Arrival

The schooner Phoebe, carrying 118 Africans[2] dropped anchor off  “The Fort” (Fort Mifflin) on August 4, 1800. The  notice of the her arrival might not appear to have warranted much attention, being just one of the routine announcements of the arrivals and clearances of other vessels at Philadelphia, as seen in the “Marine List” found in the August 5th issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette.[3]

The Phoebe is described as “prize to the sloop of war Ganges, 118 black men or slaves.” Another Ganges prize, the Brig Dispatch, an American merchantman recaptured from the French, arrived the same day.

Two days later, on Wednesday, August 6th, the Prudent followed the Phoebe into port, which the Philadelphia Gazette [4] duly reported – complete with sensational headline – although it gives the number of slaves aboard as sixteen, not the  “seventeen Africans, men women, and children” reported in the ship’s manifest [5]:

Statistics

The makeup of the 135 Africans arriving at Fort Mifflin was unknown at the time of their arrival, although, as the ship manifests confirm, there were men, women and children aboard. However, the records of the Abolition Society are detailed enough to allow an age/gender breakdown for the 126 of the 127 Africans who lived long enough to be indentured. [6] These are summarized below:

Vessel	Adults		Total Adults	% Adults	Children		Total Children	% Children	Total by Gender		% By Gender		Total
	Male	Female			Male	Female			Male	Female	Male	Female
Phoebe	35	18	53	48%	42	15	57	52%	77	33	70%	30%	110
Prudent	5	2	7	44%	3	6	9	56%	8	8	50%	50%	16
Total	40	20	60	48%	45	21	66	52%	85	41	67%	33%	126

The male/female (67%/33) ratio is consistent with aggregated data for more than 4,200 voyages published online in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade database (64.5%,35.5%). By the same measure, the adult/child ratio (48%/52%) is significantly higher than the aggregated ratio reported in the same reference (78.5%/21.5%).[7]

The indentures in the Abolition Society papers cited here only occasionally provide a person’s age explicitly. In the bulk of cases,  their age be inferred from the indenture terms. The Society’s practice was to indenture everyone for a minimum of 4 years or until age 21 for males and 18 for females. Hence, males indentured for 4 years must have been age 17 and above, females, age 14 and above. They are categorized as adults. The remainder (males 16 and under, females 13 and under) are categorized as children. Further, indentures for the children added stipulations requiring that they be taught to read and write. This is entirely consistent with the indenture and apprenticeship laws and practices in effect for all Pennsylvania citizens at the time. Differences between this definition of adult/child versus that used in other sources may account for the deviation from the average shown here. However you define it, 52% children is a troubling statistic.[8]

A more detailed breakdown for each of 126 indentured Africans by name, gender, arriving vessel, year of birth, etc. A higher resolution version can be found here.

At The Lazaretto

The Phoebe and Prudent didn’t disembark the Africans at Fort Mifflin itself, but at the marine hospital, also known as the Lazaretto, about a mile upriver at the mouth of the Schuylkill. Situated on six to seven acres of high ground,  the hospital compound contained four buildings: a two story brick house for the resident physician (James Hall); two hospital buildings that also served as residences for the quarantine master (Thomas Egger) and the steward (Heath Norbury)[8a]; and a large storage shed.[9]

As reported in the Gazette, the poor living conditions aboard the slaving vessels led the authorities to bring the Africans ashore and accommodate them at the Lazaretto:[10]

With a view to their health and convenience it was deemed proper to land and encamp these unfortunate people.

