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This webpage is from historian Bob Arnebeck's website that is no longer published, and is reprinted here, in its entirety, with his permission. A small amount of editing has been done to simplify vocabulary for young readers and remove links to other pages on his website, as they are no longer published. by Bob Arnebeck Historical fiction is a great way to learn about the past, and better yet, to get a feel for the past. Going through a novel and pointing out things that could not have happened somewhat misses the point of historical fiction. In the midst of the epidemic surely many people had a view of what was happening that was wrong. Isolated and fearful, how could anyone know what was really going on? However, Philadelphians in the 1790s were careful to keep records of their city. Before the epidemic a directory was published that gave the name and occupation of every head of household, listing each house in each street. After the epidemic, a list of all the dead was compiled, and a street by street, alley by alley, tally of the fever deaths was made. During the epidemic, records were kept of admissions to Bush Hill hospital. Of course, we can't expect to find the fictional characters of Fever 1793 in these records. But we can get a better sense of the city at that time, even in regards to the most mundane things like the weather. On August 16, 1793, Matilda Cook woke up moaning about another hot August day. Not far away Benjamin Rittenhouse kept a daily record of the temperature, wind direction and sky conditions at 6 am and 3 pm. Benjamin Rush thought weather was so important in trying to solve the mystery of the spread of yellow fever that he included the weather records for all of 1793 in his memoir of the epidemic.  So we actually know what the weather was, and that on the 15th it had not been a typical hot August day. At 3 pm it was 75 degrees and cloudy. At 6am on August 16 it was 70 degrees. So Matilda might have moaned about another muggy day, and while at 3pm, the temperature rose to 83 degrees, the wind shifted and came out of the north. Now this is nitpicking! But maybe not, with the causes of disease more mysterious in those days, many people thought wind direction had a great deal to do with health and moods. The first dramatic event in Fever 1793 is the death of Polly
Not surprisingly in many letters written at that time, the yellow fever epidemic is a major topic. However, in those letters no special attention was paid to deaths in the city until the last ten days of August. Anderson makes the reason for this clear in her book: death by fever in August was not rare. Indeed, Polly Lear, the young wife of President Washington's personal secretary died suddenly in early August. Biographers have wondered in retrospect if she was not the earliest victim of yellow fever. However, from my reading of the letters, the illness most remarked on in mid-August was an epidemic of the flu which was spreading throughout the city and beyond. It was not fatal, only a nuisance to be wheezing and coughing in the summer. Some blamed the refugees for bringing that to the city. As late as August 22 Benjamin Rush was worrying more about the influenza epidemic than the few fever deaths in the city that came to his notice. During and after the epidemic several doctors made a meticulous investigation of the fever deaths in early August to determine which might been caused by yellow fever. The earliest deaths were, by general consensus, deemed to be the deaths of two recent immigrants from Europe on August 6 and 8. Until the end of August both deaths were considered a mystery. Of course, it is possible that the general public gathered at coffeehouses were more aware of what was going on than the doctors. But there's no evidence for that. Now, if someone like Polly had died suddenly on Third Street on August 15, would the doctors have included her among the early yellow fever victims? Probably not. Today the distance of three blocks seems insignificant. In the 18th century it was quite another matter, and rightly so. The Aedes aegypti mosquito which spreads yellow fever has a very limited range, under 500 feet. No one in the 18th century knew that but they were accustomed to the usual slow pace of the widening circle of infection as uninfected mosquitoes bit infected humans and thus became carriers of the disease giving it to the subsequent people they bit. What first caused the panic in Philadelphia in 1793 was not the counting up of the number of deaths all over the city, it was the clustering of deaths of citizens of the city (not recent immigrants or refugees) and the violent nature of those deaths along the wharves. Rush, who lived just beyond Third Street on Walnut was at first perplexed at an early death he witnessed on Second Street, until he quizzed the family and learned the victim has been near the wharves frequently. Not until the last week of August, about August 26th, did families on Third Street get a sense that the fever had reached their door. Anderson makes good use of this in explaining why the Cook Coffeehouse was popular. It was over six blocks from the wharves. However, given the way people seemed to think in 1790s, if there was any suspicion that Polly had died of yellow fever, perhaps catching it as she visited the market for groceries, the coffeehouse where she worked would not have been popular. Indeed, it's likely that a real Mrs. Cook would have not have spoken about Polly's death at all, at least not to her customers. We can get a pretty good gauge of when panic and flight would have definitely spread to the neighborhood of the Coffeehouse, because in real history, the Pennsylvania legislature was meeting nearby. They met on Wednesday August 28 and on Thursday adjourned until Monday. One reason was that, as one legislator wrote in his diary, "a young man by the name of Fry is lying dead at the west end of the State House." On Sunday evening, September 1, Dr. Rush was asked if it was wise for the legislature to convene. He advised against it and they met briefly only to adjourn and most members left the city. One more brief point about the early days of the epidemic: the first group of people to be identified as particular victims of the fever were "young" men like Fry. Benjamin Rush wrote to his wife on September 1, "This evening I fear I shall lose a son of Joseph Stansbury, a sweet youth, a little older than our Richard. It has been particularly fatal to young people. I rejoice that our boys escaped from the city." Richard Rush was 13 years old. I kept expecting Matilda's boy friend, Nathaniel, to get the fever and die. By the way, I knew that Nathaniel's situation was largely fictional because his master, Charles Wilson Peale, was actually not in Philadelphia during the early part of the epidemic. He was down in Delaware Bay collecting specimens of birds, and returned to the city on September 16. Such are the little facts that historians learn by reading the letters written at the time of the crisis. So a more likely scenario for Anderson's fictional heroine would have been for her to be unaware of any fevers until around August 22; then for her to hope, as many did, that the fever would not spread; and then for her to be in a panic when on August 28 her boyfriend Fry, who was the son of the doorkeeper of the State Assembly and thus a familiar figure in the neighborhood, died. The Visit to the Newspaper Office When characters in historical fiction visit the office of a real newspaper, the author quite lets historians in the door. Newspapers are one of the major sources used by historians, especially in studying events like an epidemic when things change day by day. Newspapers of that day combined several things, advertisements, of course, shipping news, letters from readers, copies of articles from out-of-town newspapers and foreign newspapers (often well out of date), and brief paragraphs written by the editor which often referred to current concerns. So we have a pretty good idea of what Andrew Brown, the newspaper editor whom Matilda's grandfather spoke with, was thinking during the epidemic. For example on August 31. Brown was "happy" to pass on "the assurances of several respectable physicians, that the progress of the infectious fever... is considerably abated." Matilda visited the office on Monday, September 2nd. What was on Brown's mind then? You can check copies of the Federal Gazette for that day. Mrs. Cook's Treatments Matilda's mother got sick on September 2 and is first treated by a "Mr." Rowley. Then she is treated again on September 6 by a Dr. Kerr. Typically in those days the mother or grandmother in a house was the first physician. Unlike today, all the remedies that doctors had were also available to anyone else. A coffeehouse, especially, might be expected to have a cabinet full of medicines for many complaints of the day, and someone like Mrs. Cook might be expected to know how to use them. Not having an adult female friend with her, when Mrs. Cook became incapacitated to the degree where she could not treat herself, her father-in-law would have to get the medical help needed. That he would get a layman with dirty hands who smelled of rum is rather unlikely. Eliza somewhat excuses that by explaining to Matilda that all the real doctors are busy down at the wharves where "they say bodies are piling up like firewood." Actually, doctors did not respond to emergencies in such a fashion. Their first loyalty was always to the families they served. A system was in place that made the services of younger doctors available to those who did not have a family physician. A likely candidate for the Cook family doctor would have been Dr. Wistar who lived and worked a block or so away until he got the fever. As it turns out Mr. Rowley prescribed a bath which was at that time one of the treatments for yellow fever. Baths were not common in Philadelphia in 1793, and giving a patient a bath every four hours was indeed drastic treatment. A more likely treatment, popular for a summer flu, was to soak the feet and sip camomile tea. When Dr. Kerr is summoned on September 6, Mrs. Cook is still unwell and lethargic. He says she has yellow fever and because her pulse is fast and strong, she must be bled because Dr. Rush advised such treatment. Actually on September 6, Rush had not yet advised bleeding. One French doctor was bleeding yellow fever patients at that time. Rush began bleeding, in part because of cooler weather, on the 8th. Rush's treatment was calomel and jalap to purge the patient, which Dr. Kerr also advised. Purging was a violent evacuation of the body, "either up or down," as they used to say in the 18th century, and then after that the purge, broths, teas and other soothing medicines were prescribed. Obviously, doctors and medicines over 200 years ago were deficient. But it is unfair to misrepresent how doctors dealt with a patient. Today, a doctor often relies on medical tests to diagnose an illness. In 1793, there were no tests, only symptoms. After the epidemic Rush tried to simplify diagnosis, using the pulse, and simplify treatment, using principally harsh medicines and bleeding. In his account of the epidemic, Rush went so far as to proclaim that training in the treatment of disease was "among the most essential articles of the knowledge and rights of man." He thought school children should be taught treatments for epidemic diseases. He claimed that, "All the knowledge that is necessary to discover when blood-letting is proper, might be taught to a boy or girl of twelve years old in a few hours." Well, obviously none of that came to pass, or else you'd be studying this chart from an old medical book!
