Steamship Moravia cholera epidemic - Aug 30, 1892

On this day in 1892, the steamship Moravia arrived in New York harbor late in the evening. By this point, 22 of the ship's 358 passengers had died from cholera.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello, Welcome to This Day in History Class,
where we flipped through the book of history and bring
you a new page every day. Today is August. The

(00:23):
day was August. The steamship Morabia arrived in New York
Harbor late in the evening. By this point, twenty two
of the ships three and fifty eight passengers who had
traveled from Hamburg, Germany had died from cholera. Cholera is
an infectious disease of the small intestine, usually caused by

(00:47):
contaminated food or water, and it can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration,
and even death. In the late nineteenth century, there was
a cholera pandemic in Asia and Africa that made it
to parts of Europe and South America. A cholera epidemic

(01:08):
broke out in Hamburg in eighteen ninety two because of
contaminated drinking water, and more than half of the people
who were infected died. Americans worried that the epidemic would
reach the United States. Unrestricted and so called undesirable immigration
was already a hot button issue in the country. For

(01:29):
contexts on the fears and prejudices surrounding immigration at the
time the Chinese Exclusion Act was renewed in eighteen ninety two.
Those fears extended to immigration from places that were affected
by cholera. Those Jewish people in Russia were not the
only ones getting cholera or flinging epidemics. Many newspapers and

(01:51):
public health establishments pegged them as the likely carriers of
cholera to the US. One August twenty nine article in
The New York Times said the following about Hungarians and
Jewish people in Russia, even should they pass the quarantine officials,
their mode of life when they settled down makes them

(02:13):
always a source of danger. Cholera, it must be remembered
originates in the homes of this human refraff. Journalists, working
class Americans, and medical professionals called for a suspension of
immigration to keep cholera from spreading to the US, but
by mid August of eight two, many ships from the

(02:35):
port of Hamburg were en route to New York. Steamships
continued carrying steerage immigrants out of Hamburg, even after health
officials admitted that there was a cholera epidemic. The people
aboard those ships were coming from places that had been
widely affected by cholera. One of those ships was the Moravia,

(02:56):
which left Hamburg on August seventeen. Only a couple of
days after the trip began, Russian and Polish Jewish people,
as well as German and French folks, began getting symptoms
of cramping, vomiting, and diarrhea, which progressed tacoma and death.
Between August nineteen and twenty nine, twenty two people died

(03:20):
and two more were ill upon arrival in the New
York Quarantine station. On the night of Tuesday, August, one
correspondent reported that people who died were wrapped in canvas
and thrown overboard with their belongings. The Health officer of
the Port of New York, members of the New York

(03:40):
City Board of Health, and physicians from the U. S.
Marine Hospital Service dealt with the cholera affected ships that
arrived in New York Harbor from Hamburg. A quarantine had
been placed over the Port of New York, which led
to the poor treatment of immigrants and the confinement of
thousands of people on steamships and islands, including those who

(04:03):
did not have cholera. The same day, that the Moravia
arrived in New York, Help Officer William Jenkins announced that
only steerage passengers, as opposed to first and second class passengers,
would be inspected, disinfected, and detained for about five days
for observation, and the U. S. Treasury Departments Immigration Bureau

(04:28):
let people into New York from Hamburg as long as
steamship companies put steerage passengers in slower, older ships and
cabin class passengers in faster newerships. This separation allowed cabin
class passengers to be quickly inspected, and it allowed the
fast detention of immigrant passengers aboard the slower ships. The

(04:51):
Morabia was the first slow moving pest ship to arrive
in New York from Hamburg. Its passengers were sent to
Hoffman Island, where they were bathed and their clothes were fumigated.
Jenkins ordered that they be quarantined for as long as
necessary as they were made in quarantine. More ships arrived

(05:12):
and were quarantined. US President Benjamin Harrison issued an order
for a nationwide twenty day quarantine of ships from foreign
ports carrying immigrants. The twenty day period applied to steerage
immigrant passengers, but not cabin passengers, and state authorities could
decide to keep people in quarantine for more time in

(05:35):
special cases. But by early September, there were no new
cases of cholera on the Moravia, and the cholera epidemic
was over by the end of September, But all the
conflicts that had arisen among state and federal officials over
management of the epidemic led to a desire for changes

(05:56):
in public health and immigration laws. In President Harrison signed
into law the National Quarantine Act, which created a national
system of quarantine while still allowing for state run quarantines.
It also puts standards in place for medically inspecting immigrants, ships,

(06:18):
and cargoes. I'm Eves Jeffcote and hopefully you know a
little more about history today than you did yesterday. You
can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at t
D I h C podcast Tune in tomorrow for another
Day in History. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,

(06:43):
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