In 1878, a severe yellow fever epidemic swept through the lower Mississippi Valley.
Events leading up to the epidemic
During the American Civil War, New Orleans was occupied with Union troops, and the local populace believed that yellow fever would only kill the northern troops. These rumors instilled fear into the Union troops, and they actively practiced sanitation and quarantine procedures during their occupation in 1862 until the government pulled federal troops out of the city in 1877. The withdrawal of Union troops resulted in the relaxation of sanitation and quarantine efforts in New Orleans. Following the yellow fever epidemic in Shreveport, Louisiana, where 769 people died between August and November, the states in the Lower Mississippi Valley began to take precautions for any following epidemics. After the epidemic in Shreveport, the Quarantine Act of 1878 was passed that allowed the United States federal government to assume control over the state in quarantines, but the law did not allow for the federal government to intercede on local medical authorities or health boards. In March of that year, a virulent strain of Yellow Fever was found in Havana, Cuba, and New Orleans health officials ordered the detainment of all vessels from the Cuban and Brazilian regions. It is unknown what exactly led to the outbreak in the Mississippi River Valley as causes range from unchecked vessels from the fruit trade to refugees from the Ten Years' War in Cuba, which was experiencing a rise in yellow fever cases, however, investigations at the time suggest that the epidemic originated from the steamer Emily B. Souder on May 22, 1878.
Effects of the epidemic on the region
The entire Mississippi River Valley from St. Louis south was affected, and tens of thousands fled the stricken cities of New Orleans, Vicksburg, and Memphis. The epidemic in the Lower Mississippi Valley also greatly affected trade in the region, with orders of steamboats to be tied up in order to reduce the amount of travel along the Mississippi River, railroad lines were halted, and all the workers to be laid off. Carrigan states that "An estimated 15,000 heads of households were unemployed in New Orleans, 8,000 in Memphis, and several thousands more in scattered small towns - representing a total of over 100,000 persons in dire need."
New Orleans
When the epidemic broke out from the Emily B. Souder in May, roughly 40,000 residents that represent 20% of the city population fled the city, many of whom fled via the new railroads systems constructed during the Reconstruction period after the American Civil War, which further spread the virus across the Lower Mississippi Valley. The city saw roughly 20,000 total infections during the epidemic with 5,000 resulting in deaths, and saw a loss of more than $15 million due to the disruptions in trade from the epidemic.
Due to the struggles of the remaining citizens, numerous organizations formed relief committees that relied heavily on aid from the federal government in the form of relief rations and money donations from unaffected cities in the Northern United States. The federal relief came with heavy restrictions, as they were only allowed to be given to households that had yellow fever and could provide proof via a doctor's certificate or given to people considered "destitute." These restrictions led to many citizens having to go without federal aid, resulting in roughly 10,000 people receiving aid despite there being 20,000 cases of yellow fever alone.
Memphis
Memphis suffered several epidemics during the 1870s, culminating in the 1879 epidemic following the most severe bout of the fever, the 1878 wave. During this year, there were more than 5,000 fatalities in the city. Some contemporary accounts said that commercial interests had prevented the rapid reporting of the outbreak of the epidemic, increasing the total number of deaths. People still did not understand how the disease developed or was transmitted, and did not know how to prevent it.