Absalom Jones and Richard Allen coordinated with the black community for help to care for the sick and bury the dead during the Yellow Fever epidemic. No one wanted to assist with this cause out of the fear of dying. But there was belief that people of color were immune to the disease. After the fever subsided, a handful of accounts dealing with the Yellow Fever surfaced, one of those being from Mathew Carey, a leading Philadelphia publisher in the 18th century.  Carey accused African American nurses of price-gouging and stealing from the dead and dying. Furious of their reputation being tarnished after putting their lives in danger, Jones and Allen wrote a pamphlet, “A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black People, During the Late Awful Calamity in Philadelphia” in protest, giving their account of events “declaring the facts as they really were.” Because they were working side by side with the black nurses, they were able to speak on the conduct and the behavior of them. By the time they paid the volunteers, paid to bury the dead and buy coffins, they did not gain any money and actually lost fianancially. Within a 2 month period, thousands were diagnosed and died from the disease.

Philadelphia is not new to the spread of infectious disease throughout its communities. In fact, within the last 250 years, Philadelphia is one of the few cities that have experienced several health epidemics from the spread of colonization and economic growth. As we experience this current state of the unknown, it’s important that we as a community remain calm! It’s imperative to remember what past generations experienced and learned from their mistakes.