“You Cannot See Anyone but Negroes:” Huntsville’s Yellow Summer of 1867

Huntsville, Texas, experienced its first yellow fever epidemic in the summer of 1867. As ten percent of the town perished, many members of the local, white community decided to flee or hide in order to escape contamination. However, due to a myth of hereditary black immunity, the local freedpeople stayed and exposed their susceptible bodies to one of the most dreaded diseases of the time. This essay relies heavily on primary documents, including newspaper articles, letters, and official reports, written during the epidemic and shortly after its conclusion. The documents bring to light the attitudes, fears, and beliefs that underpinned the American South during the era of Reconstruction. This study concludes that the myth of immunity robbed untold numbers of African Americans of the ability to make their own informed choices and of their lives. Furthermore, this essay proposes that the myth survived for centuries—even as various epidemics proved it fallacious—due to the medical community and a widespread desire for convenience.