You're listening to an airwave media podcast.

Ben Franklin's world is a production of the

Omaha Institute and is sponsored by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Hello and welcome to episode 316, Oh of Ben Franklin's world.

The podcast dedicated to helping you,

learn more about how the people and events of our early American past

have shaped the present day world we live in.

And I'm your host, Liz Kovart.

Early America was really a disease-ridden time and place.

As you heard earlier this year in episodes 301 and 302, Smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases

that early Americans came into contact with. The other deadliest disease that early Americans

faced was Yellow Fever.

Now while conducting research for our episodes about smallpox in the history of

inoculation and vaccination, my colleague Collie White found the work of historian

Catherine Oliverus, which investigates yellow fever epidemics in early New Orleans

and how early New Orleans often used immunity to yellow fever as a marker of a human's value and

worth to New Orleans society.

That means that both whites and blacks, free and enslaved,

were often measured and accepted into New Orleans society

based on whether they had immunity to yellow fever.

As with most research that we conduct for special episodes,

the history that Holly found was really fascinating,

but we didn't have space to dive into yellow fever and immunity in episodes about smallpox,

...