and connected with Richard Allen later in his life. They will become really seasoned in religious schooling. Rush and Jones share some things in common. They both were taught under a man named Anthony Benezet. He is a French-Quaker who moves to Philadelphia as a young man and is unsuccessful at first, but becomes really renowned as a Quaker teacher. A lot of prominent Philadelphians would send their children to his Quaker school. Benezet was also someone who saw people of African descent as being much more intelligent than more popular beliefs to the contrary during this time. In the 1750s, he was rallying the Quaker community to give up the institution of slavery. He is someone that served as a mentor to both Absalom Jones and Benjamin Rush. In the meantime, Rush went off to Scotland and continued his medical training in Edinburgh. He was also very intelligent and really got into the field of medicine. He connected with Benjamin Franklin when he was overseas and really became a founding father in a lot of respects. Additionally, he's a founding father that is also connected to the beliefs of mental health as well as with the African American community in Philadelphia, whether free or enslaved. Rush was unlike a lot of people of his time, even with regards to someone like Benjamin Franklin who later in his life worked for the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, who might be more hierarchical in telling people what to do. Rush was meeting people evenly, building relationships with people like Absalom Jones and Richard Allen as they set up the Free African Society in 1787. Philadelphia is this union city of many different Protestant religions, William Penn’s formation of Presbyterians, Anglicans, and Methodists, so Rush jumps around and dabbles in these different disciplines. This also allows him to be able to work in these different communities. As a doctor, he is trying to meet people where they are and look at them as equals. Rush really puts his money where his mouth is and even during the height of the yellow fever epidemic, he is helping Absalom Jones build the church tthe St.Thomas Episcopal Church, which is still part of the city to this day. It’s in a different section of the city but it's a church that Benjamin Rush really put money and effort towards. There was an awesome ceremonial dinner for a raising of the church. Guests went to a park, white people served Black guests, and the white guests were served by Black servants. It was like a cultural exchange where people were able to share experiences and break bread. They were able to have a real understanding of each other. They write about how special a moment this is in August of 1793. Even during the height of yellow fever, Rush was still civically conscious enough to be linked up with Black leaders in Philadelphia like Absalom Jones.

Richard Allen, played a pivotal role in the response towards the 1793 outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia alongside Absalom Jones and Benjamin Rush. As an important religious leader within Philadelphia’s Black community, Allen founded the first… — Richard Allen, played a pivotal role in the response towards the 1793 outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia alongside Absalom Jones and Benjamin Rush. As an important religious leader within Philadelphia’s Black community, Allen founded the first independent Black denomination in the United States when he created the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The first church within this denomination opened in Philadelphia.

Q: I read that Benjamin Rush asked the African American community in Philadelphia to help treat those infected with yellow fever because he believed Black people were immune to the disease. Did he really believe this to be true? If so, what made him think this?

