ABSTRACT
This essay examines civil rights lessons of the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the importance of such lessons for contemporary understandings of ways race frames disasters in American society. Focusing on the struggles of black aid workers in 1793, I contend African Americans confronted a secondary disaster of racial backlash following their widespread efforts to help Philadelphians battling the worst outbreak of yellow fever in several decades. Situating black aid work in broader societal debates about slavery, freedom, and racial justice, the essay focuses on Richard Allen's initial attempts to use the epidemic as a means of proving black civic equality and undermining slavery and segregation in Philadelphia and beyond the city. The essay concludes with a comparative framework that links racial landscapes of 1793 during the yellow fever crisis and 2019–2021 during the COVID-19 crisis.