In the same, unattributed article titled “PATHETIC”, the Gazette also reported what happened when the Africans disembarked:

Scarce had this benevolent measure been effected, and the miserable Africans mingled with their fellow sufferers when a Husband and Wife!  who had been torn from their home and happiness, and hurried on board separate vessels by their brutal oppressors met, and recognised each other. Lost, for a moment, in an ecstasy of surprise they exhibited a scene of tenderness, which would have softened the savage hearts of those who had occasioned their separation. But the meeting was more than the unhappy female could support ; -her frame, shaken by the influence of her affections, yielded to the shock, and she was prematurely a mother!…we are happy in knowing that the unfortunate woman is recovering.[10]

It’s not obvious how much credence to give this story. It may simply be an exaggeration designed to stir abolitionist sympathies in the city. There is nothing in the indenture records that suggests that an adult couple, one from the Prudent and one from the Phoebe, were  indentured to the same master. Perhaps one of them was among those who didn’t survive to be indentured or their respective masters lived in close enough proximity to allow their relationship to continue. It will take additional research to evaluate the alternatives. True of not, the story was compelling enough to elicit an emotional response from the Quaker diarist, Thomas Pim Cope:

Would not a scene like this produce one sympathetic glow, one tender emotion of pity in the breast of a dealer in human flesh? No,- a man has no bowels of mercy for man- It is sufficient that a fellow being is an African & black, to justify the infliction of cruelty on him, such as a Mohawk {might} glory in when punishing his bitterest enemy. And do these monsters call themselves Christians? Yes, & under that Sacred profession they do not hesitate to perpetuate the most daring crimes, in outrage of its best principles, & in defiance of the majesty of heaven-[12]

Quarantine

The interruption of the Phoebe’s and the Prudent’s voyages at the Lazaretto was not unusual. In fact, every vessel arriving at Philadelphia with a foreign port of origin was required by law to stop at the Lazaretto for a health inspection. Failure to comply could lead to hefty fines and imprisonment for the ship’s master and owners.

This was not the result of the over-wrought imaginations of the Philadelphia’s citizens and leaders. On the contrary, more than 13,000 Philadelphians had succumbed to yellow fever in the seven years preceding the Phoebe’s arrival. Beginning in 1794, and continuing in 1796, 1797 and 1799, the General Assembly passed increasingly detailed laws creating a Board of Health for the Port of Philadelphia and specifying quarantine rules and penalties for breaking them. The 1794 law begins with typical legislative understatement of the problem at hand:

WHEREAS the laws for preventing pestilential and infectious diseases being brought into this commonwealth have proved defective, and the increasing intercourse between the United States, and foreign countries renders it necessary to provide as well for the establishment of an efficient Health Office, as for otherwise more effectually securing the port and city of Philadelphia from the introduction of pestilential and contagious diseases, and regulating the importation of German and other passengers.[13]

The 1799 law to which to the Phobe and Prudent were subject,  runs 28 pages in length and, in contrast to the understatement of the preamble, gets right to the point:

Sect. 5. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid,

That all Ships and vessels, as well vessels of war as merchant vessels, arriving at the said lazaretto from any port or place places, the Mediterranean, or the seas or waters connected with the same, to the eastward of the Straits of Gibraltar, or from the coast of Africa without the Straits of Gibraltar, and the territory of the same, and the Ports of Africa other than the Cape of Good Hope, in the Indian Ocean, and from the main land of North or South America, or the West India islands between the latitude of the river St. Mary, in Georgia, and the beginning of the latitude of thirty degrees south of the Equator, and from Batavia in the island of Java, from the fifteenth day of May to the first day of October, shall there be detained at anchor, and discharge the whole of their cargoes and ballast, which, together with the vessels, bedding, cloathing, and every other article onboard, which may be supposed capable of retaining infection, shall be perfectly cleansed and purified, under the direction of the Resident Physician and Quarantine Master…[14]

The quarantine was to last 15 days, but the Board had the authority to act at its own discretion:

Whenever the Board of Health shall have reason to apprehend, that the health of the city will be endangered by permitting any vessel, vessels, persons or cargo, coming from places infected or usually infected with the plague, to proceed to, or be landed at the city of Philadelphia, they shall have full power and authority to detain and unlade the said vessel, and cause such measures to be taken, as will be conducive to the purification of such vessel, and of the persons and cargo on board thereof.[15]

Given the likely conditions aboard the Phoebe and Prudent, and the fact there was sickness aboard, it’s clear the the Board exercised its full discretion here. The Africans disembarked to the Lazaretto grounds, those who were ill admitted to the hospital and the process of caring for all of them began in earnest.

