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.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/316


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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans
• Episode 174: Thomas Apel, Yellow Fever in the Early America Republic
• Episode 295: Ibrahima Seck, Whitney Plantation Museum
• Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Pt 1
• Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Pt 2

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