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The Decision to Use Fire

James C. Mohr

in Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown

The Board of Health decided on New Year's Eve that quarantine alone would not eradicate bubonic plague from Honolulu. Following a suggestion from civilian power-broker Lorrin Thurston, and acting on ... More

The Board of Health decided on New Year's Eve that quarantine alone would not eradicate bubonic plague from Honolulu. Following a suggestion from civilian power-broker Lorrin Thurston, and acting on their understanding of bacteriology, the three physicians implemented a new policy of burning confirmed plague sites. This policy evoked further protest from Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiians, and white landowners.Less

The Government's Plague Fighters

James C. Mohr

in Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown

This chapter introduces and offers background on the principal medical figures involved in this drama: Nathaniel B. Emerson, Francis R. Day, and Clifford B. Wood, the three American-trained ... More

This chapter introduces and offers background on the principal medical figures involved in this drama: Nathaniel B. Emerson, Francis R. Day, and Clifford B. Wood, the three American-trained physicians on the Board of Health; Duncan A. Carmichael, who represented the US Marine Hospital Service; and Walter Hoffman, the Honolulu city bacteriologist.Less

The Triumvirate Struggles On

James C. Mohr

in Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown

The Hawaiian Medical Society remained divided over the Board of Health's bacteriology-based policies. Experimental vaccines offered little help against cases of bubonic plague. Disputes arose between ... More

The Hawaiian Medical Society remained divided over the Board of Health's bacteriology-based policies. Experimental vaccines offered little help against cases of bubonic plague. Disputes arose between the Board of Health and the Citizens' Sanitary Commission.Less

December's Debates and “a Sad Christmas Present”

James C. Mohr

in Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown

The quarantine policy stirred personal rivalries and fanned dissension among members of the Hawaiian Medical Society, not all of whom believed that bacteriology could prove the presence of bubonic ... More

The quarantine policy stirred personal rivalries and fanned dissension among members of the Hawaiian Medical Society, not all of whom believed that bacteriology could prove the presence of bubonic plague. Through their newspaper Ke Aloha Aina, Hawaiians joined Chinese and Japanese in protesting the policy. When no deaths followed the initial wave, the Board of Health lifted the quarantine, only to re-impose it as a result of several deaths on Christmas day, 1899.Less

Public Health Policy and the “Great Doctors' Meeting”

James C. Mohr

in Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown

The fire policy rekindled dissension within the Hawaiian Medical Society, which initially voted no confidence in the Board of Health. Those favoring traditional sanitation approaches to public health ... More

The fire policy rekindled dissension within the Hawaiian Medical Society, which initially voted no confidence in the Board of Health. Those favoring traditional sanitation approaches to public health urged the complete destruction of Chinatown as inherently unhealthy; bacteriologists agreed with the Board physicians that policies targeting the pestis bacillus were the right ones.Less

Fighting with Fire

James C. Mohr

in Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown

Beginning New Year's Day 1900, whenever anyone died of bubonic plague, surviving residents of the same building were relocated to detention camps for surveillance and the building itself was burned. ... More

Beginning New Year's Day 1900, whenever anyone died of bubonic plague, surviving residents of the same building were relocated to detention camps for surveillance and the building itself was burned. The Citizens' Sanitary Commission, often at odds with the Board of Health, conducted inspections of individuals and suspected plague sites throughout Honolulu. Chinese, Japanese, and Hawaiian charitable societies organized to aid the people who were rendered homeless by this fire policy.Less

The Frustrations of Mopping Up

James C. Mohr

in Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown

The Board of Health expanded its fire policy to Kahului's Chinatown on the island of Maui, and continued to deal with a divided Hawaiian Medical Society and a hostile Citizens' Sanitary Commission in ... More

The Board of Health expanded its fire policy to Kahului's Chinatown on the island of Maui, and continued to deal with a divided Hawaiian Medical Society and a hostile Citizens' Sanitary Commission in Honolulu. Though hounded by businessmen, labor bosses, ethnic communities, and commercial interests, the physicians refused to end the emergency until Honolulu passed thirty days without a bubonic plague death, which finally happened April 30, 1900.Less

The Arrival of Pestis

James C. Mohr

in Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown

Cases of grave illness began to appear in December 1899 among members of Honolulu's sharply divided Chinese community. Traditional Chinese healers denied the existence of bubonic plague and concealed ... More

Cases of grave illness began to appear in December 1899 among members of Honolulu's sharply divided Chinese community. Traditional Chinese healers denied the existence of bubonic plague and concealed deaths, while pro-Western Chinese physicians, led by Li Khai Fai and Kong Tai Heong, urged disclosure and cooperation with the Board of Health. An autopsy by Board physicians confirmed the presence of bubonic plague on December 12, and a state of emergency was declared the next day.Less

Detention Camps

James C. Mohr

in Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown

The Board of Health housed refugees from the Chinatown fire in large detention camps, where racial and ethnic dissension forced residential segregation.

