An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793

Devastating, Colonial, Informative, Vivid, Malignant
An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the
Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy
Published by Clarion Books, a Houghton Mifflin
Company imprint
Copyright 2003
Newbery Honor Book 2004
The Robert F. Sibert Medal Winner 2004
Non-Fiction

This story takes place in Philadelphia, the largest city in America at the time, and begins on August 3, 1793 with an account of the weather and a description of the current living environment. There is mention of the French and George Washington's struggles with his Proclamation of Neutrality. The story progresses, telling about the current goings on in the city. August 19, 1793 marks the first mention of illness. The disease brings with it pain and suffering. Those stricken with yellow fever experience: vomiting a "foul black bile", fever, a pale yellow skin color, chills, headache, aching, and "tiny red eruptions on the skin". Some doctors believe that the disease is caused by unbalanced humors (body fluids) in the body but one doctor, Dr. Rush, believes it is a disease called yellow fever. Soon, the disease spreads. Then dozens of people at a time become infected and within a few days, die from this still unidentified disease. When the word of the malignant disease gets around town, people begin fleeing the city or locking themselves in their houses. The phenomenon becomes unbearable and unstoppable. When the doctors no longer know what to do, have fled the city , or have died from the disease, those from the Free African Society step in and take charge. Selfless, freed, African Americans risk their own lives to try to save those stricken by the disease and bury those who fall victim. The causes of the disease is are not known until a century later.

Suggested Delivery: Independent Read, Small Group Read,
Grade Level (Lexile): 1130L, Ages 10-14

Key Vocabulary: droned, haggled, refurbished, yellow fever, capitulation, refugees, folklore, amiable, camphor, diligence, unassailable, emaciated

Teaching Suggestions:

• Before Reading: Introduce students to the words plague and epidemic. Ask students what they know about these words and if they know of any plagues that occurred in American History. Using a KWL chart, ask students what they know about Yellow Fever. You might prompt students' prior knowledge with questions like: What do you know about the time period that you think Yellow Fever came about? Did it infect many people? How was America effected by Yellow Fever, if at all?
• During Reading: Discuss with students some of the text features of this story. Murphy includes many authentic newspaper excerpts, artwork that depicted specific events, photos of handwritten letters or notes, part of a 1794 list of the dead, etc. Have a discussion about how these add to how the reader actually experiences the story. Ask thought provoking questions like: Would reading the story without the artifacts be the same? What is the importance of the artifacts? Why do you think Murphy chose the specific artifacts that he did?
• After Reading: Students can research current plagues/epidemics that are devastating other places in the world. Students should pick one epidemic and compare/contrast this with Yellow Fever and how it effected America. Graphic organizers, venn diagrams, or charts can be used for this activity.

Writing Activity: After reading An American Plague, students will pick one person from the book who dies. Students will write the obituary for this person. Be sure to mention that obituaries include the person's full name, birth date and place, death date and cause of death. If this person was married, the spouse's name should be included in addition to the names of this person's parents and those he/she is survived by. Other information that can be added about this person's life. This might include his/her job, education, something significant they have done, etc. Students will go back to the book to research the information given about this person.

Electronic Resources:

• Jim Murphy :This site provides links to An American Plague summary and other Jim Murphy books and their summaries. There are links to his blog, an "about the author section", and an interview with Jim Murphy. This site would be helpful for teachers to provide students with an outlet to learn more about an author. It would also be helpful for students to research and make connections with.
• Yellow Fever :This site provides information about yellow fever. Symptoms, causes, treatment, signs and tests, and prevention are mentions. There is also links to describe the symptoms. This site would be helpful if students were using An American Plague as a supplemental text for history. This site provides research that would be beneficial when writing a history report.

Murphy, J. (2003). An American plague: the true and terrifying story of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. New York: Clarion Books.