Ship of Death

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13069183-ship-of-death

Ship of Death: The Voyage That Sparked a Yellow Fever Pandemic and Changed the Course of History by Billy G. Smith

Ship of Death tells the virtually unknown story of a small group of British idealists in the 1790’s who set off to end the African slave trade and inadvertently instigated an epidemiological tragedy, which ultimately changed North America, Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean islands forever.

Globalization, the rapid transportation of people, and manmade changes to the environment increase the threat of pandemics today–all resulting from historical forces set in motion five centuries ago when Europe began its expansion around the world, especially during the eighteenth century.

The story begins with 300 British citizens departing Portsmouth, England in 1792 to establish an antislavery colony in West Africa.

The enterprise turned into a tragedy. Attacks by Africans, rampaging elephants, and marauding pirates assailed the well-meaning colonists. Yellow fever, transferred by monkeys, dealt the final blow.

In late 1792, many settlers set off for home, hoping to leave the horrible experience behind them. But instead they triggered a chain of events that would change the Atlantic world. Lacking healthy sailors, the ship caught trade winds and drifted to the Caribbean, where they spread yellow fever to Saint Domingue (now Haiti), killing thousands of British soldiers. The French then took command of the island. Later, native islanders, who had survived the disease in their youth, stalled French troops during the (Toussaint L’Ouverture’s) slave uprising and prevailed as the French succumbed to the disease.

The French defeat in Saint Domingue helped persuade Napoleon to abandon his dream of a North American empire. In 1803 Bonaparte surprised Thomas Jefferson by offering to sell the Louisiana territory.

While the ship was still in the West Indies, commercial and refugee ships transported passengers escaping the slave revolution along with yellow-fever-carrying mosquitoes to Philadelphia. Philadelphians fled in panic, among them George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other government leaders, who became convinced that urban centers were disease-ridden as a result of the epidemic. The seat of America’s federal government officially moved to Washington, DC.

Back in England, the quarantined ship helped fuel rumors that Africa was a dangerous place and contributed to the British imperialist attitude toward the continent. Yellow fever would plague the Atlantic world for the next 50 years.