A: What's interesting is, there's segregation of the black population in Philadelphia. Philadelphia had the largest population of free people of African descent than any other city in the colonies. It was the central base for free Black people who were looking to get on their feet, so that's one of the reasons why Absalom Jones and the Methodist preacher Richard Allen worked and preached together at this church St George's in Old City Philadelphia. They actually got booted out of St George's, which is the reason why they decided to open up their respective churches. There was this notion that, because people of African descent weren’t dying as rapidly as the white population, they must be immune to the disease. They just weren't in the depth of the same spaces as white Philadelphians. The population of Black people, both free and enslaved, in Philadelphia at this time was relatively small compared to the 50,000 or so total people that are in the city. You're talking about at least 500 but under 1,000 free people of African descent. Then you’re looking at maybe another 2,500-3,500 enslaved people. We don't know the exact death records between the white and Black populations in the city. At this time history, they did not recorded the deaths of people of African descent in the same way as the deaths of white people. Thus, Rush had this notion that they must be immune to it or that they potentially came into contact with the disease in the seasoning stations in the Caribbean before coming to Philadelphia. People like Absalom Jones and Richard Allen were born in Delaware and Philadelphia, so Rush reasoned that while they might have genetic chains to the Caribbean, they were more familiar with the Mid-Atlantic climate. To Rush, this meant that they were not immune and did not have antibodies against the disease as they had never had it. In the end however, it was a fallacy. Rush just assumed these things and this was a real detriment on his part because he goes to Absalom Jones and Richard Allen and he's like, “hey since you guys are potentially immune to this” or that's what he's thinking, you have an obligation to go out, make sure that people are taken care of, that we bury the dead, tend to the sick, while we find a way to kind of get out of this. Jones and Allen, they have to think. it’s been really hard for them to make it out on their own and now they have to make a decision of, “should we do this or not should we help Benjamin” and they do. I love how they think of it. They say, “how can we integrate ourselves to this nation” and they're thinking of service as in, “we’re going to perform these deeds and we’re going to meet these people in their time of misery and help them out.” They organize women to go into the homes and tend to people. For example, a mother died of yellow fever, the husband was sick, and the kids were watching their family fall apart. Who was going to help them with that transition? It was the African American community that stepped in. The men were burying the dead and getting wagons to transport them. The cemeteries were completely packed to the point where they had to do mass burials, moving people all around the city, and having carts come and bring out the dead. It was just a horrible scene. That’s how Jones and Allen found themselves deciding to help out.

Q: Did leaders such as Absalom Jones help the African American community believe that staying and helping the people of Philadelphia was the right decision? Did this event also bring more people into the church?

A: Yes, there were Methodists, Moravian's, and other religious types that said that this was brought on by vice and that this is God's way of punishing Philadelphia. It depends on what denomination as different ones were more forceful on the idea of sin and society when thinking about what had happened in Philadelphia. I think the Black church would have been something of interest to Black Philadelphians. It's one thing to go to the church that your master is sending you to go and it is another completely to have your own space. The Black church was one of the first independent entities for people of African descent in America. That’s why it is such a pivotal space in America as it was used to uplift the community as well as for spirituality, education, and vocational skills. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones both did other work: they were strong bricklayers, both of them taking odd jobs and things like that. They were multifaceted people. They were artisans as much as they were religious. They would have gotten a following for those that were able to join their particular congregations. There was an Irish writer and his shop was between the 4th and 3rd on Market Street near Benjamin Franklin’s Post Office. This was Matthew Carey’s newspaper. He wrote a scathing piece that was against the Black community after the yellow fever began to move away. The pamphlet was called, The Short Account of the Malignant Fever. He basically said that people like Jones and Allen, and especially black women, were raising prices in order to try to have a bidding war between white families for their services. He wrote this as if to say that the Black community was trying to gain the system in order to make money off this epidemic that had ripped through through the city. It was a real slander. It upset Allen and Jones so much that they wrote the first published protest pamphlet of African Americans. I love this name. It's called: A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black People During the Awful Calamity in Philadelphia in the Year 1793.

Matthew Carey, an Irish-American publisher who had fled Philadelphia during the outbreak of yellow fever, later printed this pamphlet in which he accused Philadelphia’s Black community of attempting to profit off the epidemic. Black leaders such as … — Matthew Carey, an Irish-American publisher who had fled Philadelphia during the outbreak of yellow fever, later printed this pamphlet in which he accused Philadelphia’s Black community of attempting to profit off the epidemic. Black leaders such as Absalom Jones and Richard Allen spoke out against the pamphlet, later publishing a rebuttal to Carey’s claims.

They said, “look you are going to try to slander our name, this is what we did, Benjamin Rush asked us to do this. Matthew Clarkson, the mayor of Philadelphia, asked us to do this.” They made their case and people couldn't say that they didn't help the city of Philadelphia when it needed help the most, notably after the president fled the city. I just think it's an excellent analysis of what was also going to happen later in Philadelphia. Matthew Carey was Irish-American and in the 1790s, Philadelphia was starting to see an influx of Irish immigrants in the city. People like Absalom Jones and Richard Allen are working through Benjamin Rush and others trying to get the stories of Black Americans out into mainstream America. Then you have an Irish immigrant or a descendent of Irish immigrants, coming to the United States, and they were also worried about where they are going to find their place within mainstream America. This was going to pitting the Irish community versus the African American community for jobs and other resources coming out of the Revolutionary Era. That's going to end up being a powder keg later moving into the Antebellum Era up into the Civil War. Nativist groups are going to start going after the Irish and then the Irish are going to start going after African American community because they are all competing for scarce resources. This is a precursor to other events that are going to happen: the bombings of churches and bombings of places where abolitionists were meeting. It really becomes a breeding ground for resentment and the backlash against the people of African descent for the works that they'd done around the Revolutionary War.

A: Coming out of the the Yellow Fever Epidemic, what happens to the African American community?

Q: They become more insular. They begin to build their own lane in Philadelphia called the 7th Ward. It is where Mother Bethel Church is going to be, of which Richard Allen becomes the parishioner. Absalom Jones becomes the head of St. Thomas's Church. The Anglican Church is going to change to become the Episcopal Church, so he wants to stay as Episcopalian. He differs from Allen on those teachings, as Allen prefers to be a Methodist. They had their religious differences, but they both see the connections that they need to be built within Philadelphia. They bound themselves together and really helped propel the Black population in Philadelphia moving into the 1800s.

Founded in 1792 by Absalom Jones, Philadelphia’s African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas became the first Black Episcopal Church in the United States. To this day, it remains an important part of Philadelphia’s Black community.

Q: Are there any other interesting stories or facts you find interesting about this event that you would like to share?

A: One insight that I really like to tell people or ask people to consider is how the impact of slavery actually brought yellow fever to Philadelphia. The slave trade is taking place in Saint-Domingue, which is the wealthiest of the slave colonies at this time due to the sugar that is coming out of it. That sugar revolutionizes the world, but it's also incredibly brutally taxing to produce as there is the cutting of the sugarcane and the processing of it in these very hot factories. To think that the enslavement of the people to produce that sugar, the revolt by those same people into the hills of what is today Haiti, and the standoff that will lead to the full on Haitian Revolution where they will beat back even Napoleon later on is the catalyst of what ultimately brings the first instances of yellow fever to Philadelphia. The rich merchant Stephan Girard and other French merchants in Philadelphia heard about what was going on in Saint-Domingue and about these French refugees who were starting to come to Philadelphia along with some of their enslaved peoples on these vessels. These vessels that came to Philadelphia brought the yellow fever with them. In this roundabout way, slavery is responsible for the yellow fever epidemic. When you think about it like it really lets you know just how damaging the impact of this was and how debilitating it was all over.

Q: Can you give us some more information on the yellow fever pandemic and its similarities to the current pandemic?

A: It really set the standard for how countries and governments react or don’t react. We think we have modernized and would react so differently today, but when it happens it’s this challenge of who believes the cures. The same thing happened here. People were staying away from each other. People were walking in the middle of the street as opposed to walking on the sidewalk because you didn't want to be too close to the door of someone who had yellow fever. The markets shut down and they weren't bringing food in. There was more crime in the city. When you hear all these things happening today, here in Philadelphia crime is up due to the pandemic as so many people are home, so many people don't have jobs and people bought a ton of guns before the pandemic really started and into it. There's all this social causation from an incident like this.

If you ever find yourself in Philadelphia, make sure to stop by the Museum of the American Revolution! Check out their schedule of events here. If you are not able to make it to Philadelphia in person, you can still enjoy the virtual exhibits the museum has to offer, including a virtual tour, here. You can also stay updated on the work of the museum through their social media on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

A Conversation with Michael Idriss on the 1793 Philadelphia Yellow Fever Epidemic

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