13 thoughts on “Don’t Forget They Used Smallpox As A Bioweapon Way Back Then Too”
Nah – germ theory was just being developed around then. Even if smallpox was spread with blankets, it wasn’t intentional germ warfare.
No, it was intentional. They understood about smallpox long time before “germ theory” was being codified. The distribution of blankets and clothes infested with smallpox was to decimate the tribes that had not had an immense exposure to that pathogen or other pathogens that were well known to white man, cholera, typhoid, yellow fever. It was very well planned out and implemented. You think the government is benevolent to it’s citizens or it’s charges?
Nope.
Pure mythology. Never happened. There were no such things as “pathogens”. Disease was caused by “bad airs” (malaria). Might as well say it was caused by a disturbance in the Force.
Every time someone trots out this trope, they can’t find any actual substantiation, nor explain how country bumpkins imaginarily figured out germ theory decades to centuries before Pasteur did.
The only thing missing is to put this allegation as a quote into the mouth of Mark Twain or George Carlin.
From Wikipedia (link at the end)
During Pontiac’s Rebellion, in June 1763 a group of Native Americans laid siege to British-held Fort Pitt.[21][22] During a parley in the middle of the siege on June 24, Captain Simeon Ecuyer gave representatives of the besieging Delawares, including Turtleheart, two blankets and a handkerchief enclosed in small metal boxes that had been exposed to smallpox, in an attempt to spread the disease to the besieging Native warriors in order to end the siege.[23] William Trent, the trader turned militia commander who had come up with the plan, sent an invoice to the British colonial authorities in North America indicating that the purpose of giving the blankets was “to Convey the Smallpox to the Indians.” The invoice was approved by General Thomas Gage, then serving as Commander-in-Chief, North America.[24] A reported outbreak that began the spring before left as many as one hundred Native Americans dead in Ohio Country from 1763 to 1764. It is not clear whether the smallpox was a result of the Fort Pitt incident or the virus was already present among the Delaware people as outbreaks happened on their own every dozen or so years[25] and the delegates were met again later and seemingly had not contracted smallpox.[26][27][28] Trade and combat also provided ample opportunity for transmission of the disease.[29]
A month later, Colonel Henry Bouquet, who was leading a relief attempt towards Fort Pitt, wrote to his superior Sir Jeffery Amherst to discuss the possibility of using smallpox-infested blankets to spread smallpox amongst Natives. Amherst wrote to Bouquet that: “Could it not be contrived to send the small pox among the disaffected tribes of Indians? We must on this occasion use every stratagem in our power to reduce them.” Bouquet replied in a latter, writing that “I will try to inocculate [sic] the Indians by means of Blankets that may fall in their hands, taking care however not to get the disease myself. As it is pity to oppose good men against them, I wish we could make use of the Spaniard’s Method, and hunt them with English Dogs. Supported by Rangers, and some Light Horse, who would I think effectively extirpate or remove that Vermine.” After receiving Bouquet’s response, Amherst wrote back to him, stating that “You will Do well to try to Innoculate [sic] the Indians by means of Blankets, as well as to try Every other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race. I should be very glad your Scheme for Hunting them Down by Dogs could take Effect, but England is at too great a Distance to think of that at present.”[30][31][21]
More interesting reading at this link
History of biological warfare – Wikipedia
Also from Wikipedia:
Basic forms of germ theory were proposed by Girolamo Fracastoro in 1546, and expanded upon by Marcus von Plenciz in 1762. However, such views were held in disdain in Europe, where Galen’s miasma theory remained dominant among scientists and doctors.
By the early 19th century, smallpox vaccination was commonplace in Europe, though doctors were unaware of how it worked or how to extend the principle to other diseases. A transitional period began in the late 1850s with the work of Louis Pasteur. This work was later extended by Robert Koch in the 1880s. By the end of that decade, the miasma theory was struggling to compete with the germ theory of disease. Viruses were initially discovered in the 1890s. Eventually, a “golden era” of bacteriology ensued, during which the germ theory quickly led to the identification of the actual organisms that cause many diseases.
The experiment at Fort Pitt was the brainchild of 2-3 people, all British, and failed spectacularly. I dealt with it below already.
The first time smallpox was used as a weapon that I know of was in the siege of Pittsburgh Pa. during the French-Indian war in June and July 1763. The Indians got the pox from the blankets that were intentionally given to them for that purpose and they pulled out and ended the siege. It worked. —ken
Kindly source the genius who knew beforehand that smallpox could be transmitted by infected blankets.
I’ll put cash money on the table that says you couldn’t do it in 50 years of trying.
Granting your thesis:
Who handled those blankets, knowing that they were infected…?
Who collected them?
Who stored them?
Who passed them out?
What sort of hazmat gear did they use, this being a century before anyone knew germs even existed, and what they did?
Beuller? Ferris Beuller…?? Anyone? Anyone…???
I’ll just wait over here…let me know when the penny drops.
