The Year of Yellow Jack

Book excerpt: At the start of 1839, the small, south Louisiana town of New Iberia appears poised for prosperity. Acadian, French, English, and American immigrants have joined Spanish settlers in the area. Steamboats move up and down the Bayou Teche, carrying the products of the fertile land to market in New Orleans. Across the bayou, Hortense Duperier enjoys a privileged life in a grand brick house with her husband, Frederick, and their three children. Suddenly, Frederick's untimely death and financial reverses force her to manage the estate on her own. When signs of the dreaded yellow fever threaten an epidemic, Hortense turns to Felicite, an enslaved woman from Haiti. Together, the two women dispense Felicite's traditional remedies, defying the medical practices and social constraints of their time to save the young town.