The 1878 yellow fever epidemic in Mississippi resulted in an expansion of nursing care and the recognition of the importance of nurses in disaster care. Much nursing care was provided by family members, but those victims who did not have the advantage of home care often received nursing care from others. Many of the nurses were from the Sisters of Charity and Sisters of Mercy, while others were from the Howard Association. These nurses were vital to the recovery of many who had no one else to care for them as the epidemic caused panic among the citizenry and many fled the disease. Because of the severity of the epidemic, race relations also underwent dramatic changes as African Americans nursed white Mississippians in a post-Reconstruction period fraught with racial tension and violence.
Deanne Stephens Nuwer is Associate Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi.