Race, Death, And Public Health In Early Philadelphia, 1750–1793

The recent discovery of burial sites associated with Philadelphia's early black community has raised questions about their historical context. This article will situate Philadelphia's African American burials against the backdrop of public health in the 1700s. Public health concerns were omnipresent in Philadelphia as it developed and expanded, and its inhabitants sought to navigate the complex challenges that accompanied such growth. For the black residents of Philadelphia contending with these public health challenges, it was especially difficult given the added burden of their disempowerment in the institutional structure of the city. Thus, before the emergence of African American churches and their accompanying cemeteries in the 1790s, white burial grounds, including churchyards and public lots, functioned as an arena of racial contestation, where members of the black community sought to exercise power within the city. The Free African Society and Yellow Fever epidemic of the 1790s are also considered.