Stephen Girard
Books
- The Summer the Capital Emptied Yellow Fever, Race, and the Collapse of Philadelphia in 1793 · Liszt Think
In August 1793, yellow fever struck Philadelphia, then the nation’s capital. Within weeks, George Washington fled and half the city followed. Five thousand died before the first frost. Amid the exodus, Dr.
- The Nation’s New Seat of Government…at the federal government was passing through. The capital was a guest, and guests, no matter how powerful, do not rearrange the furniture. Stephen Girard understood this better than most. A French-born trader who had arrived in Philadelphia during the Revolution, Girard had built a fortune th…
- The Arrival of the Hankey…Benjamin Rush’s appeal and send Black nurses into the homes of the dying on the false belief that Black people were immune to the disease. Stephen Girard and the French physician Jean Devèze would run the Bush Hill hospital. A committee of citizens would govern the emptied city. The epidemic…
- The Exodus Begins…ed their minister had left town began to pack. The logic was not cowardice. It was contagion of a different kind: the contagion of example. Stephen Girard, the wealthy French-born merchant and banker, stayed. He would later take a central role in managing the crisis hospital at Bush Hill. But…