The Most Fatal Plague in American That Began in Norfolk
Class - In Person & Zoom | Available (Membership Required)
In the summer of 1855, the ship Benjamin Franklin steamed into the docks at Norfolk for repairs which unleashed the seeds of an unknown epidemic now known as yellow fever. You will hear the never-before-told and detailed story of this epidemic carried by mosquitoes from the West Indies which became the most fatal plague in America.
Lon Wagner
Lon Wagner is a former journalist whose editors twice nominated his work for the Pulitzer Prize, including one for a fourteen-part series about the 1855 yellow fever epidemic. He graduated from the University of Delaware with a degree in English and journalism and obtained a Master of Science degree in applied linguistics from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He lives in Roanoke, Virginia, where he enjoys daily hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains.