Forrest Forrest and Human shield??

[Allie]

Thanks! Great information. I didn't think he ran the penal colony, just hired help from it. Think he was one of the first to see if there was a use for President's Island for cultivation. Strangely, he moved there because he thought it was healthier for his wife - if he was quarantining people that's odd! However, it probably was a better climate than the epidemic-ridden city.

Well, no, not so much, although he couldn't have known that. Yellow fever is transmitted by a mosquito which has a short range, and not person-to-person. Memphis at the time had a horrifying lack of sanitation, but the main problem was stagnant water. Low-lying places like President's island were not a good place to be.

Thanks to you asking about this, I did some reading last night and discovered that my great-something uncle, Sylvanus Landrum, was considered one of the heroes of the 1878 epidemic. He was the preacher at Central baptist, and the only white preacher who remained in the city during the epidemic, so that he could tend to the ill and dying. Two of his children died, and he got the fever but recovered.

We're probably off topic! But anyway, yellow fever was a fact of life Forrest would have been very conscious of.

 

[diane]

Well, no, not so much, although he couldn't have known that. Yellow fever is transmitted by a mosquito which has a short range, and not person-to-person. Memphis at the time had a horrifying lack of sanitation, but the main problem was stagnant water. Low-lying places like President's island were not a good place to be.

Thanks to you asking about this, I did some reading last night and discovered that my great-something uncle, Sylvanus Landrum, was considered one of the heroes of the 1878 epidemic. He was the preacher at Central baptist, and the only white preacher who remained in the city during the epidemic, so that he could tend to the ill and dying. Two of his children died, and he got the fever but recovered.

We're probably off topic! But anyway, yellow fever was a fact of life Forrest would have been very conscious of.

It's good information. These epidemics and others before them have a bearing on Forrest's life and on who he came to be. It's tough waking up from a coma and finding all your brothers and sisters dead but you and the baby!

 

[roberts]

Thanks! Great information. I didn't think he ran the penal colony, just hired help from it. Think he was one of the first to see if there was a use for President's Island for cultivation. Strangely, he moved there because he thought it was healthier for his wife - if he was quarantining people that's odd! However, it probably was a better climate than the epidemic-ridden city.

Forrest had a contract to house, feed and care for the prisoners. He paid the city 10 cents per day for those that worked on his plantation. Not all of them could work (He received a per diem to house those.) He also didn't get first pick...that went to the county officials for road work. The farm was worked by a combination of prisoners and hired labor. Some prisoners stayed on after their terms to work for wages. Forrest employed a warden as well.

During the 19th century, yellow fever would wind its way from the Caribbean to various cities. It was transmitted by mosquitoes feeding on previously infected, newly arrived travelers and then carrying the disease to the next victim. The first hard frost eliminated the propagation of the disease by killing the mosquitoes... So Memphis and other cities would begin each spring free of the fever. It would usually arrive in town during the summer with infected passengers from points south. The idea of the quarantines on the island was to keep the disease out. They also arranged for inspections of passengers at railway stations just outside of town (White's Haven) This may have helped keep the spread of yellow jack down but it was dangerous for the folks doing the quarantine.

Once the arrival of fever became officially known, Memphis could lose over 50% of its population within two to three days. The folks that fled often had trouble finding refuge since the fever was such a pariah that other towns would close their doors out of fear of the disease.

 

[diane]

Forrest had a contract to house, feed and care for the prisoners. He paid the city 10 cents per day for those that worked on his plantation. Not all of them could work (He received a per diem to house those.) He also didn't get first pick...that went to the county officials for road work. The farm was worked by a combination of prisoners and hired labor. Some prisoners stayed on after their terms to work for wages. Forrest employed a warden as well.

During the 19th century, yellow fever would wind its way from the Caribbean to various cities. It was transmitted by mosquitoes feeding on previously infected, newly arrived travelers and then carrying the disease to the next victim. The first hard frost eliminated the propagation of the disease by killing the mosquitoes... So Memphis and other cities would begin each spring free of the fever. It would usually arrive in town during the summer with infected passengers from points south. The idea of the quarantines on the island was to keep the disease out. They also arranged for inspections of passengers at railway stations just outside of town (White's Haven) This may have helped keep the spread of yellow jack down but it was dangerous for the folks doing the quarantine.

Once the arrival of fever became officially known, Memphis could lose over 50% of its population within two to three days. The folks that fled often had trouble finding refuge since the fever was such a pariah that other towns would close their doors out of fear of the disease.

Thanks! I had wondered about that situation - very often it's asserted that Forrest was more or less a prison camp commandant! Willie finished the contracts after his father's death - apparently not so well as he was dinged a few times for poor conditions. Hadn't known about the quarantine job - thought he'd done that just to keep sickness off the island.

Famine and sickness are famous traveling companions of war - many levees and dams had been destroyed and much of the water system damaged. It's hard to rebuild when you keep on dying of epizoozac! Ironically, Forrest as alderman had helped get massive improvements to Memphis' water and sanitation systems, and before the war, the water was reasonably good.