Episode #85: 1793 Timeline Twist & The Great American Plague
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read

4/12/2026: On today’s episode, Valerie’s Timeline Twist features a smattering of 1793 major events, the awful (unintended?) ramifications of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, Dominique Jean Larrey’s “Flying Ambulances”, the short-lived and totally unflattering Belly Pad Craze, and a butter-heavy “Pan-Cake” recipe from the Knight Family Cookbook. Next, Amy Jo covers the panic, and devastation of the yellow fever epidemic that devastated Philadelphia in the second half of 1793. In a time when the miasma theory reigned, origin theories were shaky and therefore treatments were, shall we say, creative? Citizens (and some doctors) fled the city, while city leaders leaned on the Freed African Society with unfortunate results. There were heroes, but few were exempt from the sad chaos.
Cover Photo: From the 4 Frame of Yellow Fever Progression - #3 Jaundice












Sources/Photo Sources
Intro Sources:
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=141071
Timeline Twist Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1793
https://www.britannica.com/event/Fugitive-Slave-Acts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_gin
https://freedomcenter.org/voice/eli-whitney-cotton-gin/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_ambulance#Early_battlefield_treatment
https://thebabyhistorian.com/2022/10/26/the-belly-pad-craze-of-1793-baby-history/
https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1793
Timeline Twist Photo Sources:
https://thebabyhistorian.com/2022/10/26/the-belly-pad-craze-of-1793-baby-history/#jp-carousel-7468
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1010427491/eli-whitneys-cotton-gin-lithograph
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/32510428555675728/
The Great American Plague Sources:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-21/yellow-fever-breaks-out-in-philadelphia
https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/distillations-pod/calamity-in-philadelphia/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1793
https://youtu.be/SXBUKRuymY4?si=BPFjZk-7GFikcMxw
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300194524/ship-of-death/
https://hiddencityphila.org/2020/05/bravery-and-bad-deeds-during-the-yellow-fever-outbreak-of-1793/
https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/distillations-pod/calamity-in-philadelphia/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6727299/
https://ir.library.louisville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1356&context=honors
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/fever-epidemic-philadelphia-1793/
https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/distillations-pod/calamity-in-philadelphia/
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/yellow-fever-1793
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/inde-ajones-rallen-yellow-fever-1794.htm
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/politicsofyellowfever/index.html
The Great American Plague Photo Sources:
https://hiddencityphila.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Yellow-Fever-progression.jpg https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300194524/ship-of-death/
https://asm.org/articles/2021/may/history-of-yellow-fever-in-the-u-s
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2205886336184164&set=a.571083775032937&id=100063939583762



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