Yellow Fever In 1793: The Summer Of 1793
That summer of 1793 was inexplicably hot and unbearable. Alongside with the stifling heat, the Philadelphia was made to face one more, even more, dangerous problem: yellow fever. Fourteen-year-old Matilda (Mattie) Cook lived above a coffeehouse in Philadelphia during the late 1700’s. She shared the home with Lucille, her widowed mother, Captain William Farnsworth Cook, her grandfather who was a retired sailor along-with King George, his parrot, in addition to Silas, her orange cat. Lucille wasn’t the best of cooks, so she hired an African-American woman named Eliza to prepare the meals. The coffeehouse that the Cook family lived above and owned was manufactured by Matilda’s deceased father in 1783 when Mattie was just four years old. The
…show more content…
At her bedside was her grandfather who must’ve taken Matilda there in the night. It didn’t take that long for her to recover because the French doctors used an effective method to cure their patients. Once Matilda convalesced, her and Grandfather decided to head back home.
When they arrived at the coffeehouse, it had been robbed. Furniture and dishes were scattered on the ground, making it hard for them to walk. Thankfully, the safe where they kept their money wasn’t tampered with. Silas the cat was unharmed, but Lucille was missing.
Matilda was awoken from her dreams to find two looters breaking in! Once they saw that she was awake, they attacked her. Grandfather intervened and saved Matilda's life but got into a scuffle with one of the criminals and got wounded. He died at Matilda’s side. The next day, Matilda realized she had to bury her grandfather so, she got the attention of a man who was pushing a cart of dead bodies to bring to a mass burial ground and had him take Grandfather's body with him. After the burial, Matilda wandered around the streets of Philadelphia. While wandering around, she came across a little girl named Nell, who had lost her mother to the fever. She asked around to see what she could do with the child until she spotted Eliza. Eliza and Matilda reunited! Eliza lived with her brother and her Nephews and offered for Matilda and Nell to stay at their house for the night; Matilda kindly accepted as Eliza was like another mother to
At her bedside was her grandfather who must’ve taken Matilda there in the night. It didn’t take that long for her to recover because the French doctors used an effective method to cure their patients. Once Matilda convalesced, her and Grandfather decided to head back home.
When they arrived at the coffeehouse, it had been robbed. Furniture and dishes were scattered on the ground, making it hard for them to walk. Thankfully, the safe where they kept their money wasn’t tampered with. Silas the cat was unharmed, but Lucille was missing.
Matilda was awoken from her dreams to find two looters breaking in! Once they saw that she was awake, they attacked her. Grandfather intervened and saved Matilda's life but got into a scuffle with one of the criminals and got wounded. He died at Matilda’s side. The next day, Matilda realized she had to bury her grandfather so, she got the attention of a man who was pushing a cart of dead bodies to bring to a mass burial ground and had him take Grandfather's body with him. After the burial, Matilda wandered around the streets of Philadelphia. While wandering around, she came across a little girl named Nell, who had lost her mother to the fever. She asked around to see what she could do with the child until she spotted Eliza. Eliza and Matilda reunited! Eliza lived with her brother and her Nephews and offered for Matilda and Nell to stay at their house for the night; Matilda kindly accepted as Eliza was like another mother to