Orders

The prize master, twenty year old midshipman Calvin Stevens, and his crew had brought the Phoebe’s voyage to a conclusion after a two week sail from the Straits of Florida.  Upon their arrival on August 4th, Stevens, wrote Secretary of the Navy, Benjamin Stoddert, for  instructions.  Stoddert, now situated in the nation’s new capital in Washington, wrote back four days later [16]:

To Midshipman Calvin Stevens, U. S. Navy, from Secretary of the Navy
[WASHINGTON, D. C.]
Navy Departmt 8 Augt 1800
Mr CALVIN STEVENS Prize Master
of the Schooner Phoebe of Charleston
with Slaves, Fort Mifflin, near Philad — care of Capt Gill.

SIR! I have recd your letter of the 4th ins. On the expiration of your Quarantine you will apply to Jared Ingersoll Esq. Dist Atty who will direct you what to do with the blacks, & how to proceed to get the Vessel condemned.
If Capº Mullowny has appointed no agent for Prizes, apply to Geo: Harrison Esqr to act as Agent.
After getting clear of the Prizes, you will turn the men with you from the Ganges, over to the Delaware
I am, Sir, yr mo: obt St &c
[NDA. OSW, Vol. 4, 1800–1801.]

Midshipman Stevens was not the only person in need of instructions. While it was abundantly clear that if the Phoebe’s voyage was illegal under the 1794 and 1800 Federal laws banning U.S. participation in the foreign slave trade, and that the vessel and cargo could be condemned in a Federal Court, with the exception of the slaves. These laws said nothing about how the authorities should handle the disposition of the enslaved captives. The arrival of the Phoebe and its human cargo apparently caught Navy Secretary Stodddert by surprise, as evidenced in his instructions to Jared Ingersoll, the U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia:[17]

To Jared Ingersol, Philadelphia, Pa., from Secretary of the Navy
[WASHINGTON, D. C.]
Navy Dept —
8th Augt 1800 —
JARED INGERSol Esqr

Mr Calvin Stevens has brought into Delaware, the Schooner Phoebe of Charleston with 120 Negroes, captured by the Ganges Captn Maloney [Lieut. John Mullowny, U. S. Navy].

The act of Congress of the last Session intended to annihilate the Slave Trade, is silent as to the disposition of the slaves, It was expected no doubt, the Captains making the Captures, would sell them in the West Indies. I have directed Mr Stevens to apply to you for instructions how to proceed. I suppose measures will be taken by the Government, or by some of the societies for laudable purposes in Pennsylvania to bind out the Blacks for a few years, until they can learn the language of this Country —

I am &C B — S —
[NDA. GLB, Vol. 3, 1799–1800.]

Stoddert’s “supposition”  that “measures will be taken by the Government” seemed sufficient to induce action from Ingersoll, if any were needed at all. Condemnation proceedings for both the Phoebe and the Prudent began on August 15.

Assistance

There was little time to wait for the court proceedings to reach a conclusion. The Africans had immediate needs for the most basic necessities. For example, the Prudent arrived with sixteen water casks and no stores at all. It gets worse.

Clothing

Every African arrived naked. The Board of Health, presumably not in a position to clothe scores of people on short notice, immediately put out the a for assistance, this  advertisement appearing in the August 5th edition of Claypoole’s American Advertiser [18]:

Arrived at the Lazaretto yesterday, one hundred and eighteen Black People, without the least clothing, being taken from on board the schooner Phebe, prize to the United States Ship Ganges. The humane citizens are requested to send to the Health-Office at the State House, any kind of linen clothes for their accommodation, as well as to prevent the shock their decency will be exposed to by so many of both sexes being thus exposed naked.

Philadelphia’s prolific writer, Elizabeth Drinker, read the advertisement, copied it into her diary and then took action.[19]

Aug. 5 [1800]. I read this morning in Claypoole’s paper the following piece, headed Humanity….
I looked upon this as a call upon humanity indeed, and set about making up a bundle, which I did, of good and suitable things, for the poor naked creatures. Soon after, two women friends were in our office requesting clothes for the negroes below, to be sent to Edwd Garrigus, who is one of the health officers, but as Peter was going to negro’s meeting this afternoon, which is near ye State house, I followed my first intent, and sent them there.

