The women's plague; or, narratives of survival during New York's yellow fever epidemics in the founding era
How did the poorest experience epidemics in the past? During the 1790s, New York City was hit by yellow fever nearly every summer, and twice saw the numbers of cases rise to epidemic levels. While the wealthy had the resources to flee the city for the countryside, believed to offer a healthier climate, the city’s poor and African American residents remained behind, seeking work in an empty, ominously quiet place. Whereas many scholars have studied Philadelphia’s deadly epidemic of 1793, and others have examined the writings of medical experts who sought to understand how the disease spread, narratives of the “sick poor,” most of whom were women, have gone almost completely ignored. This talk uncovers a world of experiences by those often lost to history.
Date: 9 May 2022, 16:00 (Monday, 3rd week, Trinity 2022)
Venue: Maison Française d'Oxford, 2-10 Norham Rd, Oxford
Speaker: Carolyn Eastman (Virginia Commonwealth University)
Organising department: Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology
Part of: Centre for the History of Science Medicine and Technology (OCHSMT) Seminars and Events
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Public
Editors: Laura Spence, Belinda Clark