Reply to African American contributions to fabric of the U.S.

Forum Index » Off-Topic

Reply to "African American contributions to fabric of the U.S."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Richard Allen

Philadelphia's yellow fever epidemic of 1793 was the largest in the history of the United States, claiming the lives of nearly 4000 people. In late summer, as the number of deaths began to climb, 20,000 citizens fled to the countryside, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other members of the federal government (at that time headquartered in Philadelphia).

At the urging of Benjamin Rush, the support of Philadelphia's free black community was enlisted by Absalom Jones, Richard Allen, and William Gray, a fruitseller who along with Allen and Jones had secured support to build the African Church the previous year.

In an effort to prove themselves morally superior to those who reviled them, Philadelphia's black community put aside their resentment and dedicated themselves to working with the sick and dying in all capacities, including as nurses, cart drivers, and grave diggers. Despite Rush's belief that blacks could not contract the disease, 240 of them died of the fever.
[img]https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/q97QIAiBbSlyj5O6xgf3892ZpDc=/1000x750/filters:no_upscale():focal(396x205:397x206)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/7f/64/7f647e5d-d45d-4930-a975-cd845400148f/untitled-1.jpg[/img]

This book is a must read, again written before the Pandemic.

[img]https://www.amazon.com/American-Plague-Terrifying-Epidemic-Newbery/dp/0395776082
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/810aJxGN0QL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg[/img]

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics