98 RüdigerKunow
the deadly disease with them. They came to be regarded as bio-medical
"Trojan horses" of sorts. There was even something like the proverbial
horse:rumorswouldhaveitthatthefeverhadbeenbroughtintothecity
onboardtheFrenchvesselSansCoulotte(theship'snameclearlyhadits
programmatic overtones for those who wanted to notice them) which
hadcalledattheportofPhiladelphiainJuly(Pernick568).
Accordingly,theHaitianrefugeeswerealsoaccusedofspreadingnot
onlyyellowfeverbutyetanotherdisease,thatofcivicrebellion.Mostof
the (Caucasian) refugees had come to Haiti from France, some of them
hadeventakenanactivepartintheFrenchRevolution,anditwasfeared
they would bring with them the revolutionary virus then presumably
circulatingintheAmericasandthetrans-Atlanticworld.Thisfearnever
materialized,itwasratherapieceofearlyurbanfolklorebutthisdidnot
stopitfromperformingsocialandculturalworkatthattime.Thecourse
of events highlights the chain of connection between the various
diseases that agitated the public mind. In Philadelphia in 1793, medical
infectionandpoliticalinfectionnotonlywenthandinhandconceptually
but one infection served as a stand-in for the other. The connection
betweenthetwowassostableinthepublicdomainthatitoutlastedeven
the epidemic. Five years later, in 1798, Secretary of the Navy George
Cabot still was convinced: "The cursed foul contagion of French
principles has infected us. They are more to be dreaded... than a
thousandyellowfevers"(qtd.inS.Samuels188).
Andyetanother,evengreaterfearofinfectionwasthatcomingfrom
the fact that the rebellion on St. Domingue was aslaverebellion. In
Philadelphia,asinotherplacesofthenation,peoplewereconcernedthat
the enslaved population of North America, among whom rumors of the
rebellion were already circulating, would in due time be infected by
rebellious ideas^50 from the Caribbean (Dubois 156). In Philadelphia, it
was most likely this would happen through the agency of Black people
onboardtheSansCoulotte.Wenowknowthatsuchfearswereentirely
unfounded; in fact, the local African population was above all trying to
survive but was also committed to helping the afflicted in the medical
(^50) The spirit of rebellion was indeed infectious but more in maritime
Mesoamericathanonthemainland(Dubois156,406).