The Irish-born author and publisher Matthew Carey emigrated to the United States in 1784. Settling in Philadelphia, he established himself as a publisher, bookseller, and writer on diverse topics, including politics and economics. His Short Account of Philadelphia’s 1793 yellow fever outbreak was enormously popular, running through four editions in less than a year. Carey addressed numerous aspects of the disease, including its symptoms, spread, public responses to the outbreak, and the event’s broader impact on Philadelphia’s people and society. Like many observers, Carey mistakenly believed that people of African descent were naturally immune to yellow fever and therefore sought their services to attend the sick and bury the dead. He eventually conceded that such claims of immunity were erroneous.
BEFORE I enter on the consideration of this disorder, it may not be improper to offer a few introductory remarks on the situation of Philadelphia previous to its commencement….
The manufactures, trade, and commerce of Philadelphia had, for a considerable time, been improving and extending with great rapidity. From the period of the adoption of the federal government, at which time we were at the lowest ebb of distress, our situation had progressively become more and more prosperous. Confidence, formerly banished, was universally restored. Property every kind, rose to, and in some instances beyond, its real value: and a few revolving years exhibited the interesting spectacle of a young country, with a new form of government, emerging from a state approaching very near to anarchy, and acquiring all the liability and nerve of the best-toned and oldest nations.
In this prosperity, which revived the hopes of four millions of people, Philadelphia participated in an eminent degree. New houses, in almost every street, built in a very neat, elegant stile, adorned, at the same time that they enlarged the city. Its population was extending fast….
In July, arrived the unfortunate fugitives from Cape Francois.1 And on this occasion, the liberality of Philadelphia was displayed in a most respectable point of light. Nearly 12,000 dollars were in a few days collected for their relief….
Several persons were swept away before any great alarm was excited. The first deaths that attracted public notice, and struck terror among the citizens, were those of Peter Aston, on the 19th, of Mrs. Lemaigre, on the 20th, and of Thomas Miller, on the 25th of August. About this time began the removals from the city, which were for some weeks so general, that almost every hour in the day, carts, waggons, coachees, and chairs, were to be seen transporting families and furniture to the country in every direction. Business then became extremely dull. Mechanics and artists were unemployed; and the streets wore the appearance of gloom and melancholy.
The first official notice taken of the disorder, was on the 22d of August, on which day, the mayor of Philadelphia, Matthew Clarkson, esq. wrote to the city commissioners … to have the streets properly cleansed and purified by the scavengers, and all the filth immediately hauled away…. The 29th the governor of the state, in his address to the legislature, acquainted them, that a contagious disorder existed in the city; and that he had taken every proper measure to ascertain the origin, nature, and extent of it….
Dismay and affright were visible in almost every person’s countenance…. Of those who remained, many shut themselves up in their houses, and were afraid to walk the streets…. Those who ventured abroad, had handkerchiefs or sponges impregnated with vinegar or camphor, at their noses…. The old custom of shaking hands fell into such general disuse, that many were affronted at even the offer of the hand….
While affairs were in this deplorable state, and people at the lowest ebb of despair, we cannot be astonished at the frightful scenes that were acted, which seemed to indicate a total dissolution of the bonds of society in the nearest and dearest connexions. Who, without horror, can reflect on a husband deserting his wife, united to him perhaps for twenty years, in the last agony — a wife unfeelingly abandoning her husband on his death bed — parents forsaking their only children — children ungratefully flying from their parents, and resigning them to chance…. Yet such were daily exhibited in every quarter of our city….
Great as was the calamity of Philadelphia, it was magnified in the most extraordinary manner. The hundred tongues of rumour were never more successfully employed, than on this melancholy occasion. The terror of the inhabitants of all the neighboring states was excited by letters from Philadelphia, distributed by every mail, many of which told tales of woe, whereof hardly a single circumstance was true, but which were every where received with implicit faith….
The alarm in New York was first officially announced by a letter from the mayor to the practicing physicians, dated Sept. 11, in which he requested them to report to him in writing the names of all such persons as had arrived, or should arrive from Philadelphia, or any other place, by land or water, and were or should be sick; that such as should be deemed subjects of infectious diseases, might be removed out of the city. He notified them, that the corporation2 had taken measures to provide a proper place for an hospital, for such persons as might unhappily become subjects of the fever in New York…. The 12th appeared a proclamation from governor Clinton,3 which, referring to the “act to prevent the bringing in, and “spreading of infectious disorders,” prohibited, in the terms of that act, all vessels from Philadelphia, to approach nearer to the city of New York, than Bedlow’s island, about two miles distant, till duly discharged….
… The 11th of October, they likewise resolved, that they would consider and publish to the world, as enemies to the welfare of the city, and the lives of its inhabitants, all those who should be so selfish and hardy, as to attempt to introduce any goods, wares, merchandize, bedding, baggage, &c. imported from, or packed up in Philadelphia….
Never, perhaps, was there a city in the situation of Philadelphia at this period. The president of the United States, according to his annual custom, had removed to Mount Vernon with his household. Most, if not all of the other officers of the federal government were absent….
The week, beginning Sunday the 27th of October, proved for the most part cold and raw …. A visible alteration has already taken place in the state of affairs in the city. Our friends return in crouds. Every hour, long-absent and welcome faces appear…. The stores, so long closed, are opening fast. Some of the country merchants, bolder than others, are daily venturing in to their old place of supply. Market-street is almost as full of waggons as usual. The custom house, for weeks nearly deserted by our mercantile people, is thronged by citizens entering their vessels and goods —, have assumed the bustle suitable to the season…. But we have to lament, that the same spirit of exaggeration and lying, that prevailed at a former period, and was the grand cause of the harsh measures adopted by our sister states, has not ceased to operate; for at the present moment, when the danger is entirely done away, the credulous of our own citizens still absent, and of the country people, are still alarmed by frightful rumours, of the disorder raging with as much violence as ever; of numbers carried off, a few hours after their return; and of new cases daily occurring. To what design to attribute these shameful tales, I know not….
At an early stage of the disorder, the elders of the African church met, and offered their services to the mayor, to procure nurses for the sick, and to assist in burying the dead. Their offers were accepted; and Absalom Jones and Richard Allen undertook the former department, that of furnishing nurses, and William Gray, the latter — the interment of the dead. The great demand for nurses afforded an opportunity for imposition, which was eagerly seized by some of the vilest of the blacks. They extorted two, three, four, and even five dollars a night for attendance, which would have been well paid by a single dollar. Some of them were even detected in plundering the houses of the sick. But it is wrong to cast a censure on the whole for this sort of conduct, as many people have done. The services of Jones, Allen, and Gray, and others of their colour, have been very great, and demand public gratitude….
Let us all unite in the utmost vigilance to prevent the return of this fell destroyer, by the most scrupulous attention to cleansing and purifying our scourged city — and let us join in thanksgiving to that Supreme Being, who has, in his own time, stayed the avenging storm, ready to devour us, after it had laughed to scorn all human efforts.
Source: Matthew Carey, A Short Account of the Malignant Fever, Lately Prevalent in Philadelphia; with a Statement of the Proceedings that Took Place on the Subject in Different Parts of the United States, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia, 1793), 9–13, 20–21, 28–32, 34, 38–39, 43, 58, 67–69, 76–79, 96–97.
Evaluating the Evidence