The French Physicians Boy: A Story of Philadelphias 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic
by Ellen Norman Stern
Category: Juvenile Fiction

Sixteen-year-old Matthew is not at all happy to start the long ship voyage to North America from his native Dutch-ruled colony of Surinam, but he is not free to control his fate. Either he leaves for Philadelphia with his master or he will be sold at slave auction. Matts owner, Dr. David de Cohen Nassy, a Jewish planter and unofficial physician, bankrupt and depressed, seeks a new start in North America. When he travels there in 1792 he also takes his Negro slave who was born on the now-lost Nassy coffee plantation and knows no family but that of his master. Gradually Matt comes to believe that life in the new world could hold great promise for him, too. Once in Philadelphia, Matts master rises to social and professional success and becomes a naturalized American citizen. Matt, too adapts rapidly to his new life in the city. He meets and befriends Jed, another young slave, who inspires Matt to hope for freedom. Best of all, Matt persuades his master to allow him to learn how to read and write. When the first American hot-air balloon flight is launched from Philadelphia Matt is a proud spectator as he watches his master participate in the event. When Matt overhears his master speaking to a friend about the prevailing anti-slavery movement greatly favored in Philadelphia he believes Dr. Nassy is thinking of liberating him. He is terribly disappointed when this does not happen. Within a year a major yellow fever epidemic breaks out in Philadelphia. The city is in panic and distress. Five thousand people die, one out of every four citizens. Matt becomes a great help his master and his steady companion. He carries the doctors black bag on his medical visits, observes how his master medicates the sick and secretly dreams he too, might become a healer one day. Dr.Nassys West Indian experience with tropical diseases saves the lives of his patients. But the same skill that aids the survival of the sick incurs the enmity of Philadelphias medical establishment whose patients die in droves. In his way Matt tries to support his master and protects him from verbal attacks by the servants of some leading city physicians. Matt visits Bush Hill, the local pest house, with Dr. Nassy. There a fellow West Indian colleague is the chief physician. In the presence of Dr. Nassy he performs several autopsies that confirm to Matts master his medical treatment methods are justified. After the epidemic Matt again hopes that he will finally be emancipated, but his owners financial problems prevent it. The doctor opens an apothecary shop in Philadelphia and needs Matt to help him run it. His masters health is not compatible with the Philadelphia climate. As soon as the French Revolution establishes cherished civil rights in Europe and European colonies, Dr. Nassy decides to return to Surinam and his home in the Jooden Savanna, the Jewish settlement. Before he leaves Philadelphia he takes Matt to the Abolition Society and in a formal ceremony signs the document which will eventually free Matt. En route home, Matt is a proud witness as the Danish government honors Dr. Nassy with an official doctorate for his successful Yellow Fever work in Philadelphia. Although social conditions in eighteen-century Surinam are not sufficiently advanced to allow either a Jew or a black man to attend medical school, Matt manages to practice healing among his own people once he becomes a free man. His descendants include a number of physicians who carr ?? ??? ????? ?? ???? ????