Ironically modern medicine has used its superior knowledge of diseases to simplify its job. For example, if a doctor determines that a patient has a "viral infection" then there are no medicines prescribed, and the disease runs its course. Responding to symptoms only, eighteenth century doctors had a medicine for most everything. The modern approach can be risky if it leads to people taking virus too lightly. My four year old had a wicked bout of chicken pox, and at the time that was considered a mild childhood disease not warranting special treatment or even prevention. Then there were a lot more bad cases of chicken pox and that prompted doctors to develop a vaccine for that once benign childhood disease. If Dr. Kerr acted responsibly, he would have paid very close attention to the symptoms of his patient. Visiting the patient more than twice a day was not out of question. In the early days when he was developing his remedies, Rush saw to it that his apprentice doctors kept patients under observation. Certainly a member of the family would be instructed on how to observe the patient and what to give to respond to what was going on. For example, Mrs. Cook would have been given calomel and jalap frequently until she was purged. However, whether she had an accompanying sweat was also important; as was the condition of her eyes, skin color, appetite. The pity of the 18th century was not that doctors were distant and dogmatic. The doctors were solicitous and caring. The pity was that their medicines were largely ineffective. Mrs. Cook's trying to keep her daughter away was a common occurrence during the epidemic. The Flight From Philadelphia One of the great challenges of writing about the epidemic is how to describe what was happening in the city when it has been re-iterated over and over, since roughly August 30, 1793, that everyone who could fled from the city. Then there is another confusion. Much is made of armed guards keeping refugees from the epidemic away from outlying towns and villages. Then where did everyone leaving the city go? And there is another way to look at it. The fever struck at the end of August, when not a few people generally were away to escape the heat of the city. In the case of the Rush family, mother and two daughters left the city for a vacation well before word of the epidemic. With news of the epidemic they did not return until November rather than sometime in September. Meanwhile Rush sent his sons to relatives in the country in late August. I think we can take a common sense approach to this. Generally speaking, those in Philadelphia who had some relative or friend to go to just outside the city had no trouble leaving the city. Early in the epidemic, people probably could leave the city and find accommodations in country inns. When those became full, outlying towns had to fear an influx of possibly sick people with no place to go. In later epidemics the state solved this problem by creating tent cities for refugees near Philadelphia. At a certain point in 1793, roughly in the middle of September, it became widely held inside and outside the city that the city was so infected that anybody or anything coming from it had to be more or less quarantined. For that reason, many people in the city decided to stay so as not to embarrass friends and relatives. Surprisingly, we cannot boldly state that at least no one came into the city after the middle of September. Philadelphia was the center of the Quaker faith in America. At the end of September they always held their "Yearly Meeting" in Philadelphia. So, at the height of the epidemic, Quakers came to Philadelphia to discuss the affairs of their religious society. They thought not to do so would be trying to thwart God's will, for He might have visited the city with pestilence, in part, to test the faith of Quakers. All that said, I would suspect that if the Cooks had a definite place to go to, they could have easily made it to Gwyned. However, according to Mathew Carey's account of the epidemic, written in 1793, at some time during the crisis every road from the city was blocked. Bush Hill The controversy over the best way to treat yellow fever has become one of the most remembered aspects of the epidemic. From the first instant histories to those written in the past few years, the battle between the doctors has been recounted. Modern historians usually can't resist taking sides, always at the expense of Dr. Benjamin Rush's therapies of purging and bleeding. Rush was very much responsible for this because he did not suffer to apply his remedies in silence. He so trumpeted the virtues of purging and bleeding that doctors ever since have been accusing him of killing his patients. Fever 1793 comes down on the side of Rush's opponents. Unfortunately the critique of Rush is not strictly accurate. While Dr. Deveze did oppose Rush's approach, it was not bleeding per se that he objected to. In his memoir of the epidemic, Deveze describes how he frequently bled patients when their symptoms required it. How Deveze differed from Rush is that he did not take as much blood out at each bleeding, and he avoided violent purgatives. When patients' symptoms became grave, Deveze's extreme measure was to apply hot bricks to the extremities as well as greater uses of poultices to raise the skin in blisters. Applying those to the head required that the patient's hair by shaved off. In Fever 1793, Matilda has her illness between September 12 and 20. The courageous exploits of Stephen Girard in making the hospital a place where people wanted to come, actually began on September 12. It took him several days to arrange it so Dr. Deveze would be in charge. He came to the hospital on the 16th and had complete control of medical operations on the 21st when the young American doctors were relieved of their duties. By the way, running such a hospital was not a desirable job for doctors. Deveze replaced four young Americans who visited the hospital periodically. Hospitals in those days were only for the poor; the poor were the principal victims in any epidemic; hence, a doctor worried about his reputation, stayed away from fever hospitals! Dr. Deveze had been in the city a little over a month and it would have been difficult for him to attract patients. He was ideal for the hospital. He did soon get an American associate, Dr. Duffield. Matilda awoke as the nurse Mrs. Field tried to feed her. Going over my notes just now, I found an interesting note in the Minutes of the Committee in charge of the hospital. They passed a rule that a doctor would give food to each patient each day. This highlights the importance of food and drink in the treatment of disease at that time. (It also may have been a ploy to force the American doctors to resign. They insisted that after daily visits the nurses could be trusted to administer medicines!) Even Dr. Rush, who tried to simplify treatment, has particular ideas about which broths and drinks were best given to patients. Matilda leaves the hospital on September 24, twelve days after the on-set of her disease. Judging from the hospital records, other patients had similar experiences. However, others stayed in much longer. In 1793 there seemed to be three types of yellow fever cases: those who took it lightly and suffered some ill effects for a day or so; those who died within the first three days; and those who took a decided turn for the worse after the third day or so. Of course, many of the latter eventually died. Now, as I go through the collection of letters and memoirs I have about the epidemic, I'm curious if anyone who suffered the disease as severely as Matilda evidently did was able to be as active as she was in the rest of the book. The Return to Philadelphia During Matilda's cart ride to the orphanage Mrs. Bowles, a Quaker matron, told her "The streets of Philadelphia are more dangerous than your darkest nightmare. Fever victims lay in the gutters, thieves and wild men lurk on every corner. The markets have little food. You can't wander. If you are determined to return home with your grandfather, then you must stay there until the fever abates." Matilda does and her grandfather dies as a result of their fighting off two men trying to rob the coffeehouse. Most descriptions of the city at this time highlight how quiet and empty the city was. Many described the city as being much like it was on a very quiet Sunday. Remarkably a number of city services remained. The Mayor and his special committee of volunteers met every day, and people could go there for help burying the dead, getting the sick to Bush Hill, or simply getting money or bread that the committee provided. The members of the committee also made visits to the homes of the sick to offer help. This was, indeed, amazing volunteer heroism and some the committee members died of the fever. The banks remained open, as did newspapers. The mail was delivered and when the mailmen became ill, letters could be picked up and dropped off at the Post Office. Because the mail service continued we have such a rich historical record of the epidemic. The city kept watchmen on the streets at night, their number augmented by volunteers. I believe the lamplighters continued to light the lamps. In his memoir Rush noted those professions that seemed to escape the disease: "three butchers only, out of nearly one hundred who remained in the city, died with the disease. Many of them attended the markets every day. Two painters, who worked at their business during the whole time of the prevalence of the fever, and in exposed situations, escaped it. Out of forty scavengers who were employed in collecting and carrying away the dirt of the streets, only one was affected by the fever and died...." During the epidemic there were rumors of crime, but afterwards it was generally agreed that there were only two burglaries of empty houses, and both were minor. Philadelphians suffered immeasurably during the epidemic but crime did not add to their suffering. During most of September there were church services. The African-American Nurses Nursing was, and remains, crucial in the treatment of yellow fever. Early in the epidemic, Benjamin Rush explained to the leaders of Philadelphia's African American community that according to observations made during a yellow fever epidemic in Charleston some 50 years before, blacks did not get the fever. (Actually only those who had spent some time in Africa or the West Indies might have been immune, and many African Americans got the fever.) So Richard Allen, Absalom Jones and William Gray offered to provide nurses for the sick and to provide men to remove and carry the dead to burial grounds. Families could obtain nurses by applying to the Mayor. The demand became so great and the duties were so demanding that nurses were paid. From the letters I've read, it seems that these nurses were most valuable in sitting up with patients through the night. Of course, since they were paid by the patient's family, the nurses generally stayed with that patient until no longer needed. It's possible that there were people like Eliza who visited several patients a day providing what help they could, but as best as I can tell, women nurses generally stayed with one patient. There were many male nurses, too. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, on the advice of Benjamin Rush, visited many patients and bled them. There was a shortage of professional bleeders during the epidemic. Finally a group of men specialized in removing the bodies of the dead. Incidently, I've seen nothing written at the time that suggests that the old refrain from the plague-days of England, "Bring Out Your Dead," was ever used in Philadelphia in 1793. The End of the Epidemic The most difficult days of the epidemic were the first two weeks in October. The daily death toll reached its peak of 119 on October 11. Chilly nights, though no freeze, didn't seem to slow down the epidemic. Then came cold nights, and people did indeed push their furniture and beds out doors to rid them of infection. However, the mosquito that spreads yellow fever can be a house mosquito so some people did get the disease after the freezing nights.