Provisioning

Of course, food and shelter were needed as well and the Board of Health took steps to provide them. If there was a question of who was going to pay for all this, the 1799 quarantine law suggests the Board would have a reasonable expectation that its costs would be reimbursed:[20]

the Board of Health shall determine and  direct what measures shall be pursued in order to purify the vessel and cargo, and restore the health of the diseased persons on board, which direction shall be carried into execution under the inspection of the resident Physician and Quarantine master, at the expense of the master, owners
or consignees of the vessel

At the time, ownership of the Phoebe and Prudent would have been uncertain and midshipmen Stevens and Robbins could hardly be held responsible for feeding and housing 135 Africans for an unspecified time. While we have no direct record of it, it appears that the Federal District Court adopted the role of guardian – whether formal or informal – for the Africans. Most of the day-to-day work seems to have fallen to District Marshall John Hall who, as we shall see, served as the responsible party in a number of different roles.

Heath Norbury, the Lazaretto’s steward, kept detailed records of the expenses incurred for the Africans’ care, sampled here, down to the pins, needles and tableware:

• 8.2.1 wt fine pilot bread at 9 dol – $76.58
• 665 lb. of beef – $44.33
• My own [Heath Norbury’s] & wife’s attention – $30.00
• 100 bundles Rye straw for bedding – $6.67
• 1 Gross [144] pewter spoons – $6.00
• 50 lbs. soap – $5.56
• 1 barrel herring – $4.00
• 1 lb. threads, 100 needles, & 2 papers pins – $1.50

There are no expenses listed for clothing, so presumably the Board of Health was successful in securing donations from the citizens of Philadelphia. Through September 10th the total cost of these “sundries furnished the Africans landed from the schooners Phebe and Prudent” came to $385.31. [21]

Medical Care

While schooners were in quarantine, the Lazaretto’s resident physician, James Hall, was responsible for the medical needs of passengers and crew:

the resident physician, immediately on the arrival of any ship or vessel liable to be detained at the Lazaretto, in order to be cleansed and purified as aforesaid, to cause the sick, if any on board, to be removed to the building which shall be appointed by the Board of Health for their reception, and diligently and impartially, with his best skill, attend upon and administer medical assistance to each and every sick person that shall be therein lodged… [22]

The Lazaretto hospital began its work as early as August 6th, when ten Africans are reported to have been under treatment (at $.67 a day). Over the next six weeks, two to fourteen people were hospitalized at any given time,  peaking on August 15th, then falling off as patients died or were discharged. Six Africans lost their lives in this period. The total hospital cost posted to the account of US Marshall John Hall came to $352.14.[23]

The records also show that a crew member of the Phoebe, seaman Daniel McDaniels, was treated at the hospital for two days. He is not recorded on the Ganges‘ crew list, so he may have been a member of the Phoebe’s original crew and brought to Philadelphia along with the prize.[24]

Winding Down

While the Board of Health managed the African’s care and feeding at the Lazaretto, the cases against the Prudent and Phoebe proceeded in the Federal District court. On August 26th, Judge Richard Peters ordered the Prudent condemned, and the Federal Government took formal possession of the schooner. The Abolition Society had also been hard at work. The first indenture, of a Prudent captive, twelve year old Demau Ganges, to Moses Hill of Northern Liberties, was executed on August 30th. All but one of the remaining fifteen Prudent captives were bound out in the following week.

The Unites States vs. Schooner Phoebe was another matter. The owners were contesting the vessel’s seizure and the status of the Phoebe’s Africans was uncertain. On September 26th, 1800, Judge Peters ordered a “commission to the Havana” to ascertain the facts of the case. This promised to take considerable time to complete and, presumably, the court did not want to continue incurring expenses for the care of more than 100 Africans for an indeterminate time. Consequently, the Abolition Society added contingent language to the indentures – going so far as to have special forms printed – that required masters or mistresses to post a $400 bond guaranteeing the African’s return if the court found them to be to be slaves .

Four days later, on September 30th, the Phoebe’s Africans began entering into indenture agreements. By the end of October, most of the Phoebe’s Africans were indentured with sixteen or seventeen remaining under the guardianship of the Court. It’s not entirely clear how long they remained at the Lazaretto, but it was probably just a few more weeks. On November 3rd, U.S. Marshall John Hall paid the Board of Health $652.61 “for board, maintenance and medical attendance on 134 Africans landed from on board the Schrs. Phoebe and Prudent”[25]

Ten days later Hall spent another $84.84 “for sundry Africans board at the Lazaretto”.[26] At a nominal rate of $0.67/day, this expense suggests that ten or eleven Africans were still at the Lazaretto in mid November. The absence of later transactions in the Board of Health records suggests the remaining Africans moved elsewhere to await their indentures.

Pennsylvania Hospital

The resident physician at the Lazaretto was only required to be on station full time until October 1st. In mid-September the Lazaretto’s patient count began to drop, with two patients remaining at the end of October. It has been suggested that this was a reflection of successful care at the Lazaretto hospital [27]. In fact, nine Ganges Africans were transferred from the Lazaretto to Pennsylvania Hospital between September 1 and October 31. Total hospitalization counts. including a single Ganges who was hospitalized at the alms house, are shown in the figure below: [27] 

The Ganges’ medical care extended to the end of February, 1801 and perhaps beyond. It’s clear from the figure that Pennsylvania Hospital provided a significant fraction of the total medical care the Ganges Africans received. It is also the case that the bulk of the medical expenses in all hospitals were borne by the Federal District Court. Eight of the nine Ganges patients in Pennsylvania Hospital were to be paid for by, who else, U.S. Marshall John Hall, as recorded in the Pennsylvania Hospital Board records:[28]

John Hall Marshall security  at $3 per week, a special agreement being made with him that if the United States do not pay this, the board is to be remitted

This suggests that Hall lacked the authority to incur hospital expenses unilaterally, so the hospital board agreed to waive the charges if he couldn’t secure funding from the court. 

The records are found Pennsylvania Hospital Archives and provide details about those admitted: name, dates admitted and discharged, responsibility for expenses, diagnosis, result.  Ailments include debility, cough, fever, dropsy and rheumatism. The records indicate seven Ganges left the hospital cured with two unknown. Their discharge records have yet to be located.

The patients all carry the surname Ganges. Males appear to have been assigned forenames corresponding to prominent members of the Abolition Society: Patterson (Robert Patterson), Milnor (William Milnor), Rawle (William Rawle), Rush (Benjamin Rush), Harrison (Thomas Harrison) and Garrigues (Edward Garrigues). In some cases the names match those in the indentures; in other cases, not. It may still be possible to infer the probable Ganges by matching the date of discharge with the date of indenture. This in an avenue for further analysis.

We now turn to the fates of the Ganges Africans, those who made it out of the hospital and those who didn’t.

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Composite map showing the location of 5 structures amidst the ruins of the Old Lazaretto site in 1892[29]; it’s position as reported by the USGS, circa 1896[30]; the approximate shoreline of the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers from an 1816 map, before landfill work eliminated the Delaware’s back channel[31]; the location of an 1968 borrow pit that excavated well below grade and likely disturbed the site significantly[32]; and the current route of Interstate 95 and the southern approaches to the Girard Point Bridge[33]

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References

[1] Miller, James. Plan of property of the United States comprising Fort Mifflin, Mud Island, and the Old Lazaretto in the Twenty-fourth Ward Philadelphia, 1860. Map provided by Philadelphia Streets Department, Survey and Designs Bureau via the Philadelphia GeoHistory Network, https://www.philageohistory.org/rdic-images/view-image.cfm/181-02_HP ,  (Accessed March 30, 2018). The image has been color adjusted for readability.

[2] Slave Manifest of Schooner Phoebe, 8/22/1800 (Philadelphia, Pa., NARA Regional Archives, RG36, Slave Manifests for the Port of Philadelphia, 8/1800 – 4/1860). The manifest reports 118 Africans aboard.

