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An American Plague Study Guide
1. What was the date at the beginning of Chapter 1?
2. In which direction were the swamps near Philadelphia that had lost water due to the intense
heat?
3. What was the name of one of the rivers that was drying up near Philadelphia?
4. What were the sewers called in Philadelphia?
5. Where did the sloop Amelia come from?
6. What cargo did the sloop Amelia bring to Philadelphia?
7. What was the largest city in North America in 1793?
8. How many people lived in Philadelphia in 1793?
9. How many shops were in Philadelphia in 1793?
10. Who lent his house to George and Martha Washington?
11. How did Louis XVI die?
12. How many French refugees fled a fierce slave rebellion?
13. What illness was seen in January of 1793?
14. What type of church did Rev. J. Henry C. Helmuth pastor?
15. What was the nationality of the sailor who had a fever and seizures before he died on
August 3?
16. In what boarding house did a sailor die of a fever?
17. How many people died in two houses on the same street during one week?
18. After a sailor died in a boarding house, who was the next person to die?
19. How old was Catherine LeMaigre when she became ill?
20. How often would Catherine LeMaigre vomit?
21. To Catherine LeMaigre, what part of her body did she feel as though it was burning up?
22. What was Catherine LeMaigre's husband's name?
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An American Plague Study Guide
23. A few days before being called to care for Catherine LeMaigre, which doctor had lost his
daughter to the same fever?
24. What did doctors give Catherine LeMaigre to cool her fever?
25. How old was Benjamin Rush in 1793?
26. What year was a French watercolor done to show a yellow fever victim in the early stages of
the illness?
27. What did physicians call the tiny reddish sores that erupted on individuals who had the
plague?
28. According to Dr. Hodge, where did the first deaths from the fever happen?
29. How long had medical professionals believed that disease was caused by body humors
being out of balance?
30. How many humors did physicians believe there were in the human body?
31. When had Dr. Rush seen a similar sickness before?
32. How many people who contracted yellow fever usually died from it?
33. How many physicians were in Philadelphia in 1793?
34. What day of the week did Catherine LeMaigre die?
35. Where was Dr. Rush's wife that summer of 1793?
36. When did a savage storm hit the city bringing winds and torrents of rain?
37. What was the name of the newspaper that was printed at the beginning of Chapter 3?
38. How many watchmen were supposed to watch the streets of Philadelphia at night?
39. How many people do historians estimate fled from Philadelphia during the fever?
40. When did Matthew Clarkson become mayor of Philadelphia?
41. How old was Matthew Clarkson when the plague struck Philadelphia?
42. How many children did Clarkson have?
43. What was the name of Clarkson's son who died during the plague?
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An American Plague Study Guide
44. What eye condition did Matthew Clarkson have?
45. When did Clarkson ask the physicians from the College of Physicians to come to a meeting
about the plague?
46. When was the last time that there was a yellow fever epidemic?
47. How many physicians from the College of Physicians showed up when Matthew Clarkson
called a meeting?
48. What was the name of the doctor who had studied yellow fever, but never seen it?
49. What day of the week were the recommendations published from the College of
Physicians?
50. What did A.B., a contributor to "Dunlap's American Daily Advertiser," find in rainwater
barrels?
51. What did many people sprinkle around their rooms after whitewashing them?
52. How many of his children did Charles Willson Peale shut inside his museum-residence along
with himself and his wife?
53. What was Charles Willson Peale's wife's name?
54. How many times a day did Charles Willson Peale fire a musket inside his house?
55. Where was the militia company stationed that shot off a cannon in Chapter 4?
56. On August 27, how many senators from the Pennsylvania legislature met at the state
house?
57. How many representatives met at the state house on August 27?
58. In what part of the state house building were the rooms of Joseph Fry, the doorkeeper who
died from the fever?
59. Who was the speaker of the Senate in 1793?
60. Who was the governor of Pennsylvania in 1793?
61. Where was the city almshouse located?
62. How many Overseers were in charge of managing the city almshouse?
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63. How many Guardians were in charge of caring for the poor who did not live in the city
almshouse?