In her book Anderson makes the arrival of President Washington the signal of a return to normality. Governor Mifflin returned to the city several days before Washington. And most importantly, ships began moving up to the quays at the port and unloading their goods before either of those leaders returned. Today, government seems a full time operation. In 1793, Congress was in session from December until the late Spring. The state legislature met only a few weeks. The Mayor of Philadelphia never left the city. So, the most important symbol of health was the return to commercial business. As I understand it, Washington came to Germantown on November 1, to reassemble his cabinet, and came into Philadelphia for the day on November 11, against the advice of his advisors. Many sources say that all officers of the federal government fled the city. Actually some Treasury Department clerks remained, and wrote several letters describing their ordeal. They tried to get to and from their offices without passing a coffin on the street or any sick person. In a sense that sums up the tragedy of the epidemic. People were torn between the need for isolation for their own survival and the need to help their suffering neighbors. Most chose the former path and so for most the epidemic, far from being the harrowing adventure that Matilda experienced, was a time of intense loneliness. Even in the letters of those families that stayed together, where parents and children stayed together, there comes across a sense of lonely waiting. Then sickness arrives and all is action and anxiety. Of course, people who write long letters that are apt to be preserved for many years, are usually thoughtful rather than active people. So it is difficult to reconstruct the experiences of the thousands of apprentices left behind by their masters; of the thousands of workers with no jobs to go to; and of the thousands of families who found themselves huddled in the tiny rooms trying to survive. Judging from Philadelphia's reaction to later epidemics in 1797, 1798, and 1799, the community did not wish to replicate the loneliness of 1793. Evacuation of the city became the watchword and city officials sought to make it organized and highly social. Tent cities were created with the crowding and camaraderie so familiar in today's refugee crises. In 1793 only Bush Hill hospital and the orphan house represented a communal response to a common enemy. So as a historian I find faults with Fever 1793. But as a human being I applaud its effort to highlight community and hope. Bob Arnebeck Orion  The famous Orion, the hunter, constellation is easy to find in the night sky because of the three stars in his belt, and the bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel near his shoulder and foot. Orion is shown facing the constellation Taurus, the Bull, which hints that Orion might be based on the Sumerian hero Gilgamesh or the Greek hero Heracles, who both fought bulls. Orion’s many stories tell of his skill as a brave hunter, but he died because he was too proud. In one story, Orion bragged that he could kill any animal on Earth, which either made the Earth angry, or Artemis, the goddess of hunting, was upset. To punish Orion, the Earth sent a scorpion to sting him, and he died from the sting. Because of this, Orion and the scorpion constellations are on opposite sides of the sky, making it look like Orion is running away as the scorpion rises in the east. Pegasus  According to the Greek myth, after Perseus defeated Medusa by cutting off her head, Pegasus came out of her neck and flew away. Some stories say that Perseus was actually riding Pegasus when he saved Andromeda, but usually, Pegasus is linked to the hero Bellerophon. Zeus also used Pegasus to carry his thunderbolts. Even though we only see the front half of Pegasus in the night sky, it is the seventh-largest constellation in the northern sky. Long ago, the constellation was made up of a “square of Pegasus,” which was a group of four bright stars. However, now one of those stars, near Pegasus' belly, has been given to the nearby constellation Andromeda and is called Alpha Andromedae, so only three stars remain in the well-known square. Leo  When Heracles went temporarily mad because of the goddess Hera, he accidentally killed his wife and children. To make up for these terrible actions, he was given 12 very hard tasks to complete. The first task was to kill the Nemean lion, a scary creature with a tough hide that liked to attack the people living nearby. Heracles managed to defeat the lion by hugging it tightly and squeezing it to death. The constellation Leo represents this fierce lion. It has six stars in an arc shape that shows the lion's front body and head, ready to pounce. The brightest star in this arc is called Regulus, which means “little king.” Phoenix  The Phoenix, located near the constellation Eridanus, refers to the mythical, multicolored bird that is able to rise from the ashes of its predecessor. Ankaa, the Arabic name of the constellation’s largest star, means phoenix. Ursa Major  Ursa Major, also known as the Great Bear, has seven stars that form its back and tail. You might know it better as the Big Dipper because its stars look like a ladle or a drinking gourd. Four stars make the cup part, and three stars make the handle. The story behind the name Ursa Major is more complicated. In a book called Metamorphosis, the writer Ovid tells a story about a huntress named Callisto. She promised to stay loyal to the goddess Artemis, but Zeus tricked her by pretending to be Artemis. Callisto ended up having a son named Arcas. When Zeus’ wife Hera found out, she turned Callisto into a bear. Later, Arcas, not knowing the bear was his mother, tried to hunt her. To stop this tragedy, Zeus turned Callisto into the constellation Ursa Major and Arcas into another constellation called Boötes, the Herdsman. Andromeda  Andromeda was the daughter of Queen Cassiopeia and King Cepheus. Her parents chained her to a rock in the sea as a sacrifice to the sea monster Cetus. Things seemed dire for Andromeda until Perseus, a hero who had just defeated the gorgon Medusa, flew down from the sky and saved her.
