The city collapsed economically. It lost its charter in 1879. The state took over the city's finances. It took 20 years for the city to recover.
But this is not the heart of the Memphis story. The heart of the story is this: the population sat, nearly immobile, as word reached it, day by day, that the plague was on its way north.
We know the phrase, "a deer in the headlights." For a few seconds, a deer is immobilized. But then it runs. People don't. You have heard that a frog will not jump out of a pot of water if the water warms slowly to boiling temperature. It's not true. But people will stick with hopeless projects and dreams for years, only to lose everything. Few events confirm this better than Memphis in the summer of 1878.
Debt crisis like yellow fever in Memphis, economist Gary North says
Writing on the right-wing-libertarian site LewRockwell.com, economist Gary North compares the current economic climate to the lead-up to the massive yellow fever epidemic in 1878 in Memphis. North's extended metaphor sees a population taking no action even as danger -- in this case, out-of-control government debt -- gathers steam and gets closer until it's too late to flee, all the while "boosters" assure the people there's no need to panic.
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