Fever 1793 - Historical Fiction

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