James Roger Sharp is professor emeritus in the Department of History at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Sharp has written extensively about the political ...

Yet it turns out this distinct brand of medical ignorance is nothing new. Rather, it is as American as apple pie. More than 200 years ago, one of the most famous doctors from the revolutionary period ...

Yellow fever appeared in the U.S. in the late 17th century. The deadly virus continued to strike cities, mostly eastern seaports and Gulf Coast cities, for the next two hundred years, killing hundreds ...

n 1793, a yellow fever epidemic shook Philadelphia, the new nation’s capital. Many residents, including medical practitioners, fled the city. In their absence, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones of the ...

click image for close-up Click here for the text of this historical document. Soon after Philadelphia's Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793 subsided, accusations began against the black citizens who had ...

There had been earlier fevers that swept through the city of Philadelphia, but the one that hit in August 1793 was one of the worst in U.S. history. In just three months, 5,000 people -- one out of ...