Free African Society
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…d of Health existed primarily to impose quarantines on arriving ships—a power it exercised sporadically and with limited effectiveness. The Free African Society, a mutual aid organization founded in 1787 by Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, operated in a different world entirely. Jones, a former slav…
- A Philosophy of the Blood and the Bile…contagion. But most white Philadelphians had fled, and those who remained were too frightened to enter infected houses. Rush turned to the Free African Society, founded by Absalom Jones and Richard Allen. He appealed to them directly—they were appealed to by respected physician Benjamin Rush—asking…
- The Arrival of the Hankey…ld flee. The city’s institutions would collapse. Volunteers would claim authority over the care of the sick and the burial of the dead. The Free African Society, organized by Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, would answer Benjamin Rush’s appeal and send Black nurses into the homes of the dying on the…