Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Immunity in Antebellum New Orleans

Antebellum New Orleans was the nation’s ‘necropolis,’ with yellow fever routinely killing about eight percent of the population. With little epidemiological understanding of mosquito-borne viruses, a person’s only protection against the scourge was falling sick with and surviving the disease. Over time, repeated epidemics generated a hierarchy of immunocapital whereby ‘acclimated’ survivors leveraged their immunity for social, economic, and political power, while ‘unacclimated’ individuals languished in social and professional purgatory. By drawing parallels between the story of yellow fever in antebellum New Orleans and the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, Kathryn Olivarius provides keen insights into the politics of our present moment, when immunoprivilege has become firmly embedded in discussions about easing lockdowns and reopening the economy. Speaker: Kathryn Olivarius is an Assistant Professor of History at Stanford and is an affiliated member of the Stanford Center for Law and History. She is the author of the forthcoming “Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom.”