1) Posted by Bob Arnebeck <Swamp1800@aol.com>

In a message dated 6/20/01 9:00:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Kenneth
Terry Jackson writes:

<< I have heard New York and Philadelphia called many things over the
 years, but never swamps. >>

The point I am trying to make is that during their founding and growth
both New York and Philadelphia had to contend with swamps and
marshes. Let us suppose, for example, that Philadelphia had tried to
persuade Congress to stay by immediately expanding so that, like
Washington City, it could have long shorelines along two rivers and
offer, like Washington, thousands of undeveloped lots to speculators
with which to raise money to build a magnificent capital. And so it
annexed all the land south of the city to the confluence of the
Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. That would still have made it, I
think, a bit smaller than the City of Washington, and certainly that
newly expanded Philadelphia would have a great deal of marsh land.

Of course, Philadelphia of the 18th century did have to deal with low
ground in its midst. The covering of Dock Creek was heralded as a
guarantee of a healthy city. And then the yellow fever epidemics
hit. By 1793 Philadelphia had both a busy enough port and enough
alleys crowded with poor people so that yellow fever's origin and
spread could be blamed on that. But subsequent epidemics, occurring
after those areas were cleaned up, caused some to worry that the
marshes south of the city were to blame, just as, after a 1780 Dengue
Fever epidemic, Benjamin Rush blamed an increase in fevers on the
British for cutting the trees south of the city that protected
citizens from the noxious air coming from "the Neck," as the area
between Southwark and the confluence of the rivers was called.

Again, reports on the yellow fever epidemics of the 1790s (the
founding decade of the City of Washington) helps us pinpoint the
swampy ground of New York City. Dr. Elihu H. Smith began his report on
the epidemic (published by Noah Webster in "A Collection of Papers on
the Subject of Bilious Fever, Prevalent in the United States for a Few
Years Past," 1796) by describing the area where the fever was most
prevalent. This is a fine piece of writing but I'll only quote a brief
sentence to demonstrate my point. Smith wrote: "Much of the ground, in
the northern part of this district [from "Long Island ferry to
Mr. Rutger's"], is swampy, and abounds with little pools and puddles
of stagnant water." Also, early maps of New York City denote an area
of "marshy ground" north of the Commons.

And thanks to Carl Abbott for his insights. I too have written a book,
which is still in print: THROUGH A FIERY TRIAL: BUILDING WASHINGTON
1790-1800 (Madison Books, 1991).  Kenneth Bowling's THE CREATION OF
WASHINGTON D.C.: THE IDEA AND LOCATION OF THE AMERICAN CAPITAL (George
Mason U. Press, 1993)  also discusses the swamp myth.

Bob Arnebeck
http://members.aol.com/Swamp1800
(early DC history)
http://members.aol.com/Fever1793
(yellow fever epidemics)

2) Posted by Michal McMahon <amcmahon@wvu.edu>

I too appreciated the maps provided by Clay McShane, buy could not
readily make out a "swamp" from them.  Still, I don't doubt that early
Washingtonians used the term "swamp."  In response to Ken Jackson's
statement, "I have heard New York and Philadelphia called many things
over the years, but never swamps," the first settlers in Philadelphia
persisted for several decades in labeling the small tidal cove a
swamp.  This was where Penn and others pulled off the Delaware and
landed at the Blue Anchor Tavern.  Almost as early, it was called the
Dock and later Dock Creek.  By 1700, it was described as "an ornament"
to the city; around mid-century, Benjamin Franklin sat on a Common
Council committee charging with working out a design for restoring it.
Before any Europeans had a name for it, the Indians called it the
Coocanocon.

        For more on Philadelphia's swamp, see my essay, "'Publick
Service' versus 'Mans Properties': Dock Creek and the Origins of Urban
Technology in 18th-Century Philadelphia," in J. McGaw, ed., EARLY
AMERICAN TECHNOLOGY (Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1994).

        Finally, growing up in south Louisiana, I early learned the
difference between a marsh and a swamp.  Marshes were a kind of open,
if watery, country and swamps were covered with cypress trees, in the
base of which often lived families of raccoons.  I remember joining
others to surround such a cypress in the spring, then routing out a
family of raccoons and catching baby coons to take home as pets.  I
wouldn't feel right doing that now, fifty years later, but I
participated then with great enthusiasm.

Michal McMahon
Department of History
West Virginia University

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