Why the U.S. Government Had to Flee Its Capital

In the summer of 1793, yellow fever killed roughly 5,000 people in Philadelphia, about one in every ten residents, and chased the federal government out of its own capital. Alexander Hamilton caught the disease, survived, and was barred from his own house in New York when he tried to recuperate there. Doctor Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, treated the dying with massive bloodletting and mercury purges that almost certainly killed more patients than they cured. The free Black community of Philadelphia, led by Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, stayed and nursed the city when most white residents fled. Ten decades later, Army surgeon Walter Reed proved in Cuba that the Aedes aegypti mosquito carried the virus, and in 1937 the South African virologist Max Theiler created the 17D vaccine that still protects travelers today. This is episode ten of Plagues: How Disease Changed History. Three beats every week, the pathogen, the event, and the response. Watch the next video on cholera and John Snow's 1854 Broad Street pump map. Chapters: 0:00 Scene 1 6:14 Scene 2 11:26 Scene 3 16:40 Scene 4 22:06 Scene 5 26:57 Scene 6 34:41 Quiz Time 36:28 Key Takeaways #explained #learn #2026 --- Disclosure The avatars and voices in this video are AI-generated. All content -- research, scripts, lesson design, and the custom video engine -- is created by a CISSP, CISM, and PMP certified professional with a Master's in Project Management, a B.S. in Information Technology, and a Doctorate in Business Administration in progress. This channel exists to make learning accessible and straightforward. Educational history-of-medicine series. This channel does not represent any medical institution, public health agency, or academic institution. Every named pathogen, dated outbreak, death-toll estimate, and quoted statistic is sourced from peer-reviewed epidemiology, primary historical documents, and CDC / WHO records. Where death tolls or interpretations are contested by modern scholars, the range is presented honestly. This series presents the historical record — not medical advice. Always consult licensed medical professionals for health decisions.