The Yellow Fever Epidemic in Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia in 1855

“Death as a sailor bringing yellow fever to New York” — Yellow fever had ravaged America’s port cities since the 18th century: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Savannah, and New Orleans. This illustration was published by Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (date unknown).

The Ben Franklin sailing from St. Thomas to New York  made an unscheduled stop at Gosport for repairs. Yellow fever soon claimed dozens of lives every day. Thousands would die. Those who could, fled the area. Entire families perished. Doctors, ministers, and local officials died. Newspapers shut down. There were no more coffins. John Jones, an enslaved man who worked for undertakers, O’Brien & Quick, collected the bodies. Grateful citizens collected money to purchase his freedom but Virginia law required  a manumitted slave to leave the state within a year of emancipation and Jones declined the offer. He died about a decade after the “Death Storm” and was buried in West Point Cemetery. The Norfolk-Virginian published his obituary on August 8, 1868.

Yellow Fever in Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia, 1855
A comprehensive list of sources including Donna Bluemink’s  Norfolk Register of Deaths, City of Norfolk, Virginia, 1855
Her transcription includes burials for Norfolk, Princess Anne County, Norfolk County.

Peggy Haile McPhilips. “Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1855”  (26:52) YouTube,  June 29, 2016
City Historian describes the devastating yellow fever epidemic in Hampton Roads

George D. Armstrong. The summer of the pestilence. A history of the ravages of the yellow fever in Norfolk, Virginia, A.D. 1855. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1856.

William Selden.  Report on the origin of yellow fever in Norfolk during the summer of 1855. Richmond: Ritchie & Dunnavant, 1857
This report names several individuals — black and white — who died of the disease; also details earlier outbreaks of the disease in the region.

Franklin Bache Stephenson. Yellow fever at Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia in 1855. Washington, DC: National Library of Medicine, 1883

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