Chapter Five: It Was Our Duty Summary and Analysis

Thursday, September 5. The Free African Society met to determine whether they would try to help their struggling white neighbors during the epidemic. The Society was the first American group ever created by blacks for blacks. Dr. Rush had requested that their organization help tend to the sick, reminding them that they were blessed since they seemed to have a special resistance to the disease. That didn't turn out to be true. Some blacks from Africa and the West Indies had contracted yellow fever as children, survived and developed anti-bodies against it. However, most blacks did not have this immunity and suffered right along with the white residents. However, initially it seemed as though blacks were not falling ill with the fever.

Most blacks had been slaves or had suffered from discrimination...