In 1793 a yellow fever epidemic almost destroyed Philadelphia. The young city was saved by two Black preachers, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, who organized the free Black community in providing essential services and nursing the sick and dying. Allen and Jones were assured of two things: that stepping up would help them gain full equality and citizenship, and that they were immune to the disease. Neither promise turned out to be true.
About Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race“Calamity in Philadelphia” is Episode 2 of Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race, a podcast and magazine project that explores the historical roots and persistent legacies of racism in American science and medicine. Published through Distillations, the Science History Institute’s highly acclaimed digital content platform, the project examines the scientific origins of support for racist theories, practices, and policies. Innate is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.
CreditsHosts: Alexis Pedrick and Elisabeth Berry Drago
Senior Producer: Mariel Carr
Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez
Associate Producer: Padmini Ragunath
Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer
Richard Allen voiceover by Jason Carr
“Innate Theme” composed by Jonathan Pfeffer. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.
Resource ListHow the Politics of Race Played Out During the 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic, by Alicia Ault
A short account of the malignant fever, lately prevalent in Philadelphia: with a statement of the proceedings that took place on the subject in different parts of the United States, by Mathew Carey
Medicalizing Blackness: Making Racial Difference in the Atlantic World, 1780-1840, by Rana A. Hogarth
A narrative of the proceedings of the black people, during the late awful calamity in Philadelphia, in the year 1793, by Absalom Jones and Richard Allen
Freedom’s Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers, by Richard Newman
Observations upon the origin of the malignant bilious, or yellow fever in Philadelphia, and upon the means of preventing it: addressed to the citizens of Philadelphia, by Benjamin Rush
Bishop Richard Allen: Apostle of Freedom, produced by Dr. Mark Tyler
TranscriptWhere Have All the FEMA Trailers Gone?
Science and the Supernatural in the 17th Century
Distillations Turns 200
Acts of God, Acts of Men: When We Turn Nature into a Weapon
Old Brains, New Brains: The Human Mind, Past and Present
Fads and Faith: Belief vs. Fact in the Struggle for Health
Innovation and Obsolescence: The Life, Death, and Occasional Rebirth of Technologies
Trash Talk: The Persistence of Waste
Life with HIV: Success without a Cure?
Babies on Demand: Reproduction in a Technological Age
Fogs of War: The Many Lives of Chemical Weapons
Wake up and Smell the Story: Sniffing out Health and Sickness
The Teeth Beneath Your Feet: Oddities in Urban Archaeology
Intoxication and Civilization: Beer's Ancient Past
Alchemy's Rainbow: Pigment Science and the Art of Conservation
Meet Joe Palca: A Radio Story About Making Radio Stories
Drawing History: Telling the Stories of Science through Comics and Graphic Novels
Why the Chicken Became a Nugget and Other Tales of Processed Food
Digging Up the Bodies: Debunking CSI and Other Forensics Myths
Zombies! How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Zombie Apocalypse
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