Fever 1793 Overview and Reaction
By: Thomas Keppel
To all readers:
This is an overview of the book Fever 1793 that I have written, as well as my reaction to the book. Please feel free to comment on this blog and let me know what you think of it. Feel free to also make any interesting points about the book or even talk about what you have learned. Inviting others to read this blog is also encouraged. All feedback is greatly appreciated!
Fever
1793 Overview
Fever 1793, is
a historical fiction book written by Laurie Halse Anderson, which is based on
an epidemic, known as Yellow Fever that had taken place in Philadelphia during
1793, killing a few thousand individuals. The Yellow Fever outbreak began in
the beginning of August 1793, and the more individuals became sick and
deceased, the more Philadelphia citizens became frightened and fled the city.
Although the Yellow Fever epidemic actually occurred, Fever 1793 discusses its devastation amongst the city of Philadelphia
using fictional characters, and scenes that are illusive. The effects of Yellow
Fever that are mentioned in the book, are true, and some of the characters
used, are real individuals that had actually lived during this plague; though,
some of the characteristics mentioned about some of the real individuals are
not completely accurate.
Fever 1793
began with the main character Mattie Cook, who is a fourteen year-old girl, who
lived with her mother and grandfather; Mattie’s home is in a coffeehouse, owned
by her mother, which was located on Seventh and High Streets in Philadelphia.
An African American maidservant named Eliza, worked at the coffeehouse and
cooked the meals, which were served to customers. Mattie and her mother Lucile
did not have the best relationship; Lucile would tell her daughter that she was
lazy and complained too much, since she attempted getting out of her chores and
wanted see Nathaniel instead, a boy that she liked. The young girl did not have
much of a social life, as a result of the responsibilities she had at the
coffeehouse. After Polly, one of the coffeehouse workers, had deceased,
Mattie’s responsibilities in the coffeehouse had increased. As a result of
Polly’s death, followed by upcoming deaths of others, the talk about Yellow
Fever began. Lucile became fearful and overprotective of Mattie, since it was
her daughter, and it was her one and only child.
Mattie’s
Grandfather Captain William Farnsworth Cook, who was Pennsylvania’s Fifth
Regiment during the American Revolutionary War, refused to believe that Yellow
Fever had made a visit to Philadelphia, since the last occurrence of this
plague occurred thirty years prior. It was believed that Santo Domingan
refugees had come to Philadelphia with some type of fever (not Yellow Fever),
and it was also believed that another cause of this ‘fever’ was the excess
smell and filth, occurring by the Delaware River, known as Balls Wharf.
However, there was a rapid increase of citizens that were becoming ill and
deceasing. Citizens had continued fleeing Philadelphia, markets began shutting
down, and the talk of Yellow Fever was increasing much more; the more talk
there was about this illness, the more individuals were fleeing the city and the
more markets were shutting down. Eliza, being a member of the Free African
Society, heard news about Dr. Benjamin Rush declaring the existence of Yellow
Fever and informed Philadelphians that this disease was visiting the city;
Eliza heard according to Dr. Rush, that the best approach to prevent getting
sick was to flee to the countryside, and stay away from sick victims.
Unfortunately, Mattie’s grandfather still refused to believe that Yellow Fever
was visiting Philadelphia.
Mattie’s mother soon became ill. A man named Mr. Rowley,
an improper physician, had seen Lucile and said that she only had a seasonal
fever that would blow off; Mr. Rowley said that in order for Lucile to get
better, it was important for her to get a great deal of rest, drink tea, and given
cold baths every few hours. The same night Mr. Rowley visited the coffeehouse,
Lucile vomited black blood all over her clothes. A couple days later, Dr. Kerr,
a proper physician, had seen Lucile and diagnosed the woman with Yellow Fever.
This was when William finally admitted to the true existence of Yellow Fever.
Lucile sweated massively, her eyes were bloodshot and yellow, and she vomited
black-colored blood, which are the symptoms of an individual having Yellow
Fever. A few moments after Dr. Kerr diagnosed Lucile, she woke up and yelled at
Mattie to stay away from her; Lucile insisted that Mattie flee Philadelphia
with her grandfather, to the town known as Gwynedd.
Mattie and her grandfather, unfortunately, did not
successfully make it to Gwynedd, as a set of guards suspected that the old man
had Yellow Fever and would now allow him to continue his ride on the carriage
that was heading towards Gwynedd; Mattie and her grandfather were alone and
lost all of their supplies, since the carriage driver decided to lie to the
guards about not knowing who the old man and the young girl were riding on his
carriage. William became temporarily ill because he had trouble with his
breathing and his heart from the intense heat during the hot summer, but he did
not have Yellow Fever. Mattie developed Yellow Fever while alone with her
grandfather, and William therefore brought Mattie to Bush Hill, which was founded
by Stephen Girard; Bush Hill was a mansion turned into a hospital, which housed
fever victims. It took some time for Mattie to recover, but with the help of
the French doctors working at Bush Hill, she survived. After spending over a
week at Bush Hill, Mattie and her grandfather returned to the coffeehouse; Mattie
still felt slightly sick, but recovered enough to be released from Bush Hill. Neither
Lucile nor Eliza was at the coffeehouse, and Mattie was terrified, unknowing if
her mother was alive. The post office also seized, as Mattie could not have
written a letter to the Ludington family, residing in Gwynedd, which was a
possible location Lucile was staying during this plague. When both individuals
returned to the coffeehouse, the inside of the house was destroyed, as thieves
took most of the household valuables, especially food products. William began
feeling ill again, and Philadelphia was a deserted city, with empty markets;
most farmers fled Philadelphia and charged ridiculous prices for food whenever
they decided to make an occasional trip was made to the city; the citizens
still residing in Philadelphia were starving.
A couple days after returning back to the coffeehouse,
two thieves came to the coffeehouse during the night, entering through the
windows that Mattie had left open when she fell asleep, and the two men grabbed
her. William awoke from his sleep, hearing the thieves, and came downstairs to
attempt stopping the men and save Mattie, as one of the thieves struck at the
old man onto the floor; Mattie stabbed the one thief in his shoulder and scared
both thieves away. William died as a result of being struck by one of the
thieves. Mattie had her grandfather properly buried and went to see Mr. Brown,
a printer and publisher, to attempt having the man write an article about her
missing mom; however, paper was very limited. While Mattie was walking in the
deserted city of Philadelphia, she found an orphan girl named Nell, who she
adopted because the orphanage reached way over its maximum capacity and would
have not properly cared for the girl; Nell’s mother died from Yellow Fever. After
finding Nell, Mattie bumped into Eliza while walking around the city, in which
she was voluntarily working for the Free African Society to go to various homes
and care for Yellow Fever victims; she would feed and clean the victims, and
also cleaned the bed sheets and clothes of the victims. Eliza allowed Mattie
and Nell stay with her in her brother, Joseph’s home, in which he had two sons
Robert and William, who were twins. Mattie was a help around Joseph and Eliza’s
home, and Mattie even went with Eliza to various homes of Yellow Fever victims
and helped her clean up the patients until late at night.
While
coming home one night from taking care of Yellow Fever victims, Mattie and
Eliza found out that Robert, William, and Nell all had Yellow Fever. Mattie
suggested to Eliza that bringing all three children to the coffeehouse and
taking care of them there was a good idea, since Eliza lived close to the
Delaware River, which was considered less sanitary and a higher risk of getting
the fever. Mattie and Eliza took care of the three children at the coffeehouse.
This was in the beginning of October, still consisting of hot, humid weather,
which allowed Yellow Fever to continue devastating Philadelphia. Eliza told
Mattie that the first big frost would come to Philadelphia soon, which was a
sign that Yellow Fever was starting to diminish. At the end of October, the
first frost occurred, and Mattie and Eliza, therefore, brought all three sick
children outside, allowing them to breathe in the fresh, cool air. All three
children recovered from the fever and survived.
Mattie
was asked what she was going to do with the coffeehouse. Instead of selling the
coffeehouse, she decided to keep the coffeehouse and create a partnership with
Eliza in reopening the coffeehouse and share the profit equally with her. Eliza
and Mattie reopened the coffeehouse for business three days after their making
joint-partnership decision. Not long after the first frost, individuals who
previously fled Philadelphia started returning back to the city, as they heard the
Yellow Fever was slowly diminishing; many more citizens continued returning to
the city. Mattie was still constantly thinking of her mother and was unsure if
she was alive or dead. In the beginning of November, George Washington returned
to Philadelphia, followed by Lucile and Mrs. Ludington; Lucile was staying with
the Ludington family during most of the time of the Yellow Fever crisis. When
George Washington returned to the city, many more citizens were returning to
the city, which was a sign that the Yellow Fever seized. Mattie and Lucile were
catching up. Lucile was telling Mattie one story that when staying in Gwynedd,
she attempted to find her daughter while having the most severe case of Yellow
Fever, since she was afraid her daughter was dead and had no idea where her
daughter was at. Unfortunately, Lucille did not fully recover from having
Yellow Fever, as she could barely walk independently and would no longer be
able to run the coffeehouse on her own. Mattie and Lucile were both happy to
see each other again.
My reaction to Fever 1793
Fever 1793 is a
great book that I learned much about the Yellow Fever epidemic that had
occurred. Prior to reading this book, I have never heard of this disease and
its existence in Philadelphia. Although Fever
1793 is a historical fiction, in which not all the details are completely
accurate, it gives the big picture of the nonfiction in a much more interesting
way. In regards to Yellow Fever, everything that was discussed about this epidemic
in the book, did actually happen, but was put into an interesting plot.
I thought it was interesting how Mattie had significantly
matured at the end of the book compared to having a youth mentality in the
beginning of the story. Although Mattie may have been called lazy and tried
finding anyway to get out of the house, I feel like Lucile was very hard on her
daughter and also overprotective. Yet, this could have been the normal way of
parents treating their children during this time period; times were much
different in 1793 than today. Throughout the Yellow Fever epidemic, Mattie
matured and gained a sense of responsibility and initiation; she went beyond
during the epidemic when helping her grandfather when he was ill, and helping
Eliza care for sick patients; Mattie also took the initiative in adopting and
caring for Nell, as well as suggested to Eliza to bring the three children back
to the coffeehouse to recover; Mattie decided to keep the coffeehouse business
by creating a partnership with Eliza. I think Lucile was surprised when Mattie
had told her about her decision of reopening the coffeehouse, since it was
Eliza that originally said to sell the business. Mattie did the best she could
to survive in his epidemic, and was very fortunate, having great doctors at
Bush Hill when she had Yellow Fever. Even with the loss of her grandfather, Mattie
did not give up. Not only did Lucile notice how much Mattie matured, so did
Eliza. Although Mattie did not get along with her mother in the beginning of
the book, I feel like she appreciated her mother much more when seeing her
again after the epidemic concluded.
A
second thing that I thought was interesting during this epidemic was although
many citizens did flee the city to breathe fresh, clean air at the country
side, where were the high leadership individuals during the outbreak? George
Washington was the president during this time and he fled the city when the
plague occurred. Although there was little medicine that existed and George
Washington may not have been able to solve the Yellow Fever problem, I feel
that he should have stayed in Philadelphia or have done his best to stay there to
try and help the citizens. Washington was not influential to the city of Philadelphia
during this time, which shows that he lacked in leadership when the epidemic
occurred; it seemed like Washington and the majority of government officials
were cowards that had desperately fled. For instance, if another Yellow Fever
epidemic occurred in the United States, it would make the president look bad,
showing the lack of leadership and having coward characteristics; the American
people would also look the President differently in a negative way.
A third thing that I thought was interesting was during
this time, the Cook had so much respect for Eliza, who was the black
maidservant that prepared all of the cooking at the coffeehouse. Eliza was like
a friend to both Lucile and Mattie; in fact, Mattie considered Eliza her best
friend in the book, even if she was an older woman. The Cook family was very
accepting and appreciative towards Eliza, which seemed to be rare during this
time because Philadelphia consisted mainly of a white population, whom many
felt were more superior than the African Americans. In other words, society was
vastly different in 1793 than contemporary, where diversity is heavily emphasized.
I feel that Eliza being asked by Mattie to join her in a partnership to the coffeehouse
business was a great honor; most whites would have not asked an African American
to join or become a member to something as large as a partnership in 1793. Fever 1793 discusses the Yellow Fever epidemic
in a very interesting way, allowing its readers to be engaged in the story.
This concludes the blog about Fever 1793. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog, and feel free to leave comments and invite others to do the same thing. Thank you for your time reading this blog and for providing feedback. Your support is greatly appreciated!
Sincerely,
Thomas H. Keppel
