Yellow fever. For hundreds of years the term struck fear in the hearts of people across the world. Today panic strikes in when we hear the terms AIDS or SARS, as it should. In the United States we have largely forgotten epidemics of a monumental nature as much of the world suffers through catastrophic epidemics. At one time in American history such was not the case. Yellow fever became a yearly problem. Yellow fever struck, took lives and people moved on and waited for the next season.

I feel into the topic of yellow fever strictly by accident. Sure I had been familiar with the concept that yellow fever impacted the construction of the Panama Canal. While students may have a passing interest in the construction of the Panama Canal, they had no interest in yellow fever. So what if a bunch of people got sick and they couldn’t build a big honking canal to make travel easier. Talk about death and destruction and maybe a few eyebrows will rise. Talk about how yellow fever affected a giant party, Mardi Gras, and I have a few other students hooked. Mention slavery and the buy in increases. Links, history and geography are about links. I need to make my students need to begin to understand how these links affect the past, present and future. Yellow fever became one of my links. Through my poster I hope to show how intricately geography and history are intertwined. My excitement for yellow fever will hopefully energize my students.

Malaria, African trypanosomiasis, dengue fever, Leishmaniasis, schistomiasis, tuberculosis, Chagas disease, Leprosy, lymphatic filiriasis, onochocerciasis are all names which should strike fear into our hearts. In many countries of the world and on many continents these names do strike fear into the local population, governments and the medical community. Our ancestors sailed to America on a ship with a dream and in many cases a disease in their body. Did they dream of carrying something so deadly to America? They were merely looking for a better life. In some respects tropical disease were moving to previously unexplored territory from where they would spread and create havoc. Unwittingly human migrants were and are carrying potentially catastrophic pathogens from place to place even today.

Where Does it Come From and How Does it Move?

Slavery and Yellow Fever

Yellow Fever: A Geographic and Historic Perspective John R. Halverson

Desert Sands Middle School

Figure #1

According to the World Health Organization (2009) “tropical diseases encompass all diseases that occur solely or principally in the tropics. We may feel that we are isolated and or insulated from tropical disease since most of continental America is located in the Temperate Zone. Nothing can be further from the truth. Most diseases depend on their geographically limited human hosts. Disease moves!

Think of the movie “Ice Age”. Climate and weather affect the “immigration "of disease. Typically cold weather will limit the range of a disease. Most all of the original immigrants may have been cold sterilized on their trip to North America including parasites.

Yellow Jack announces his arrival.

Our little friend “yellow fever” sought hosts to make his journey and ignorance certainly did not hurt him along the way. Ignorance would prove fatal to many cities.

The national capital was not always located in Washington, D.C. While the capital was being built Philadelphia, through the Residence Act ,was the de-facto capital whose residents were the likes of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and Adams. Philadelphia was not only the de-facto capital trouble was brewing along the docks as a storm was brewing in the form of yellow fever. By the end of the summer of 1793 not only did Washington and his colleagues flee the city but 2000 residents were about to meet their fate at the hands of yellow fever. Yellow fever effectively shut down the government for the summer.

One of the great ironies of American history is that we now know that the vector for yellow fever was the Aedes aegypti mosquito which traveled to the Americas in many of the slave ships coming from Africa. Being that yellow fever is believed to have its origins in Africa many historians believe that blacks had acquired an immunity to yellow fever and became the carrier for its journey to America. The oppressed had brought an unintentional immigrant to America and yellow fever affected the oppressor.

Vivisection and Stem Cell ResearchOnce it was discovered that the mosquito was the vector for yellow fever controversy followed to understand how it was transmitted from person to person. This required human participants willing to give the ultimate sacrifice in order to find a vaccine. This idea creates a natural teaching link with the controversy with stem cell research today. Vivisection was no less controversial.

Why Yellow Fever? Yellow Fever Affects Our History

Yellow fever flag required for all ships carrying “the jack” to fly when they entered ports, to alert the locals of

the presence of yellow fever, all over the world, and thusly the name

“Yellow Jack”.

Immigration to AmericaSurely a hot topic for students. The United States has traditionally blocked immigrants to America based on nothing less than the potential for disease. The U.S. routinely “deloused” everyone from Eastern European's to Mexicans .

Dr Holt’s prescription for yellow fever.

People many times used home

remedies to treat a disease they did not understand.

Memphis, Tennessee was not only one of the major cities of the South but the United States. Centered in Memphis was Mardi Gras and was a celebration that even Presidents of the United States were invited to. Tragedy struck in 1878 when amongst the unwanted cargo was the Aedes aegypti mosquito, aboard the commercial ships appeared in Memphis and took 5,150 lives. The face of Memphis changed as blacks and the dispossessed moved in and previous residents fled. Mardi Gras would move to New Orleans.

The Deadly Aedes Aegypti.

Implications for Students.In the classroom today it is hard to make social studies relevant. First, since social studies is not a tested content area it is usually given short shrift. Students will always ask the question why do we need to study the past. It is our job to make the past relevant. My project on yellow fever provides me one of those links. It allows me to talk about immigration, not only of people but of disease. Cultural and physical geography can be brought in by examining the how and why of tropical disease. Both from the past (yellow fever) to the present (SARS). History is the obvious link because the story of yellow fever has everything from parties to slavery and is steeped in history. Having the students create the links from the past to the present lies within my ability to have them examine topics globally and not just within their historical context.

The geography of yellow fever. Map of

outbreaks of yellow fever in the 1800’s.