64. Where did John Bill Ricketts take his circus for the summer?
65. Where was the mansion located that was commandeered for a place to care for seriously ill
patients?
66. Who was the owner of Bush Hill?
67. How many rooms were there in Bush Hill?
68. What was the name of the second-year medical student who volunteered to help at Bush
Hill?
69. How many died on September 8?
70. Where did federal department heads move their offices?
71. When did George and Martha Washington leave Philadelphia?
72. How long did George Washington plan to be gone from Philadelphia when he left the city?
73. What was the date at the beginning of Chapter 5?
74. When was the Free African Society founded?
75. Who wrote a letter asking the Free African Society to nurse the sick and attend to the dead?
76. About how many free blacks lived in Philadelphia?
77. About how many blacks in Philadelphia were slaves?
78. In 1793, what percent of Philadelphia's black worked as live-in domestic workers?
79. When was a portrait of Absalom Jones painted by Raphaelle?
80. What church in Philadelphia had been built with the help of blacks?
81. How much money did the black leaders attempt to raise in order to build a new church?
82. How much money was donated to refugees from Santo Domingo?
83. Where did Jones and Allen discover a house where the mother was dead, the father was
dying, and the children were huddled together, frightened and hungry?
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An American Plague Study Guide
84. How many families did Jones and Allen visit in one day?
85. How many groups in Philadelphia stepped forward and offered to help with the sick and
deceased?
86. How much did some nurses begin receiving for tending the sick?
87. What was the average yearly income in Philadelphia in 1793?
88. How many blacks were Jones and Allen in direct contact with who might have helped tend
the sick?
89. What doctor wrote about the disgusting aspects of the vomit that spewed from fever
victims?
90. How old was Isaac Heston when the plague struck Philadelphia?
91. When did Dr. Rush realize that he had yellow fever?
92. At the beginning of Chapter 6, about how many persons were ill with the fever?
93. By the time Dr. Rush contracted yellow fever, how many doctors had died?
94. For how many years had doctors been using bloodletting or phlebotomy?
95. In the 1700s, what was often prescribed to break a slight fever?
96. What Revolutionary War hero wrote begging Dr. Rush for his help during the 1797 yellow
fever epidemic?
97. In Chapter 6 in a letter to his wife, how many patients did Dr. Rush say that he was learning
had died every morning?
98. Whose letter did Dr. Rush find in his old medical books about the yellow plagues that had
occurred in Virginia about fifty years earlier?
99. How many times a day would Dr. Rush administer the Ten-and-Ten or Ten-and-Fifteen
Treatment?
100. How many pounds of blood did Dr. Rush and other doctors at that time believe that the
human body held?
101. By September 5, how many of Dr. Rush's patients did he claim improved with the Ten-andTen treatment?
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An American Plague Study Guide
102. After Dr. Rush's assistants bled him and administered the purge, how many days did it take
for him to get back on his feet?
103. When did Dr. Rush hire a horse-drawn carriage and begin visiting patients after his bout
with yellow fever?
104. After Dr. Rush seemed to be cured of yellow fever, how many patients sought him in a
day?
105. How many patients did Dr. Rush's five assistants each see in one day after Dr. Rush's
recovery?
106. How many bleedings did the Free African Society perform?
107. How old was the servant boy that Dr. Rush trained to open a vein and see the sick?
108. What was the name of Dr. Rush's sister who died during the plague?
109. What newspaper was printed occasionally by September?
110. How often had the College of Physicians promised to meet during the plague?
111. Besides the mayor, how many members were on the illegal special committee formed to
run Philadelphia?
112. Which member of the special committee was in charge of providing food for the city?
113. How old was Israel Israel at the time of the plague?
114. How many cords of wood did a subcommittee obtain before winter set in?
115. By the first of September, how many people were jammed into Bush Hill?
116. How old was Stephen Girard in 1793?
117. Where was Stephen Girard born?
118. When did Stephen Girard contract a mild case of yellow fever?
119. For how many days did Peter Helm and Stephen Girard attend to Bush HIll?
120. When did Dr. Jean Deveze volunteer to work at Bush Hill?
121. How old was Dr. Deveze in 1793?
122. By September 17, how many burials were taking place daily?
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An American Plague Study Guide
123. How much did the citizens of Manhattan send to aid Philadelphians?
124. Where was a Philadelphia woman and her black servant tarred and feathered?
125. What state refused to allow a ship from Philadelphia to land and take on water?
126. How many bundles of shirts and dresses for orphans were sent by the Widow Grubb?
127. Who wrote that Death was riding triumphant on a pale horse at the beginning of Chapter
8?
