Racism

Phila’s black population of 2,100 initially believed immune to the plague, so untrained blacks persuaded to take service in infected homes, whence they were blamed for exorbitant wages and for spreading the infection and preying on the diseased. The black community “had never been dearly cherished by the city,” yet elders of African Society (founded by Jones and Allen in 1787) decided on 5 September that blacks should do what they could to help diseased white citizens  Absalom Jones and Richard Allen calling on Mayor Clarkson to offer assistance, thereby becoming “the first Philadelphians prepared to accept the plague and overcome it.” “The African Society, intended for the relief of destitute Negroes, suddenly assumed the most onerous, the most disgusting burdens of demoralized whites. . . . After, of course, the city shunned them as infected, vilified them as predatory. No conduct, however heroic, could expatiate the original sin of dark skin” (Powell, 94-101).