Fever 1793 Quotes

Chapter One of of Jim Murphy’s book, An American Plague, opens with the quote, ‘About this time, this destroying scourge, the malignant fever, crept in among us” (Murphy 1). This quote is accredited to Mathew Carey in November, 1793. The term scourge is defined as, “a person or thing that cause great trouble of suffering,” and the term malignant is defined as, “tending to produce death or deterioration.” These are very strong terms with extremely negative connotative meanings. The figurative language which is evident in the quote at the opening of Chapter One is personification. Carey’s quote give yellow fever an eerie, human-like quality when he writes, “the destroying scourge, the malignant fever, CREPT in among us” (Murphy 1). CArey’s word choices and use of personification help to create a powerful image in the reader’s mind of the threat looming over the city of Philadelphia.\

The American Plague was written by Molly C. Crosby, who is as much as a researcher as she is an author. In 1648, a slave ship returning from Africa carried a few mosquitoes infected with a deadly virus know as yellow fever. The ship landed in the New World and thrived in the hot wet climate and on the white settlers. The New World has never come in contact with yellow fever and as a result no immunities have been built up. The virus obtained its name from the way it turns the victim’s skin and eyes a golden yellow. Victims also suffer from very high fevers, external and internal bleeding, and blackish vomit. In America yellow fever killed thousands of peoples, halted trade, and disrupted the government. Although many

List two main points discussed in “Typhoid Fever.” What was the story about? What should a reader take from the story?

In Philadelphia, 1793, a disease that haunted and still haunts America to this day was the yellow fever. It was caused by a little but deadly mosquito called aedes. It spread this disease to many people and it killed around 5,000 people per town. It was the most deadly plague in American history. Some say it was like the black plague. I’ll be talking about why it’s called the Yellow Fever, how did it spread, how it got to America, how it affected the capital, about our local area back then, the people who were trying to help fight it, and the first hospital ever built.

The 1878 yellow fever epidemic in Memphis proved to be fatal, killing almost all who got infected. The disease traveled up from New Orleans infecting and killing many on its way. Memphis was going through reconstruction and was becoming the center for merchants and travelers. Furthermore, Memphis began to become overly populated only increasing the devastation that would be caused by the yellow fever. This was a confusing period were even medical professionals did not know where the disease came from or how they could to stop it. The epidemic caused panic and challenged the state government of Tennessee and made changes to it that are still in effect today.

Throughout this awful time, many people died. When someone got the illness, it didn't take long for that person to die, it actually took only a few days. This plague caused swollen lymph nodes, fever, exhaustion, and infection in blood and lungs. People and doctors tried to make treatments to stop the sickness, nothing was affetive, though. For example, something that they did

Unlike most diseases there is no definitive cure for yellow fever. The only remedy is to wait it out until the end and hope for the best. There are some things that can be done to help relieve some of the pain and discomfort. Fluids may be given to the patient to help prevent dehydration. Low blood pressure and low blood sugar are two more of the advanced symptoms that occur in yellow fever victims. Antacids may be used to protect the stomach from bleeding and different medications are used for fever control. Even with good supportive care, yellow fever is still a dangerous disease in which death rates remain high. The most common cause of death in the case of most yellow fever victims is kidney failure.

Laurie Halse Anderson Fever 1793, many people in Philadelphia were facing a disease called “Yellow Fever” the patients were to get help immediately or they would soon die. During the rough times, most people of the city fled to a safer place where the fever did not eat off others. These times were rough for the people and most couldn’t afford to flee the city or it was too late to consider it. The people were to wait till winter which is when the fever left and the city was safe again.

Laurie Halse Anderson’s historical fiction novel Fever 1793 takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when the Yellow Fever epidemic is flooding through the city. The novel is focused around Matilda or as she is called in the book Mattie Cook, and her family. Mattie is faced with many difficulties throughout the novel, including sickness, death, loss, and learning how to be independent. By using personification and descriptive word Anderson creates the theme that fear can cause people to mature or act differently in situations. At the start of the sickness spreading, (pages 68-69 ) Mattie’s mother Lucile is sick in bed with, what they were told was “just a virus”.

Fever is a book in which a 14 year old girl named Matilda, also known as Mattie, lives in a town in the middle of a fever epidemic. Sometime after falling in love with a boy named Nathaniel Benson Matilda’s mother falls ill with the fever. She instructs Matilda and her Grandfather to leave the city. Shortly after failing to flee the city Matilda falls ill with the fever. Afterwards she and her grandfather went back to the city.

Alongside the revolution came an increase in death. Many of the deaths occurred amongst the poor people due to diseases such as Cholera, Typhoid, and Typhus (source 16). As the cities began to overcrowd with job-hungry

Since many slaves were forced to work during hot and humid summer days without any proper care, food, and clothing this caused them to be prone to illness. Sicknesses such as yellow fever, malaria, and many other diseases caused the deaths of many slaves working on plantations. The alarming amount of wide spread disease was a big fear amongst plantation workers because many slaves were scared that they too would catch something and die due to the lack of medications and care. For slave owners the lives of slaves held no true value and were not viewed as equals to the white race, as Marie St Claire, a slave owner states in Uncle Tomes Cabin when she says, “putting them on any sort of equality with us, you know, as if we could be compared, why, it' impossible!“ (151). Slaves were left to fend for themselves, unattained to their needs any slaves watched others die right in front of their very own eyes.

What struck me about the way in which the epidemic was contained and treated was that if someone looked as if they were healthy then they were sent along with the healthy patients. They didn’t have the correct technology to determine if a “healthy” person was sick or not, so they only relied on the physical appearance of them in that moment in time. This method of determination was unreliable because often, the symptoms would show up moments later and this only contributed to the spread of the disease because they still carried the contagion seed. Also, it struck me that because the victims of the fever were mostly emigrants, the Board of Health saw it as no big deal. A couple of the officials promised to send various items, but they never did.

Yellow Fever is a dangerous viral infection. Yellow fever gets its name from the fact that the disease typically causes the skin to become yellow as well as producing a fever. Brian R. Shmaefsky, author of the book Yellow Fever explains that "Yellow fever is also known by other names. Throughout history yellow fever was called black vomit, vomito negro, sylvatic fever, and Yellow Jack. Black vomit, or vomito negro, is known as very dark vomit that many infected people produce. Sylvatic fever gets his name from the fact that the disease is common in areas with jungles or forests. The name Yellow Jack was given by the newspapers because yellow fever was perceived to be as destructive as any enemy troop". In cartoons the disease was pictured as a skeleton wearing a yellow military jacket. The Virus is transmitted by mosquitoes in tropical regions, so it cannot be spread person to person by direct contact. The disease is principally spread in tropical regions of Africa and America. Every year it is recorded 200,000 cases of Yellow Fever, and 30,000 of that die. However, because of the poor record-keeping, the data recorded do not reflect the reality. Moreover, in the last years, epidemics are increasing the number of people affected by Yellow Fever. Even though there are ways to prevent it, it is dangerous because it can cause death and also it has many symptoms.

There are two different conditions of Yellow Fever, mild and severe. Mild cases’ symptoms include fever, headache, nausea, back pain, body aches, vomiting, and weakness in the arms, legs, and muscles. More severe cases’ symptoms consist of vomiting blood, bleeding from nose, mouth, and ears, slow heart rate, liver failure, kidney failure, seizures, and comas. A person with Yellow Fever can easily be diagnosed by doctors by the color of their skin. A person with Yellow Fever shows skin that is starting to turn yellow from