Chapter Seven: By Twelve Only Summary and Analysis

Saturday, September 14. The city was basically non-functional and near collapse. Most of the newspapers had suspended operations. The College of Physicians had stopped meeting. Taverns and markets were deserted or closed. Even the blacks of the Free Africa Society had been hit hard by the illness. To have some form of government, the mayor formed a committee to run the city. Though the committee began with twenty-six members, due to illness and departures, in the end there were only twelve. One of their first actions was to borrow $37,647.19 to combat the plague.

Mayor Clarkson presided over the daily meetings of the committee. Each member was given an area of responsibility, which ranged from providing food for the city to carrying the sick away and insuring that the dead were buried. Committee member and...