America's First Plague

Robert P. Watson is the author of many books on American politics and history including, most recently, Escape! The Story of the Confederacy's Infamous Libby Prison and the Civil War's Largest Jail Break (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021),George Washington’s Final Battle: The Epic Struggle to Build a Capital City and Nation (Georgetown University Press, 2021), The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn: An Untold Story of the American Revolution (Da Capo Press, 2017, and The Nazi Titanic: The Incredible Untold Story of a Doomed Ship in World War II (Da Capo Press, 2016), which is currently being made into a motion picture. He resides in Boca Raton, Florida.

• ImagesPrefacePoem “Pestilence”Prologue: Ship of DeathPart I. America’s First Crisis1. Plague!2. Revolution3. Yellow Jack4. Philadelphia5. The First to DiePart II. The Capital Under Seige6. “Hell Town” 7. Fear and Panic8. Philadelphia Responds9. Bush Hill 10. The Physicians War Part III. Turning Point11. Unlikely Heroes12. A Nation without a Government13. Ghost Town14. The Fall Frost15. Of Pestilence and PoliticsEpilogue: 100 Days of TerrorAppendix A. Timeline of EventsAppendix B. Map of PhiladelphiaAbbreviationsNotesBibliographyAbout the Author

One reason for historians to revisit topics already covered by others is that later generations have new questions and new perspectives about the subject matter. Robert P. Watson, writing about the yellow fever epidemic that struck Philadelphia in 1793, tells a story we can resonate with because of our own experiences with Covid-19.... This was the first time, but not the last, that Americans grew scared and angry about a medical emergency, vollied political points as they tried to figure out what to do, and learned how better to prepare for future problems. Read the book.