In Dr. Samuel Cartwright’s 1853 article from the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, “Prevention of Yellow Fever” he lays out his plan to prevent further yellow fever epidemics in New Orleans. The focus of his paper is mostly the Irish immigrants since they are the ones falling ill. Cartwright claims that one of the reasons that the immigrants are falling ill is that they were working in an environment that they weren’t used too and that working in the hot sun was causing their illness (Cartwright 305). Cartwright expresses his disdain for the current working conditions for immigrants, referring to the workhouses as “white slave depots” and discussing the immigrants’ limited access to water, heat, and other necessary commodities (Cartwright 296-297). He believes that diseases like typhus will quickly be eradicated by giving the poor blankets and wholesome food (Cartwright, 298). According to Cartwright, hard labor should be reserved for the black …show more content…
Cartwright’s opening statement that he is “looking for a cheap and safe solution” shows that he partially cares about money (Cartwright 292). In the same vein, one of the causes for an epidemic according to Cartwright was high taxes, because taxes depleted the income of the lower class, forcing them to live in poor conditions. Therefore, lowering taxes would help prevent yellow fever (Cartwright 315). Lowering taxes costs no money from Cartwright and it saves money for the elites, which shows that Cartwright was somewhat financially motivated. He also believed that changing the jobs of the Irish Immigrants from hard labor to skilled trades would help prevent an epidemic (Cartwright 314). Changing the quality of labor costs nothing to Cartwright, which again shows that money shaped Cartwright’s