Quarantine

James C. Mohr

in Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown

On December 13, the Board of Health imposed a quarantine around the Chinatown district of Honolulu along with a mandatory clean-up inside it. This brought hardship to those confined and evoked ... More

On December 13, the Board of Health imposed a quarantine around the Chinatown district of Honolulu along with a mandatory clean-up inside it. This brought hardship to those confined and evoked protest from the Chinese consul Yang Wei Pin and vice-consul Gu Kim Fui and from the Japanese consul Saito Miki. Mandatory cremation of plague victims further alienated Chinese and Hawaiian residents.Less

From outdoor relief to home assistance

Donnacha Seán Lucey

in The End of the Irish Poor Law?: Welfare and healthcare reform in revolutionary and independent Ireland

This chapter examines the reform of the poor law in the early years of the Irish Free State. It highlights that despite the closure of workhouses principles of deterrence still permeated official ... More

This chapter examines the reform of the poor law in the early years of the Irish Free State. It highlights that despite the closure of workhouses principles of deterrence still permeated official welfare policies towards the able-bodied. Central and local government authorities remained primarily concerned that unchecked poor relief was immoral; in turn the workhouse-test, which underpinned the former poor law, was replaced with work-tests as a method to determine the eligibility of poor relief. This chapter also explores localised relief polices in county Kerry and Cork city. Furthermore, it highlights how principles of deterrence were challenged during periods of economic depression leading to further welfare reforms.Less

The Burning of Chinatown

James C. Mohr

in Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown

On January 20, 1900, freak winds turned the burning of a small plague site into a major conflagration. In a matter of hours, the fire spread from the area around Kaumakapili Church throughout the ... More

On January 20, 1900, freak winds turned the burning of a small plague site into a major conflagration. In a matter of hours, the fire spread from the area around Kaumakapili Church throughout the Chinatown district, completely destroying the homes and possessions of over 5,000 Chinese, Japanese, and Hawaiian residents, who were herded to detention camps. The Japanese and Chinese consuls cooperated with the Board of Health to maintain order until the army could be called in.Less

The Intellectual Politics Of Filth

Owen Whooley

in Knowledge in the Time of Cholera: The Struggle over American Medicine in the Nineteenth Century

This chapter discusses the establishment of the Metropolitan Board of Health of New York City and the rise of public health prior to the 1866 cholera epidemic. The board ushered in a period of ... More

This chapter discusses the establishment of the Metropolitan Board of Health of New York City and the rise of public health prior to the 1866 cholera epidemic. The board ushered in a period of interventionist sanitary reforms and shifted the conceptualization of cholera as a social problem rather than a spiritual problem.Less

Accommodation, Adaptation, and Resistance to Leprosy and the Law

Kerri A. Inglis

in Ma'i Lepera: Disease and Displacement in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii

This chapter considers the ways Hawaiians and those afflicted with the disease resisted the 1865 Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy and its application. At the same time the chapter reveals Western ... More

This chapter considers the ways Hawaiians and those afflicted with the disease resisted the 1865 Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy and its application. At the same time the chapter reveals Western anxieties about the disease. Native Hawaiians responded in a variety of ways to both the epidemic and to the Hawaiian Kingdom's response to it. While there was some accommodation and adaptation to the Board of Health policies, there was also resistance, which came in many forms and which was at times violent. Above all, these various reactions demonstrate that Native Hawaiians were not merely victims, but active participants in this disease experience that affected so many.Less

Empire, Federalism, and the Surprising Fall of Yellow Fever

Werner Troesken

in The Pox of Liberty: How the Constitution Left Americans Rich, Free, and Prone to Infection

This chapter argues that the rise and fall of yellow fever in the United States was the result of a constellation of American political institutions and ideologies. While it is true that even during ... More

This chapter argues that the rise and fall of yellow fever in the United States was the result of a constellation of American political institutions and ideologies. While it is true that even during the colonial era rapidly growing port cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston had been vulnerable to yellow fever, that vulnerability was codified with the ratification of the Constitution in 1789. The Constitution codified this vulnerability because it gave a formal legal structure to ideologies, natural conditions, and informal arrangements that also helped to render the United States vulnerable to yellow fever. These ideologies and informal arrangements include the American commitment to commerce and its antipathy toward centralized authority and federal power, particularly among Southerners.Less

Living with Disease and Death at Makanalua

Kerri A. Inglis

in Ma'i Lepera: Disease and Displacement in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii

This chapter deals directly with life in the leprosy settlement—with the daily onslaught of disease and death—in a supposedly isolated environment. The physical environment was difficult for those ... More

This chapter deals directly with life in the leprosy settlement—with the daily onslaught of disease and death—in a supposedly isolated environment. The physical environment was difficult for those who were suffering from leprosy, and the challenges of that environment as well as death were constant throughout the early decades of the leprosy settlement, informing every aspect of daily life for the patients. Presented largely from the perspective of the Board of Health, the chapter looks at the problems associated with the isolation policy, but it also considers the demonstrated agency of Native Hawaiians in this history. Kānaka Maoli sought ways of treating/curing the disease, gave kōkua (help, service) to fellow sufferers, and found ways to survive in their isolated condition.Less