Yellow Fever In Philadelphia In 1793

Yellow fever killed over 5,000 people in Philadelphia in 1793. Yellow fever is a highly contagious fever that is transmitted by mosquitoes. Some symptoms of yellow fever include an onset of fever, chills, severe headache, nausea, fatigue, weakness, and vomiting. Treatment of yellow fever in the 1700’s included bloodletting, herbs, other material treatments, and also simply doing nothing. In Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson alters history, but maintains some historical accuracy. The setting of the wharfs is both the same and different from the actual wharfs at that time. In Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson alters many historical people, places, and things. However, she also keeps many things the same. For instance, in the text it states, “The sloop Amelia from Santo Domingo had anchored with a cargo of coffee, which had
The bad coffee was dumped on Ball’s Wharf, where it putrefied in the sun and sent out a powerful odor that could be smelled over a quarter mile away” (Murphy 3). People at that time dumped any spoiled food from their ships onto the docks, without any thought as to what the consequences would be. Some people believed that spilled coffee had been that start of the entire outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia, 1793. Similarly, in the text it states, “‘It’s that heap of rotting coffee beans on Ball’s Wharf, I tell you,’ Mr. Carris said to the other men. ‘It’s the source of a deadly miasma, a foul stench, indeed. There are noxious fumes all around the district. Mark my words, it will be a killer yet’ ... ‘It creates an awful stench, yes, but no one dies from bad smell’” (Anderson 19-20). There was an argument between many groups of people in Philadelphia about what was causing the yellow fever outbreak. Some thought it was the coffee on the wharfs, but