Yellow fever?!
Question: The cultural effects of it. I know the facts already, i just need to know the rest.
Answers: The cultural effects of it. I know the facts already, i just need to know the rest.
There are two ways to answer that question-
The cultural effects of an epidemic or the cultural effects of the endemic presence of that disease.
To use a historical example -
New Orleans had waves of Yellow Fever sweep the City and kill or drive off residents until the epidemic had past on more than one occasion.
People were literally terrorized because they knew the disease and could see their neighbors and family members die of it.
Endemic Yellow Fever was so bad in early 1830's Texas that land sold through the newspapers in New York by the Allen Brothers who founded Houston often reverted to them after the new settlers arrived within a year because so many died of Yellow Fever and Malaria.
In the Texas Revolution the Allen Brothers obtained a Letter of Marc, rigged a ship and became "legalized pirates" of Mexican vessels.
The rag tag Texas volunteer Army attacked a huge Mexican Army at San Jacinto, following Texas forces at Goliad and the Alamo being completely wiped out to the man, defeating the Mexican Army and taking scalps.
If you study the culture, the mind set, the view of life of those early Texans, you can see the ever present odds of death in any given year from Yellow Fever and Malaria were very much a part of the bold undertaking of the Texans that ultimately lead to the Independence of Texas from Mexico.
When a 1/3 of the population dies off each year you have a very different cultural setting where people are very bold in what they do and death is a regular visitor to all ages.
My own great-great grandmother died of Yellow fever in the Trinity River bottoms near Anuach Texas just after the civil war (1865). The wagon train, on it's way from New Orleans to Houston, left my great grand father, then a boy, with two men, to build a lean-to until she died then bury her.
This changed my great grandfather's life dramatically leaving him an orphan. He went from the child of a wealthy family before the civil war to an indentured servant at age 10. Such change in circumstances were frequent due to Yellow Fever.
It is difficult for people today to get the feel of ever present deadly diseases like Yellow Fever in the past.
The potential threat of Avian Bird Flu may change that.
I know this isn't what you were looking for, but my brother married an asian woman who always says that he never got vaccinated against "Yellow Fever"! LOL