1804

Yellow fever epidemic in Louisiana territory, followed by epidemics in 1805, 1807, 1809, and 1811: “By the time Louisiana applied for statehood in 1812, yellow fever . . . had become nearly synonymous with New Orleans,” with mass deaths that “caused cascading structural problems for American government in Louisiana. It delegitimized American rule and embarrassed the United States’ authority at the precise moment it sought to project confidence to the local Creole population . . . The virus killed so many newly transplanted government officials that it slowed the wheels of the administration, disrupted commerce, and massively delayed land and legal reform.” Further, it “cast new Americans as unwelcome and unworthy invaders, unable to survive – let alone succeed – in subtropical New Orleans (Olivarius, 33). Racialized thinking led to belief that Africans had racial immunity to yellow fever (39-40).