Did Colonists Give Infected Blankets to Native Americans as Biological Warfare?

There’s evidence that British colonists in 18th-century America gave Native Americans smallpox-infected blankets at least once—but did it work?

North American colonists’ warfare against Native Americans often was horrifyingly brutal. But one method they appear to have used shocks even more than all the bloody slaughter: The gifting of blankets and linens contaminated with smallpox. The virus causes a disease that can inflict disfiguring scars, blindness and death. The tactic constitutes a crude form of biological warfare—but accounts of the colonists using it are actually few.

Colonial weaponizing of smallpox against Native Americans was first reported by 19th-century historian Francis Parkman, who came across correspondence in which Sir Jeffery Amherst, commander in chief of the British forces in North America in the early 1760s, had discussed its use with Col. Henry Bouquet, a subordinate on the western frontier during the French and Indian War.

For all the outrage the account has stirred over the years, there’s only one clearly documented instance of a colonial attempt to spread smallpox during the war, and oddly, Amherst probably didn’t have anything to do with it. There’s also no clear historical verdict on whether the biological attack even worked.

https://www.history.com/news/colonists-native-americans-smallpox-blankets

For fuck sake, don't give Veya something else to vent his Spleen on us !

nicko wrote:For fuck sake, don't give Veya something else to vent his Spleen on us !

But this is not giving him ammuntion, but admitting that wrongs have been done and we do not ignore them mate

What do you want anyone to do about it? They're all dead now anyway.

Raggamuffin wrote:What do you want anyone to do about it? They're all dead now anyway.

To learn from the past, as anyone interested from learning about history does

You can then form why problems occured before and look to help ensure they never happen again

I mean how did you first learn to walk?

Did you learn from the mistakes you made by falling over?

The same with riding a bike is it not?

We learn by our mistakes

That is what history teaches us

It's both Didge. Any chance he has to "Diss" us he'll take it !

nicko wrote:It's both Didge. Any chance he has to "Diss" us he'll take it !

Well let him and I will constantly remind him of the many wrongs done by his ancestors in Australia

It shows he has no wish to learn from the past but use the past as a weapon to be hateful

That is not learning from the past

Thor wrote:

Raggamuffin wrote:What do you want anyone to do about it? They're all dead now anyway.

To learn from the past, as anyone interested from learning about history does

You can then form why problems occured before and look to help ensure they never happen again

I mean how did you first learn to walk?

Did you learn from the mistakes you made by falling over?

The same with riding a bike is it not?

We learn by our mistakes

That is what history teaches us

If it's true, it wasn't a mistake, it was deliberate. Nobody really learns from history anyway.

Raggamuffin wrote:

Thor wrote:

To learn from the past, as anyone interested from learning about history does

You can then form why problems occured before and look to help ensure they never happen again

I mean how did you first learn to walk?

Did you learn from the mistakes you made by falling over?

The same with riding a bike is it not?

We learn by our mistakes

That is what history teaches us

If it's true, it wasn't a mistake, it was deliberate. Nobody really learns from history anyway.

Actually many people do, sadly some do not. The point is the more people learn from past mistakes, they help to ensure it never happens again

Sometimes sadly people continually make the same poor mistakes made in history, as they have never learnt from them

Hence why its so important to teach about history

It's very likely they did this, its not a sure thing that this was the way the tribes caught smallpox as there obviously was an outbreak among the colonists. As awful as it is this is nothing new its been happening since people started fighting each other, wells were poisoned with corpses of animals and humans and with know hazardous substances. Infected or rotting bodies were thrown over walls in sieges, There is some discussion that the black death could have spread as it did because the Mongols had an outbreak in their ranks and they tossed the bodies over the walls of a city Caffa and that people fleeing the city when it fell took the contagion with them in all directions. The Black Death in Asia was so bad according to one writer, who died of it, that he reckoned Asia was depopulated.

Vintage wrote:It's very likely they did this, its not a sure thing that this was the way the tribes caught smallpox as there obviously was an outbreak among the colonists. As awful as it is this is nothing new its been happening since people started fighting each other, wells were poisoned with corpses of animals and humans and with know hazardous substances. Infected or rotting bodies were thrown over walls in sieges, There is some discussion that the black death could have spread as it did because the Mongols had an outbreak in their ranks and they tossed the bodies over the walls of a city Caffa and that people fleeing the city when it fell took the contagion with them in all directions.  The Black Death in Asia was so bad according to one writer, who died of it, that he reckoned Asia was depopulated.

Thank goodness.

Hallelujah, someone tackling the points

I agree with you that this is not obvious to what caused many of the deaths through disease

I think the interest is that it was used as a biological weapon. Though it would have never been classed as such at the time. You are right that this was not even something knew and had been going on for centuries previously

So thank you Vintage

It was said that the government gave Indians blankets with measles, smallpox etc on them. I don't know how true it is, but I wouldn't put it passed them.

I think many got these illnesses because they lived alone for thousands of years and had no immunity to everyday diseases. On the reservations they were open to them all. Such a shame what happened to this proud race.

magica wrote:It was said that the government gave Indians blankets with measles, smallpox etc on them. I don't know how true it is, but I wouldn't put it passed them.

I think many got these illnesses because they lived alone for thousands of years and had no immunity to everyday diseases.  On the reservations they were open to them all. Such a shame what happened to this proud race.

You are very much correct in my opinion magica and good to see you by the way

The reality is in many of the colonies throughout the world. That vast majority of those indegenous died from diseases. Some were butchered though, through greed and this also should never be forgotten or happen again

Hi Thor, good to see you too. Yes, my opinion and yours are very much alike over this. I wish they could've been left to their own devices on the land they loved instead of being killed off, sent to reservations to make way for the white man. This has happened to too many natives around the world and so called civilised people are the culprits.

Disease transmission is not all one way though, it is thought syphilis originated in the Americas and hitched a ride to Europe on the returning supply ships. So I suppose most of the time disease transfer is accidental but sometimes deliberate. The black death was very fast spreading thanks to trade image how fast and far something that contagious could spread these days.

Vintage wrote:Disease transmission is not all one way though, it is thought syphilis originated in the Americas and hitched a ride to Europe on the returning supply ships. So I suppose most of the time disease transfer is accidental but sometimes deliberate. The black death was very fast spreading thanks to trade image how fast and far something that contagious could spread these days.

Hi Vin, I read that the Spanish Flu that killed more people than the both wars I believe, was caused by an infected American who came to Europe. Also because so many all mixed together, I think it was either the first war or the Spanish war, it spread fast. How true this is I'm not sure. I think I will have a look and see.

I have read of a respiratory disease in china early in 1917 which was eventually found to be identical to the Spanish flu. The mortality rate in China was much lower so the population must have built up an immunity. Chinese labourers were brought to America to help the war effort and many of them were ill, seems like with flu. Troop ships bringing over American forces were jammed to the roof and the weather bad so they had to stay below, with so many crammed in the flu spread, many died before they got to Britain.

I don't think it was deliberate
similar mass deaths from new diseases occurred among the aboriginals
Maybe in a few specific wars but 'hygiene' was still not an accepted fact among Europeans.
So it seems unlikely they would use its principles in a major coordinated strategy.

Thor wrote:

nicko wrote:It's both Didge. Any chance he has to "Diss" us he'll take it !

Well let him and I will constantly remind him of the many wrongs done by his ancestors in Australia

It shows he has no wish to learn from the past but use the past as a weapon to be hateful

That is not learning from the past

Dumb ass
My British ancestors were largely sent here in Chains and forced in to years of hard labor unpaid for Some Rich British twat that more often than not still lived in Britain.
Sending over the Materials used to Build the infrastructure of Britain in the 1800's.

Convict Labor it what you invent when you're not making black people slaves any more and need to commit to the hard labor of building a new colony   
Next you'll be blaming the descendants of back slaves for the crimes against Native Americans

veya_victaous wrote:

Thor wrote:

Well let him and I will constantly remind him of the many wrongs done by his ancestors in Australia

It shows he has no wish to learn from the past but use the past as a weapon to be hateful

That is not learning from the past

Dumb ass
My British ancestors were largely sent here in Chains and forced in to years of hard labor unpaid for Some Rich British twat that more often than not still lived in Britain.
Sending over the Materials used to Build the infrastructure of Britain in the 1800's.

Convict Labor it what you invent when you're not making black people slaves any more and need to commit to the hard labor of building a new colony   
Next you'll be blaming the descendants of back slaves for the crimes against Native Americans

Jackanory