Episode 316: Kathryn Olivarius, Yellow Fever, Immunity, and Early New Orleans

In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. This purchase included the important port city of New Orleans. But the United States did not just acquire the city’s land, peoples, and wealth– the American government also inherited the city’s Yellow Fever problem.

Kathryn Olivarius, an Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University and author of Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom, leads us on an exploration of yellow fever, immunity, and inequality in early New Orleans.

This episode is supported by an American Rescue Plan grant to the Omohundro Institute from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Ben Franklin’s World is a production of the Omohundro Institute.

Episode Summary

Kathryn Olivarus is an Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University who specializes in the antebellum South, the Greater Caribbean, and disease. Her forthcoming book is Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom, tells a story of yellow fever, immunity, and inequality in early New Orleans.

During our discussion, Kathryn reveals what epidemic yellow fever was and how it spread in early America; How early New Orleanians used yellow fever and ideas about immunity to create a harsher system of racialized and class-based inequality; And what the history of disease can tell us about early American history.

What You’ll Discover

Symptoms and Mortality Rates of Yellow Fever
How Yellow Fever Came to North America
The History of Yellow Fever Epidemics in Early American Colonies
Differences Between Smallpox Epidemics and Yellow Fever Epidemics
How Early Americans Attempted to Mitigate the Spread of Diseases
How Yellow Fever Was Treated in Early America
The History and Significance of Early New Orleans
New Orleans First Yellow Fever Epidemic
Differences Between Northern and Southern Cities’ Treatment of Epidemics in the 19th Century
Why New Orleans Became a Hub for Yellow Fever
The Racial, Gender, and Social Order of 19th Century New Orleans
How Yellow Fever Impacted American Governance Following the Louisiana Purchase
How Early New Orleanians Manipulated Ideas About Yellow Fever and Immunity to Create a Harsher, Racialized Society
Immunocapital or Ideas about Disease Immunity and Privilege in Early America
How Knowledge of Yellow Fever Immunity was Established in Early New Orleans
How Early New Orleanians Weaponized Yellow Fever

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Time Warp Question

In your opinion, had a procedure like inoculation or vaccination been available for Yellow Fever, how might the power structure of Early New Orleans have been different?