Yellow Sydney R, F Block

yellow 1793 fever by: Sydney Redan F Block

1793 fever

One of the problems that came with the yellow fever is the lack of food.There was a lack of food because farmers were afraid to come into towns that have fever victims. They were afraid that they would get/catch “it”.The people that lived in Philadelphia relied on the farmers that came in daily for their food. In 1793 Philadelphia was a big and busy place with a population of more than a thousand people. The sudden fever outbreak startled the inhabitants of Philadelphia into a chaotic state.

There was a yellow fever outbreak in the french colonies and refugees came and they brought the fever with them. As the amount of deaths escalated there was a “travel ban” put in place to keep towns that had fever victims away. That also means that the farmers were kept out of Philadelphia. When the word about the fever outbreak passed through the towns that had farmers lived in the farmers fled.

REISE | PAGE 3

Can you imagine waking up in the morning to find your parents throwing up blood and bad smelling black liquid?During the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 half of Philadelphia's population was wiped out, or fled to the country where the air was cleaner. They fled there because they thought it was an air contamination that was getting people sick and the country air was cleaner.The yellow fever epidemic of 1793 was a very hard time for children because of the lack of food, insufficient knowledge how the fever was spread, and the lack of safe houses.

Lack of food

the ades aegypti mosquito is the primary giver of yellow fever

So because the residents of Philadelphia didn’t have a lasting supply of food it was hard to feed more than one family member, because of that the adults wouldn’t eat so their children could but then the adults would die of starvation.

medication/knowledge

REISE | PAGE 4

this is a update on the fever in Salem.

Another reason it was hard to be growing up at that time is that the doctors didn’t know how the fever was spread. Since nobody knew that the fever was spread by mosquitoes they had no way to tell the people of how to stay protected.When the doctors don’t know how to cure a new disease people start to get nervous. When people start to make things up the stories get more and more far fetched.

Then people begin to believe the things that are fake not true.Gossip spreads fast so when people found out that the doctors didn’t know of a cure things got a bit out of hand.

When you don’t know something you ask around so that is what they did, because of that they got some exaggerated answers.Because of that they had no sufficient knowledge of how the fever was spread.

Safe houses

REISE | PAGEÂ 4

Along with no food and not enough knowledge the children of Philadelphia did not have enough safe houses or orphanages.That means that the orphan rate was going up and the spaces in orphanages was going down. Children that were too old to be an orphan worked in the orphanages.

Towards the end of the epidemic young children were safer on the streets than in an orphan house.That means the orphan house was a last resort for a lot of people that could let young children into their houses.

Did you know that the residents of Philadelphia at that time didn't think that people of color could get the fever?***

So because the streets were safer most children that were left on the streets didn’t survive much longer that they would have in the orphanage. When you are on the streets you don’t have any food to live on so you can’t survive for very long.Because of that most people and many of them being children weren’t safe or healthy.

That is why it was hard for children mostly because there wasn’t enough food or sufficient knowledge on how it was spread and the lack of space in orphanages.It was rough to be younger than 14 at that time especially if you were younger than 2 years old. Would you like to be a young child during the yellow fever outbreak of 1793?

REISE | PAGE 4

a comparison of yellow fever in Africa and the US

graph of the fever occurrences

REISE | PAGEÂ 4

***they never figured out that the fever was spread by mosquitos

Works Cited Anderson, Laurie Halse. Fever 1793. New York: Simon & Schuster for Young Readers, 2002. Print.

REISE | PAGEÂ 5