The constellation Andromeda used to share its main star, Alpha Andromedae (also called Alpheratz), with the nearby constellation Pegasus. The Andromeda Galaxy, which is part of the Andromeda constellation, is 2.5 million light-years away from Earth and is the farthest object in space that we can see without a telescope.
The dangers of sailing
Sailors couldn't predict the weather, winds or tides, but they did learn how to navigate. Before this, they would stay within eyesight of the coast, and therefore, know where they were based upon the land formations such as cliffs or mountains. There are no landmarks in the open ocean, so sailors learned to use the stars, including our sun, and Earth's magnetic field to navigate, and that meant they could cross oceans. Early compasses Early compasses were notoriously unreliable. They would sometimes lose their magnetic charge, and the ship's motion on the water sometimes made it difficult to get a steady reading. Compasses also point at magnetic north, not true north, so as they sailed around, magnetic north changed in relation to true north. Though many were working on a better compass, for the time being, using Earth's magnetic field was only going to help so much. The North Star, however, was always located at true north. The north star The North Star, also known as Polaris, is located directly over the North Pole, appearing fixed in the night sky. Because of Earth's spin, all of the other stars appear to travel in circular arcs around the North Star. It serves as a reference point that allowed sailors to find their way. To know their location, sailors needed to know their latitude and longitude. Sailors only had to measure the angle of elevation of the North Star and they could figure out their latitude on the map because the angle of elevation of the North Star is equal to one's latitude on a map. Determining longitude was a more difficult task requiring an extremely precise clock, but that problem was soon solved, too.
 Photo by Ashley Dance; Wikimedia Commons This time-lapse photo shows the other stars rotating around the North Star during a typical northern hemisphere night.
…by sea Many took what they assumed was the easy way, by sea. The trips typically began anywhere along the Atlantic Coast with ships sailing southward around Cape Horn at the tip of South America and back up to San Francisco. It was along these seagoing journeys that many first experienced life in the tropics and learned about Latin or Catholic cultures. Malcolm J. Rohrbough noted in his history of the era, Days of Gold, The California Gold Rush and the American Nation, "The voyage to California provided most seagoing 49ers with their first contact with the tropics, new cultures and new values … The revelations included flying fish, swarms of birds, strange aromas, and brilliant sunsets and sunrises." Others chose to "cross the isthmus" by sailing only as far south as Panama, where they then made a three-day trip by mule and canoe across land—the isthmus of Panama—to the Pacific side, where they boarded another ship for the trip north to San Francisco. Those who traveled this route were treated to even more exotic sights, including snakes, howling monkeys and parrots, and types of fruits and other foods they had never experienced before. Still others sailed around Florida and through the Gulf of Mexico to Texas, where they disembarked and made their way across Mexico's harsh deserts and into California. One group that included James McClatchy, who made that 4,000-mile journey, and said he and his traveling companions survived by eating everything from toads to berries to rattlesnakes to mules as they walked for 26 days before reaching San Diego. The sea voyages continued year-round without regard to season and could last for months, depending on the winds and the weather. …by land  The 2,200-mile overland trips had to be timed properly, with most typically beginning in mid-May in places on "the edge of the prairies outside St. Joseph or Independence, Missouri," Rohrbough wrote. Many of these wagon trains were made up of people from the same area, traveling together for safety and comfort, but there were just as many who signed on with professionals who would agree to guide them across the Plains for fees of about $200 each. Some fell for advertisements for gold-digging devices or machines that they tried to transport by wagon or pack mule across the nation, and the result was inevitable as they realized how overloaded they were. "The 49ers littered the California Trail with discarded food supplies and heavy gold-mining equipment, often fancy gold-washing machines," Rohrbough wrote. "They began to throw things away at the beginning of the journey, littering the trail for a thousand miles to and past Fort Laramie." You're in California, now what?  Ships in San Francisco Bay during the Gold Rush No overland trip was easy, but just getting to California did not mean the end of their journey, especially for those who came by ship, because the gold fields were still far inland near Placerville, a great distance from the port of San Francisco where the ships docked. It was very common for a ship's crew to abandoned their ships as soon as they were docked and join the crowds going to the gold fields. San Francisco Bay was crowded with abandoned ships and once it was discovered ships could make their way up the Sacramento River from the San Francisco Bay to Sacramento, the Sacramento riverfront also became awash in abandoned ships that started being used for many other purposes. What was "out-with"? In the book The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, siblings, Bruno and Gretel, along with their parents, move from Berlin and to a house in Poland. This new house is right next to Auschwitz, one of the biggest concentration camps from the Holocaust. It's hard to miss Auschwitz because it's full of starving people in "striped pajamas" with Star of David armbands, and they are always being pushed around and shouted at by soldiers. When Bruno asks Gretel what "Out-With" means, she answers, "Out with the people who lived here before us, I expect."
