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Marker for Free African Society. Includes information about its founders Richard Allen and Absolom Jones and organizational purpose.
Free African Society historical marker in Philadelphia. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Nick-philly)

The Free African Society provides organized nursing during the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia.

1793

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Free African Society historical marker in Philadelphia. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Nick-philly)

Doctor Benjamin Rush asks for Black volunteers from the Free African Society because he believes that Black people cannot become infected with yellow fever. Absalom Jones, Richard Allen, and others volunteer and help with the mercury-based bleeding treatment and general nursing care due to an acute shortage of white nurses. Instead of gratitude for their service, publisher Matthew Carey and other members of the white population accuse “the vilest” of the Black nurses of drunkenness, theft, and profiteering. Organizers of the Free African Society fight back with their own publication outlining the importance of nursing. Half a century before Florence Nightingale, the Free African Society promotes nurses as an essential part of crisis response.