What do you think?
Rate this book
The Natural World of the Gulf South
Yellow Fever, Race, and Ecology in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans
Through the innovative perspective of environment and culture, Urmi Engineer Willoughby examines yellow fever in New Orleans from 1796 to 1905. Linking local epidemics to the city’s place in the Atlantic world, Y ellow Fever, Race, and Ecology in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans analyzes how incidences of and responses to the disease grew out of an environment shaped by sugar production, slavery, and urban development.
Willoughby argues that transnational processes―including patterns of migration, industrialization, and imperialism―contributed to ecological changes that enabled yellow fever–carrying Aedes aëgypti mosquitoes to thrive and transmit the disease in New Orleans, challenging presumptions that yellow fever was primarily transported to the Americas on slave ships. She then traces the origin and spread of medical and popular beliefs about yellow fever immunity, from the early nineteenth-century contention that natives of New Orleans were protected, to the gradual emphasis on race as a determinant of immunity, reflecting social tensions over the abolition of slavery around the world.
As the nineteenth century unfolded, ideas of biological differences between the races calcified, even as public health infrastructure expanded, and race continued to play a central role in the diagnosis and prevention of the disease. State and federal governments began to create boards and organizations responsible for preventing new outbreaks and providing care during epidemics, though medical authorities ignored evidence of black victims of yellow fever. Willoughby argues that American imperialist ambitions also contributed to yellow fever eradication and the growth of the field of tropical U.S. commercial interests in the tropical zones that grew crops like sugar cane, bananas, and coffee engendered cooperation between medical professionals and American military forces in Latin America, which in turn enabled public health campaigns to research and eliminate yellow fever in New Orleans.
A signal contribution to the field of disease ecology, Yellow Fever, Race, and Ecology in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans delineates events that shaped the Crescent City’s epidemiological history, shedding light on the spread and eradication of yellow fever in the Atlantic World.
Willoughby argues that transnational processes―including patterns of migration, industrialization, and imperialism―contributed to ecological changes that enabled yellow fever–carrying Aedes aëgypti mosquitoes to thrive and transmit the disease in New Orleans, challenging presumptions that yellow fever was primarily transported to the Americas on slave ships. She then traces the origin and spread of medical and popular beliefs about yellow fever immunity, from the early nineteenth-century contention that natives of New Orleans were protected, to the gradual emphasis on race as a determinant of immunity, reflecting social tensions over the abolition of slavery around the world.
As the nineteenth century unfolded, ideas of biological differences between the races calcified, even as public health infrastructure expanded, and race continued to play a central role in the diagnosis and prevention of the disease. State and federal governments began to create boards and organizations responsible for preventing new outbreaks and providing care during epidemics, though medical authorities ignored evidence of black victims of yellow fever. Willoughby argues that American imperialist ambitions also contributed to yellow fever eradication and the growth of the field of tropical U.S. commercial interests in the tropical zones that grew crops like sugar cane, bananas, and coffee engendered cooperation between medical professionals and American military forces in Latin America, which in turn enabled public health campaigns to research and eliminate yellow fever in New Orleans.
A signal contribution to the field of disease ecology, Yellow Fever, Race, and Ecology in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans delineates events that shaped the Crescent City’s epidemiological history, shedding light on the spread and eradication of yellow fever in the Atlantic World.
264 pages, Hardcover
Published December 13, 2017
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 11, 2018
More the history of Yellow Fever with with New Orleans the focal point of yellow fever since the beginning of the city with emphasis on the two worse epidemics,1853 and 1878. The 1853 outbreak was the worse in the city's history claiming 12-18,000 lives. The 1878 outbreak affected, not only the city but spread inward to Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri and even to Chicago.
Plans to eradicate the pestilence is sometimes at variance with the twenty-first century thought, especially has it pertains to race. So caution in reading parts of this book must be taken, as the writings of times in which they were written.
This book begins with how the disease spread from Africa though slave ships in the late seventeenth century, ecological means thought the diggings of canals and the beginnings of sugar cane production, in Louisiana.
Some of this book is very scientific with genus of mosquitos and means to curb the disease. This book also mentions the last big outbreak in 1905. Plus the works of Walter Reed and William Gorgas who work spread the globe from New Orleans to Cuba, South and Central America and Africa.
Sadly, even in the twenty-first century yellow fever is still in the world, in developing nations, still killing thousands.
Plans to eradicate the pestilence is sometimes at variance with the twenty-first century thought, especially has it pertains to race. So caution in reading parts of this book must be taken, as the writings of times in which they were written.
This book begins with how the disease spread from Africa though slave ships in the late seventeenth century, ecological means thought the diggings of canals and the beginnings of sugar cane production, in Louisiana.
Some of this book is very scientific with genus of mosquitos and means to curb the disease. This book also mentions the last big outbreak in 1905. Plus the works of Walter Reed and William Gorgas who work spread the globe from New Orleans to Cuba, South and Central America and Africa.
Sadly, even in the twenty-first century yellow fever is still in the world, in developing nations, still killing thousands.
June 6, 2020
Well researched book that directs attention to the interaction between human activity and the rise of yellow fever in the colonial Atlantic world. Theorizes that the rise of sugar cane industry played a large role in growth of mosquito population in the New Orleans area. And as a port city, it was vulnerable to the introduction of infected individuals coming from areas where yellow fever was endemic. Great book. Also very timely in light of the current pandemic.
December 3, 2018
Willoughby examines the epidemics of yellow fever that occurred in New Orleans from 1796 to 1905. She cites the city's location and it's role in sugar production and slavery as the reasons the disease was so prevalent here.
This was a different take on the yellow fever epidemics. I picked it up initially because it was about New Orleans. It was an interesting book.
This was a different take on the yellow fever epidemics. I picked it up initially because it was about New Orleans. It was an interesting book.
June 26, 2025
Why did this make me pro-army?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews