Nursing Care in the 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic

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.

Speakers Expertise:

Deanne Nuwer is the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at The University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Park campus. Nuwer has previously served as an associate professor of history and history pedagogy at the Gulf Park campus. She has published a number of articles including several about women in history and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She also edited the “Dictionary of United States History: Mississippi.”