An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793... by Jim Murphy

Grade 6-10-If surviving the first 20 years of a new nationhood weren't challenge enough, the yellow fever epidemic of 1793, centering in Philadelphia, was a crisis of monumental proportions. Murphy chronicles this frightening time with solid research and a flair for weaving facts into fascinating stories, beginning with the fever's emergence on August 3, when a young French sailor died in Richard Denny's boardinghouse on North Water Street. As church bells rang more and more often, it became horrifyingly clear that the de facto capital was being ravaged by an unknown killer. Largely unsung heroes emerged, most notably the Free African Society, whose members were mistakenly assumed to be immune and volunteered en masse to perform nursing and custodial care for the dying. Black-and-white reproductions of period art, coupled with chapter headings that face full-page copies of newspaper articles of the time, help bring this dreadful episode to life. An afterword explains the yellow fever phenomenon, its causes, and contemporary outbreaks, and source notes are extensive and interesting. Pair this work with Laurie Halse Anderson's wonderful novel Fever 1793 (S & S, 2000) and you'll have students hooked on history.
Mary R. Hofmann, Rivera Middle School, Merced, CA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
It is an indisputable fact that disasters are a lot more fun to read about than they are to live through. Sure, we might enjoy flipping through a tale covering the potato famine or the crash of the Hindenburg, but would you really want to experience them first hand yourself? Not likely. Author Jim Murphy has always been particularly talented at writing about the disaster genre. His "The Great Fire" is one of the finest non-fiction glimpses into the devastating 1871 Chicago conflagration ever produced. To my mind, however, he seems to make his various projects particularly difficult for himself. The Great Chicago Fire did not have any photographs to include for interest, though it did contain copious newspaper illustrations and documents. Such is the case with Murphy's more recent creation, "An American Plague". Delving deeply into the Yellow Fever epidemic of the late 18th century, Murphy attempts the near impossible: Make colonial America interesting. Worse, make colonial American interesting to kids. And dang it if he doesn't pull it off. Framing the tale as a kind of mystery, Murphy starts slowly. He introduces us to some of the characters that would become important during the disease's height. As we read we find ourselves in the hot steamy smelly streets of Philadelphia. President Washington is having some difficulties with his Proclamation of Neutrality regarding the French. The Reverend J. Henry C. Helmuth is proclaiming that soon the city will be feeling God's displeasure due to Philly's rampant debauchery. And in a small boarding house on North Water Street, a French sailor has come down with a fever. The plague has begun. Murphy's excellent at picking up the pace in this story. Quickly, the situation escalates from a disease affecting only the poor to one touching a variety of different citizens. Quick as a wink Washington and his compatriots flee the city and hole up in different areas. Rich citizens, or those with family not in Philadelphia, get out lickety-split. Suddenly our focus concentrates on Doctor Benjamin Rush. Placing himself in constant peril, Rush works tirelessly to find a cure for the disease. Rich men like Stephen Girard and (gotta love the name) Israel Israel take on the jobs of ministering to the sick and poor. Most remarkably of all, however, are the members of the Free African Society. A group of freed blacks, this group is led by the formidable and eloquent Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. With little regard for their own safety, this group nurses the people of the town when no one else will. They take on the most disgusting cases and emerge as the real heroes of this tale. And anyone who thinks the Free African Society got so much as a whisper of thanks for their efforts, by the way, needs to study up on their history a little more. By the book's end Yellow Fever abates with the arrival of autumn. Though it would pop up periodically over the years, it wasn't until 1900 that the true culprit was discovered. Tiny mosquitoes were, and remain today to be, the carriers of the disease. The book ends with the chilling comment that despite years of research, "there is still no cure for yellow fever". As Duane Gubler, a director at the Centers for Disease Control notes, yellow fever is, "a modern-day time bomb. We're just sitting here waiting for it to happen". The end! Having successfully turned this book into a tale of true terror (fun!), Murphy had to accompany his words with arresting visual images. If someone were to offer you your weight in gold if you could come up with five interesting images from 1793, I doubt you'd have much success. Murphy, however, is cunning. He begins his chapters with newspaper selections as they were printed during the height of the fever. He draws upon paintings of the major players (not, interestingly enough, easy ones like Washington). He even goes so far as to cull prints from other plagues and diseases (like England's Black Plague of 1664) to give the reader some kind of an idea of what the streets of Philadelphia must have resembled. From early American advertisements (personally my favorite print in the whole book) to political cartoons where Uncle Sam condemns Amos Quito (put the words together) for crimes against humanity, Murphy bends over backwards trying to fill his book with visually engaging scenes and visions. Be sure to read the book's acknowledgements and note about the illustrations for further fascinating information. If you have a teen that needs to read a non-fiction book from a colonial time period, this book's your best bet. Honestly, it makes a time period interesting that has forever been buried in dull repeated facts. Oh, it's still going to bore certain people. No doubt. I mean, books of this nature are bound to enthrall only types of kids. But for those who stick with it and read it through, it's an eye opening look at a disease that couple wipe us out as easily today as it did back then. And if that doesn't run a finger down your spine, I don't know what will.