Philadelphia's Yellow Fever Epidemic, 1793

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