Lower Mississippi Valley yellow fever epidemic of 1878

[4] 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.

[4] It is unknown what exactly led to the outbreak in the Mississippi River Valley as causes ranged 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.

[6] 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.

[8] 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.

[10] These misconceptions regarding the mechanism of the virus exacerbated the rising death toll in Memphis as people operated under false notions of safety in the fever-ridden zones of the city.

Unknown to physicians at the time, yellow fever was spread through the bite of an infected mosquito which proliferated in warm, moist areas of high population density.

Given its urban and largely unsanitary environment in a vital trading location on the Mississippi River, Memphis became the ideal locale for the virus to take root after spreading from its origin in New Orleans.

[12] Beyond the quarantine, other common precautions included avoiding coming in contact with the "excreta" or bodily fluids of fever victims due to the misconception that the virus could be transferred through these liquids.

[13] While the impact of the mosquito remained unnoticed, ill-prepared citizens continued to operate unprotected under these poor defenses, adding to the ever-growing number of fever victims.

Left behind were African American residents and a large circle of Irish Catholics who lacked the wealth to uproot from their homes located in the poorest sectors of town.

The departure of white Protestants not only fueled the animosity that existed between the Catholics of the city and themselves, but also left Memphis ill-equipped in the manpower needed to sustain fever relief efforts.

However, the death the Catholic community experienced was a blow from which their population would never recover, effecting a change in the character of Memphis felt deeply in the years after the fever had run its course.