The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-09-08
A CRIME AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

Cuba, and elsewhere, recalled to mind
an article which appeared in the
North american Review, for October,
1884. We have just finished re-reading
it, and our conviction is that yellow
fever, as a disease, is result of the
slave trade. The slave trade, we be-
lieve to have been very great crime,
and yellow fever one of its conse-
quences. 1t does not initiate against
this proposition to say that the slave
trade, SO far as it was criminal, was
the transgression of the moral law, and
cannot, therefore, be the cause of a
physical calamity, since moral laws
have their own sanctions. Let that be
as it may, there is no doubt remaining
in our mind that yellow fever is one Of
the effects of the slave trade. 1t may
be objected also that this is too much
like poetic justice; and that nature
knows, or cares nothing for such a
form of justice. Let that also be as it
may. Jerusalem was pRrdoned after
receiving double for all her sins. 1t
may be that America cannot be par
doned so hideous crime as human
slavery, until she has received double
for her sins. ''If every drop of blood
drawn by the lash," said Abraham
Lincoln, 'be paid for by one drawn
by the sword, we must still say His
judgments are true and righteous
altogether" Wrong doing reaches far
] and has more than one outcome.
The article to which we have referred
was written by DR.. G. Creighton and is
entitled "The Origin of Yellow
Fever" DIR. Creighton says: eff we
take sketch map of the world and
color it Oh the places where yellow
fever has been most prevalent, at one
time or another, we shall find that they
group themselves in very significant
manner. Thelwhole continent of Asia
takes no share; Africa does not concern
us, except for two or three small spots
on the western coast; no part of
Europe has to be colored in except GER
tain parts of Spain or Portugal. Our
spots of color are nearly all on the
American side of the Atlantic, and are
but minute points on the coast. Yellow
fever is pestilence of certain shipping
places, more particularly of their har-
bors, wharves and sailors quarters. 1t
is not all Cuba, but Havana, not all
Hayti, but Port au Prince, not South
Carolina, but Charleston. 1t was sug-
gested by such singular facts of distri-
button as these, that 'the ports of
yellow fever were mostly the old ports
of debarkation in the slave trade"
The pestilence first showed itself at
Bridgetown, island of Barbados, in
1647, and was then 'belieyed to be
somehow connected with the arrival of
ships" Further investigation at many
different ports Of egress and ingress
for ships appeared to confirm the
notion that yellow fever was somehow
the result of the putting in of ships to
the harbors. At Barcelona, seaport
in Spain, about 1921, five thousand
persons died of it. 1t had been traced
by common consent to two ships in
particular, which were scuttled. In
August 1923 brigantine, owned at
nj oh mil
place, near San Sebastian, to dispose
of the remainder Of cargo of West
Indian produce shipped at Havana.
When the cargo was all disposed of
some necessary repairs on the hull
were undertaken by native carpenters.
The workmen began to fall i'll, one by
one, and extra pay had to be offered to
get others to take their places. The
disease gradually spread, and, as there
was French army at San Sebastian,
the government sent a commission Of
inquiry. One of the commissioners
was DR.. Audouard, who had been sent
on similar mission two years before,
to Barcelona. The disease was pro-
nounced to be yellow fever and forty
persons died of it. 1t turned out that
this brigantine was actually a slave
trader. She had taken out negroes
from the west coast of Africa, sold
them in Havana, and was on her re-
turn voyage. Upon examination DR..
Audouard found that the two ships
which had been scuttled at Barcelona
were both slavers. This, with some
other similar facts, led to investigation
and thought.
The conclusion to which DR.. Audou-
ard arrived, and which there seems
abundant evidence to sustain, was,
that "the poison of yellow fever comes,
in the last resort, from the discharge
of the sick negro; it is generated by the
fermentation, or putrefaction of the
dysenteric and other filth of slave
ships" 1.-The scourings of slave ships
had been thrown out at the ports of
debarkatiOn to mix with the mud of
creeks and swamps, TO ferment under
tropical sun, and to faint the soil of
the beach, the foundations of houses,
and the water conduits.n The filth
was not by any means gotten rid of