They believe "Out-With" is just the name of their house and not the concentration camp next door. Even though they are very close to the horrors of the Holocaust, their privileged life as the children of Nazis keeps them in a bubble. Bruno and Gretel call the camp "Out-With" instead of Auschwitz, which shows they don't really understand what's happening. Bruno even thinks he's still in Germany until Shmuel tells him the truth. Not only does this answer shows how clueless they are about their surroundings, it also shows the reality of what is happening. The Nazis are trying to eliminate the Jews from the world, which makes the name "Out-With" a fitting description of what is happening at the concentration camp, even if Gretel and Bruno don’t realize it. These facts are from a Gennifer Choldenko site about her novel Al Capone Does My Shirts that is no longer published. True or false?
True or False answers
Multiple choice 1. Gennifer Choldenko (author of Al Capone Does My Shirts and Al Capone Shines My Shoes) and the world-famous gangster Al Capone share: A. a birthday in January B. the childhood nickname "Snot-Nose" C. a love of diamond pinkie rings D. a brother named Henry 2. You knew Al Capone wanted to get rid of you when: A. He rented an apartment near your place. B. He sent you a note with one bullet hole in the upper right corner. C. His wife, Mae, gave you one yellow rose. D. He sent you to the store for a box of raisins. 3. During Al Capone's many prison stays he was written up for: A. Having too many pairs of underwear. B. Keeping rolls of money in the carved out handle of his tennis racquet. C. Making his bed too often. D. All of the above.
Multiple Choice Answers
This article is adapted from an article by Field and Stream that is no longer published. Snare  Position the snare at head height and tie off the end to a tree, a stake in the ground, or a log that the animal can only drag a short distance as the noose tightens. Make snares from cord, fishing line, or wire if available. It helps to place broken branches or brush on either side of the path to nudge the animal through the path with the snare. Bird Pole  Birds can be much easier to trap than mammals and are therefore among the first targets for a meal. The Ojibwa Bird Pole is placed out in the open where a bird with naturally land upon it. To make it, follow these steps:
Spring Snare  This trap works by setting a trigger that snatches game into the air as it strains against the noose. It’s good for rabbits and game as large as deer. Deadfall Trap  Deadfalls use rocks or logs to squash prey and are typically baited, but they also work along trails or outside burrows when a passing animal or bird brushes against the trigger. Funnel Fish Trap  Make the walls of the funnel trap with piled-up stones or tightly spaced sticks driven solidly into the river or lakebed. Close the entrance to the trap, roil the water, then either spear the fish or net them. A net can be made made by tying a shirt or other cloth between two stout poles. These work because fish swim along the shore in shallow water to feed.