[3] Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelpha, Pennsylvania), 5 Aug 1800, p3 (chroniclingamerica.loc.gov)

[4]  Philadelphia Gazette (Philadelpha, Pennsylvania), 7 Aug 1800, p3 (genealogybank.com)

[5] Slave Manifest of Schooner Prudence, 8/22/1800 (Philadelphia, Pa., NARA Regional Archives, RG36, Slave Manifests for the Port of Philadelphia, 8/1800 – 4/1860). Note the name of the vessel is incorrect here. The “Prudence” is reported to have had 17 Africans aboard, not 16 as reported in some contemporary newspaper accounts.

[6] Records of the Abolition Society of Pennsylvania, HSP Collection 490, “Committee of Guardians indenture papers for Africans taken from the slave schooner Prudent by Capt. Maloney of the Ganges 1800, Box 2, Folder 14; “Committee of Guardians indenture papers for Africans taken from the slave schooner Prudent by Capt. Maloney of the Ganges 1800”, Box 2 Folders 15–22, Box 3A, Folders 1–4; “Indenture book D 1795-1835. AmS .061. These records do not allow us to infer an age for one of the Ganges Africans, Wange, who is only references in a bond with no age given.

[7] Summary statistics of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database can be found here.

[8] The project has selected this categorization method to reflect that used by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database project to “replicate  how slaves were categorized [male/female, adult/child] in primary sources”. In this case, the African’s ages were probably estimated by Abolition Society members based on each individual’s physical qualities, then used to establish the indenture’s duration. See: David Eltis, Trans Atlantic Slave Database, Methodology, Age Categories, online, ( https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/about#methodology/age-categories/5/en/: accessed 7 Mar 2021).

[8a] Cornelius William Stafford, ed., The Philadelphia Directory for 1800, (Philadelphia, William W Woodward, 1800), p 71.

[9] Aurora General Advertiser (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 3 Jun1802, p. 1; online, (newspapers.com, accessed 19 Feb 2021).

[10] Gazette of the United States, & daily advertiser. (Philadelphia [Pa.]), 20 Aug. 1800, p2; online,  Lib. of Congress,  Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers ( chroniclingamerica.loc.gov : accessed 7 Mar 2021).

[11] David McClure, Plan of a survey of the River Delaware from one mile below Chester to Richmond above Philadelphia, taken by order of Councils in the months of July, August & September Anno Domini 1819, 1820. Detail taken from a map provided by Philadelphia Streets Department, Survey and Designs Bureau via the Philadelphia GeoHistory Network, https://www.philageohistory.org/rdic-images/view-image.cfm/181-02_HP ,  (Accessed Feb 27, 2021). The image has been color adjusted for readability.

[12] Thomas Pim Cope, Thomas Pim Cope Diary, Volume 1, pp 6-7; Transcription of handwritten diary, 144 pages, Digital Manuscripts and Images, Tri College Libraries Archives and Manuscripts (http://triptych.brynmawr.edu/cdm/ Quaker Journals and Diaries > Browse the Collection > Thomas Pim Cope Diary, Volume 1 : accessed 22 Feb 2021).

[13] State of Pennsylvania, An Act for establishing an Health -office, for otherwise securing the city and port of Philadelphia from the introduction of pestilential and contagious diseases, and for regulating the importation of German and other passengers, (Philadelphia, Printed by Hall and Sellers, 1794), p 1.; online, ( http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/2566055R : accessed 7 Mar 2021).

[14] State of Pennsylvania, An Act for establishing an health office, for securing the city and port of Philadelphia, from the introduction of pestilential and contagious diseases, (Philadelphia, Printed [by Samuel F. Bradford] at the office of the “True American.”, 1799), p 10.; online,  ( https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-2566056R-bk : accessed 2 Mar 2021).

[15] Ibid., p11.

