Page:Daniel Minort Baxter - Bishop Richard Allen and His Spirit (1923).pdf/62

54 marvelous, but it is no less true, that nothing we put our hands to do, but that the same kind of work has already been done by our Father Allen. The Yellow Fever broke out in Philadelphia in September, 1793, while Allen and his little band were fighting the hardest battle of their lives to get into their new place of worship (Bethel) where they could demand self-respect and freedom The disease became an epidemic, and many persons died therefrom, like the influenza of 1918 (which most of us living today can remember) what was true then was also true in 1797, that is, more white than colored people were stricken by the malady and died. Mayor Clarkson asked the colored people to help to care for the sick and bury the dead, to which request they responded willingly; hence a social service committee was appointed by the Mayor, viz.: Revs. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, William Gray, Peter Richmond, Dr. Rush (white—who worked with them in their struggle for religious liberty), and William Burleigh. These were appointed superintendents of the work; they in turn brought into service large numbers of their race. The work was done so eff