This article is adapted from an article originally published by the site History Engine that is no longer available online. Vocabulary has been simplified and the article has been condensed for young readers.  In 1793, Philadelphia faced a terrible outbreak of disease—yellow fever. By July, people in the city noticed many flies and mosquitoes around the docks, but they didn't understand that the mosquitoes were transmitting the disease. Yellow fever came from people who had fled from the Caribbean. In just one outbreak, 5,000 people—about 1/10th of the residents—died. Nearly every family was affected. Many people left the city because they were afraid of getting sick. Those who stayed were mostly poor and had nowhere else to go. A few stayed because they felt they needed to help their city and its trapped residents. In a letter to Thomas Mann Randolph on September 2, 1793, Thomas Jefferson mentioned that a dangerous fever had started in the dirty docks of Philadelphia, causing alarm amongst the residents. Dr. Benjamin Rush, a well-known doctor in Philadelphia at that time, tried a strong treatment called the “Ten-and-Ten.” Some doctors debated how well Rush’s treatment worked, and this argument was discussed in the city’s newspapers. A new group led by Mayor Clarkson worked to fix up the best hospital, Bush Hill, and the patients began to improve. Dr. Deveze from France volunteered to be the full-time doctor there. He did not agree with Rush’s treatment. At first, there was some hesitation about hiring a French doctor because it might seem like a criticism of American doctors, especially Dr. Rush. Deveze’s treatment was careful and gentle. Even though more and more evidence showed that Deveze’s method was helping patients stay alive, it still faced a great deal of criticism. Benjamin Rush criticized Deveze’s mild methods, even though he did not have real proof to support his arguments. No one knows exactly how many people in Philadelphia died from Yellow Fever in 1793, but it was clear that the city would never be the same. The city made efforts to keep markets and streets clean and improved laws requiring homeowners to keep their properties clean. The biggest change was in the water supply. Philadelphia got its first water system (the first in the United States), which provided cleaner and better-tasting water. The new system also had enough pressure to clean the streets and flush out sewers, making life easier and encouraging people to bathe more often. Everyone, even those who had fled the city, saw themselves as survivors. They were left with emotional and physical scars, and they knew one thing for sure: when the hot and humid weather returned next summer, Yellow Fever might come back to their homes.  Digital Scholarship Lab. (2014). Yellow Fever Attacks Philadelphia, 1793. History Engine: Tools for Collaborative Education and Research. https://web.archive.org/web/20140409123915/https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/5282
Wampum beads were arranged and strung together in intricate patterns and designs that typically served as a visual memory keeper recording important messages, agreements, and historical events. These beautiful creations came to be known as wampum belts in English, though they typically were not worn in the same way we think of belts today. The use of wampum belts used to be thought of as something belonging only to the Haudenosaunee and Wampanoag people, but historians now believe it was far more widespread that previously thought. There is now evidence of a wampum tradition amongst the Ojibway, Odawa and Potawatomi people. Examples of wampum belts  The Hiawatha wampum belt. No one knows exactly when it was made, but definitely before the first Europeans arrived in the New World in the early 1500s. Some Native people believe it is 1,000 years old. Arguably the most famous wampum belt is the Hiawatha belt made to tell the story of the creation of the Haudenosaunee nation (also known as the Iroquois Confederacy or just the five nations). The Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk people warred for a very long time. When they decided to join together in peace, the Hiawatha wampum belt was created to record the event. The box on the far left stands for the Mohawk who were the first to join, then the Oneida. The central figure is a white pine, the tree of peace, where the warring nations buried their weapons. It symbolizes the Onondaga. Next is the Cayuga, and then the Seneca. Note that they are all joined together. This was a reminder to maintain the peace.  The notation written on the above photo said it was recording an alliance between the Mohawk and the French, but later historians disagreed. The Wolf Treaty belt represents the alliance of the Seven Nations (an alliance of seven Native communities in what is now Canada) and the English. The figures in the center represent King George I and a Native person joining hands in peace. The wolves were there to protect the peace path. Note the seven dark lines by each wolf. These purple lines represented the Seven Nations. In 1890, this was written about the belt: "One wampum, now owned by Margaret Cook, the aged aunt of Running Deer, represents the treaty of George I with the Seven Nations. The king and the head chief are represented with joined hands, while on each side is a dog, watchful of danger, and the emblem is supposed to be the pledge: 'We will live together or die together. We promise this as long as water runs, skies do shine, and night brings rest.'" You can find photos and stories of more wampum belts at the Onondaga Nation website: https://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wampum/ Anishinabek Nation. “What Are Wampum Belts?” YouTube, 23 June 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95PojatWRdc.
Bonaparte, Darren. The Wolf Belt. http://www.wampumchronicles.com/wolfbelt.html. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024 “Hiawatha Belt.” Onondaga Nation, 18 June 2014, https://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wampum/hiawatha-belt/. Historica Canada. “Richard Hill.” YouTube, 2 June 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ckxi7rjGac&t=717s. Nahwegahbow Windspeaker, Barb. “Wampum Holds Power of Earliest Agreements.” Ammsa.Com, 2014, https://web.archive.org/web/20190228192256/https://ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/wampum-holds-power-earliest-agreements#sthash.Bv7JG8PF.dpuf. “Wampum.” Onondaga Nation, 18 Feb. 2014, https://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wampum/. “Wampum Belt.” Plimoth Patuxet Museums, 30 Aug. 2023, https://plimoth.org/yath/unit-2/wampum-belt. |
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I often struggle to find websites with thorough explanations in simple language to help kids understand historical events or scientific concepts, so I decided to create some of my own! -Cookie Davis
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