What are some historical events that happened in the book Fever 1793?

Laurie Halse Anderson's historical novel Fever 1793takes place in Philadelphia. As portrayed in the book, Philadelphia was then the nation's capital. The narrator of the novel mentions the State House, where the Congress then met. Coffeehouses, like the one portrayed in the novel, were common in Philadelphia at the time, and they were places where people could gather to speak about politics and to exchange ideas. The character of Eliza in the novel is...

Laurie Halse Anderson's historical novel Fever 1793 takes place in Philadelphia. As portrayed in the book, Philadelphia was then the nation's capital. The narrator of the novel mentions the State House, where the Congress then met. Coffeehouses, like the one portrayed in the novel, were common in Philadelphia at the time, and they were places where people could gather to speak about politics and to exchange ideas. The character of Eliza in the novel is a freed slave, and Philadelphia was home to about 2,000 freed slaves at the time. 

In addition, an actual yellow fever epidemic broke out in Philadelphia in July of 1793. It was the first significant yellow fever epidemic in the United States. Of the approximately 45,000 people then living in the city, 5,000 died and an estimated 17,000 left the city. Dr. Benjamin Rush, who is a character in the novel and who actually signed the Declaration of Independence, was a major figure in combating the disease. He believed in a treatment of giving his patients mercury and bleeding them. Dr. Rush mistakenly believed that African-American people were immune to the disease, and many African-Americans carried the responsibility of caring for sick patients. When they started to perish, this idea was discounted. While Dr. Rush praised their efforts, some in the community saw their work as an example of profiteering. Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, two African-Americans who had worked to help patients during the epidemic, published their own account of their work to discount these rumors. The Appendix (at the back of Fever 1793) provides more details about the historical background of the novel.