Necropolis Disease, power, and capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom

In Necropolis, Olivarius (Stanford Univ.) introduces readers to the concept of immunocapital, a hierarchy of health based on acclimation to yellow fever. In New Orleans, a city repeatedly plagued by yellow fever epidemics, those who contracted the disease and survived were considered acclimated and their immunity imparted on them a social and political cachet that led to economic and political advancement--provided they were white. Enslaved Black people also acquired immunocapital, but as embodied property, their benefits from immunocapital were afforded to their white owners, not to the enslaved themselves, whose acclimation often led to them being tasked with the most grueling labor. Speaking in the voices of those who witnessed these epidemics, Olivarius puts a rich trove of primary sources to good use, lending the volume authenticity in its arguments and engaging readability while demonstrating the lengths to which New Orleans residents went to preserve the cyclical epidemic status quo, which preserved Creole dominance and limited the success of American and European immigrants. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through faculty. --Susan L Kwosek, South Carolina State University

Stanford University historian Olivarius debuts with a captivating account of how endemic yellow fever terrorized early 19th-century New Orleans, killing some 150,000 residents and intensifying social inequality in ways that remained long after the virus and its mosquito vector came under control. Even though roughly half of those who contracted yellow fever died, residents of the bustling port city sought "acclimation"--the liberty gained by surviving the disease and achieving permanent immunity. White survivors used this status to bolster their social advancement, framing successful acclimation as proof of their racial superiority. The false claim that Black people were naturally immune to the disease was made to justify their continued use as enslaved workers on sugar cane plantations and other places where the virus was known to lurk. According to Olivarius, white elites profited from the "chaos and personal horror" caused by yellow fever and suppressed information about the disease in order to "keep attracting men of capital, talent, or wealth to the Gulf Coast." Briskly interweaving the economic, environmental, social, and medical aspects of this story, Olivarius illuminates the complex workings of "immunocapitalism" and paints a vivid picture of antebellum New Orleans. This is a timely and thought-provoking look at how disease outbreaks have exacerbated inequality in America. (Apr.)