[16] Captain Dudley W. Knox, USN (Ret.) ed., Naval Documents Related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France – Volume 6, Naval Operations from June 1800 to November 1800, (1938, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington D.C.), pp 232-233. This is a transcription from an original cited here as NDA (Naval Department Archives) OSW (Letters to Officers of Ships of War). The Delaware was a 20 gun refitted merchantman stationed at New Castle, Delaware at the time. It was the common practice to re-assign prize crews to other ships rather than ordering them back to the vessel from which they came.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 5 Aug 1800, p. 3 (genealogybank.com)

[19] Biddle, Henry R. Ed., Extracts from the Journal of Elizabeth Drinker, (Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott, 1889), 363.  The article referred to can be found in Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser, Tuesday, Aug 5, 1800 Philadelphia, PA Issue: 7373 Page: 3. Peter was the Drinker’s black servant. Edward Garrigues was a devout Quaker, wealthy carpenter, chairman of the Philadelphia Board of Health and a member of the Abolition Society committee convened to assist the newly-arrived Africans. Later, he contracted the indentures of Mira and Miza Ganges.  His 1798 diary recorded the agonies of the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia. See: Anita DeClue and Billy G. Smith, Wrestling the “Pale Faced Messenger”: The Diary of Edward Garrigues During the 1798 Philadelphia Yellow Fever Epidemic, Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies,Vol. 65, Explorations in Early American Culture (1998), pp. 243-268

[20] State of Pennsylvania, An Act for establishing an health office, for securing the city and port of Philadelphia, from the introduction of pestilential and contagious diseases, (Philadelphia, Printed [by Samuel F. Bradford] at the office of the “True American.”, 1799), p 9.; online,  ( https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-2566056R-bk : accessed 2 Mar 2021).

[21] Philadelphia Bureau of Health, Day Book, Lazaretto and Lazaretto Hospital 1798-1801, Philadelphia City Archives, RG 37, item 37.14, entry dated 10 Sept. 1800.

[22] State of Pennsylvania, An Act for establishing an health office, for securing the city and port of Philadelphia, from the introduction of pestilential and contagious diseases, (Philadelphia, Printed [by Samuel F. Bradford] at the office of the “True American.”, 1799), p 15.; online,  ( https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-2566056R-bk : accessed 2 Mar 2021).

[23] Philadelphia Bureau of Health, Accounts, Lazaretto Steward 1794-1801, Philadelphia City Archives, RG 37, item 37.13, account of John Hall Esqr. Marshall of the District of Pennsylvania, p 103 (pencil).

[24] Philadelphia Bureau of Health, Journal, Lazaretto and City Hospital 1798-1804, Philadelphia City Archives, RG 37, item 37.12, page with entries beginning 4 Sept 1800.

[25] Ibid., page with entries beginning 27 Oct 1800.

[26] Ibid., page with entries beginning 5 Novt 1800.

[27] Dona Horowitz-Behrend, “The Ganges Africans who were held at the Lazaretto station (Tinicum) in 1800”, online, 2007 ( http://www.ushistory.org/laz/history/ganges.html : accessed 2 Mar 2021 ). This article also states, incorrectly, that the Ganges landed at the “new” Lazaretto on Tinicum Island when, in fact, it was at the “Old Lazaretto” on State Island. The New Lazaretto did not open until 1801.

[28] Stacey Peebles, Extracts from the records of the Pennsylvania Hospital Archives. private communication, December 2020.

[29]  U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. T. C. Mendenhall, Superintendent. Philadelphia. Greenwich Point to Fort Mifflin Topographical survey by R. M. Bache, Assistant. August 5th to November 4th, 1891. Scale 1:2400 , 1891. Full, low resolution version available online.

[30]  Henry Gannet, A Dictionary of Geographic Positions in the United States,  Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1896, 70. Available online. Note the description of the coordinate point is “Burnt Factory, south chimney (old lazaretto)”.

[31] Melish, John, and Vallance Tanner. Map of Philadelphia County: constructed by virtue of an act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed 19th March. Philadelphia: Melish, 1819. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/79695293/.

[32] Physical condition plan. Phila. Industrial Development Corp. Penrose & Fort Mifflin Tracts. N.W. side of Schuylkill River & Delaware River. City of Philadelphia, 40th Ward. Barton & Martin, Engineers. 12 So. 12th St., Philadelphia. September 30, 1968 [No color in original], 1968. Full, low resolution version available online.

[33] Google Maps, accessed June 2019. Online.

 

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