128. How many died from the plague on October 7?
129. How many died from yellow fever on Saturday, October 12?
130. From Rev. Helmuth's congregation, how many died at the beginning of October?
131. What type of church did Reverend Mr. Helmuth pastor?
132. Of what type of church was Reverend John Schmidt a pastor?
133. What decorated houses where people were sick from the yellow fever?
134. How many whale oil streetlamps were in Philadelphia in 1793?
135. In what alley did Helmuth find 40 dead?
136. On October 17, which committee member wrote in the official minutes that the fever was
winning?
137. How many times did it rain in September, 1793?
138. What was the name of a man who lost his entire family, including his wife, to the plague;
and then married again?
139. When did the Black Plague strike in England?
140. When Rush contracted yellow fever again, how many days did he spend confined to bed
unable to lift his head?
141. What paper did Andrew Brown publish?
142. What was the name of a memorable poem written by Philip Freneau?
143. Where did Major Christian Piercy become ill as he fled Philadelphia?
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An American Plague Study Guide
144. At whose farm was Major Christian Piercy put out of a stagecoach?
145. Who had President Washington put in charge when he left Philadelphia?
146. How many weeks did Henry Knox spend in quarantine?
147. How many high-ranking officials of the federal government were within a day's ride of
Philadelphia?
148. Who was the governor of Maryland in 1793?
149. What ship was seized by one of Genet's hired privateers?
150. During the plague, how many days might it take for a letter to be sent to or from
Philadelphia?
151. When did President Washington leave Mount Vernon and head north?
152. Where did Thomas Jefferson and George Washington meet as they traveled toward
Philadelphia?
153. How much did Thomas Jefferson estimate that it cost him to get to Germantown?
154. On what day did the death toll fall below thirty?
155. What was the occupation of a man named Mr. Brooks who reopened his shop on October
31 and died of yellow fever on November 3?
156. When did George Washington make a personal inspection of Philadelphia?
157. What was Dolley Payne Todd's husband's name?
158. Where did Dolley Payne Todd go during the fever outbreak?
159. When was someone hired to design and construct Philadelphia's first waterworks?
160. Who was hired to design and construct Philadelphia's first waterworks?
161. How long was Dr. Currie's book about Philadelphia's plague?
162. When did the fever reappear in Philadelphia?
163. What was the name of William Cobbett's paper?
164. Where did Dr. Rush apply to become a member of the medical faculty?
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An American Plague Study Guide
165. How much did a jury award Dr. Rush including court costs when he sued Cobbett for libel?
166. How much more did the committee spend than it had received in donations?
167. When Israel Israel finally won an election of Pennsylvania state legislature, by how many
votes did he win?
168. How much did some whites charge to put a corpse in a coffin and haul it to a waiting
wagon?
169. When was the quote written at the beginning of Chapter 11?
170. In the 1700s, how many times did yellow fever epidemics strike Manhattan and the
surrounding towns?
171. When was the Quarantine Hospital set on fire?
172. How many died of yellow fever in New Orleans in 1853?
173. When General Charles LeClerc went to Haiti to crush a slave revolt, how many Haitians
were killed?
174. When did France sell its North American territory to the United States in the Louisiana
Purchase.
175. When was it first considered that mosquitoes might cause yellow fever?
176. Where was Dr. Carlos Finlay from?
177. During the Spanish-American war, how many American soldiers died of yellow fever.
178. Who headed the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Commission?
179. How old was Jesse Lazear when he died from yellow fever?
180. When was the actual source of the yellow fever virus identified to be tree-dwelling
monkey in African and American rain forests?