Revisionist history sounds great, until you meet someone who knows actual history, and understands how stupid shoehorning 1850 into 1763 really is. You might as well claim they dropped nerve gas on Indians with V-2 rockets; it’s no less ridiculous, and I’ll bet you dollars to donuts I could find a metric fuckton of college freshman who would agree to the idea on any campus right this minute just by doing doofus-on-the-campus interviews.
read en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Fort_Pitt. It may not have worked but there is no question that the attempt was made. The historian Allan W. Eckert wrote about this in detail also. But you obviously know everything so you can argue with factual history. —ken
The experiment at Fort Pitt was the brainchild of 2-3 people, all British, and failed spectacularly. I dealt with it below already.
Point Of Order:
While the douchebaggery of government evil knows no bounds, ponder this:
Buffalo have neither opposable thumbs, nor AR-15s.
Call that toss in the air, if’n you feel lucky.
Two volleys and there’s no more fedgov.
Three to four, and it’s 1620 again.
Think about that long and hard.
And while you’re up, let me know how long (probably in milliseconds) you think the soy boys of antifa would last in such historic hotbeds of genteel tolerance as Tombstone, Dodge City, or Deadwood.
If it’ll help you out, imagine Billy Clanton telling Wyatt Earp, “I demand my lawyer!!!”, or some entitled Karen telling Bill Hickok he ought to mind his own business.
I don’t know if the story is true or not. But I do know that REAL history requires primary sources. Anyone?
But nobody needed germ theory to know about the spread of pox, small or great (The great pox of course, was syphilis).
“Nobody needed germ theory to know about the spread of pox, small or great…”
Hippocrates, ca. 350 B.C., would like a word with you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theory
TL;DR: It was possibly attempted one time, it didn’t work, the Indians had already been infected by person-to-person contact, and it was the British, not Americans, who tried it.
But the myth won’t die, because it’s just too good not to repeat, so it keeps getting told.
Including as being done by Columbus, Cortez, Spain, France, the U.S. Army, and probably even Bigfoot and the Wicked Witch of the West, if you look far and wide enough.
It’s a lot like fairtytales about people thinking the earth was flat (ships sail over the horizon and return at even a few miles from land, since ever), when the Greeks had calculated the circumference of the very round earth to within a few hundred miles as far back as hundreds of years B.C.
What they actually didn’t know was how far it was to Asia going straight west from Europe (accurate longitude wasn’t a thing until the late 1700s), and two complete continents in the way came as a complete surprise.
Nah – germ theory was just being developed around then. Even if smallpox was spread with blankets, it wasn’t intentional germ warfare.
No, it was intentional. They understood about smallpox long time before “germ theory” was being codified. The distribution of blankets and clothes infested with smallpox was to decimate the tribes that had not had an immense exposure to that pathogen or other pathogens that were well known to white man, cholera, typhoid, yellow fever. It was very well planned out and implemented. You think the government is benevolent to it’s citizens or it’s charges?
Nope.
Pure mythology. Never happened. There were no such things as “pathogens”. Disease was caused by “bad airs” (malaria). Might as well say it was caused by a disturbance in the Force.
Every time someone trots out this trope, they can’t find any actual substantiation, nor explain how country bumpkins imaginarily figured out germ theory decades to centuries before Pasteur did.
The only thing missing is to put this allegation as a quote into the mouth of Mark Twain or George Carlin.
From Wikipedia (link at the end)
During Pontiac’s Rebellion, in June 1763 a group of Native Americans laid siege to British-held Fort Pitt.[21][22] During a parley in the middle of the siege on June 24, Captain Simeon Ecuyer gave representatives of the besieging Delawares, including Turtleheart, two blankets and a handkerchief enclosed in small metal boxes that had been exposed to smallpox, in an attempt to spread the disease to the besieging Native warriors in order to end the siege.[23] William Trent, the trader turned militia commander who had come up with the plan, sent an invoice to the British colonial authorities in North America indicating that the purpose of giving the blankets was “to Convey the Smallpox to the Indians.” The invoice was approved by General Thomas Gage, then serving as Commander-in-Chief, North America.[24] A reported outbreak that began the spring before left as many as one hundred Native Americans dead in Ohio Country from 1763 to 1764. It is not clear whether the smallpox was a result of the Fort Pitt incident or the virus was already present among the Delaware people as outbreaks happened on their own every dozen or so years[25] and the delegates were met again later and seemingly had not contracted smallpox.[26][27][28] Trade and combat also provided ample opportunity for transmission of the disease.[29]
A month later, Colonel Henry Bouquet, who was leading a relief attempt towards Fort Pitt, wrote to his superior Sir Jeffery Amherst to discuss the possibility of using smallpox-infested blankets to spread smallpox amongst Natives. Amherst wrote to Bouquet that: “Could it not be contrived to send the small pox among the disaffected tribes of Indians? We must on this occasion use every stratagem in our power to reduce them.” Bouquet replied in a latter, writing that “I will try to inocculate [sic] the Indians by means of Blankets that may fall in their hands, taking care however not to get the disease myself. As it is pity to oppose good men against them, I wish we could make use of the Spaniard’s Method, and hunt them with English Dogs. Supported by Rangers, and some Light Horse, who would I think effectively extirpate or remove that Vermine.” After receiving Bouquet’s response, Amherst wrote back to him, stating that “You will Do well to try to Innoculate [sic] the Indians by means of Blankets, as well as to try Every other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race. I should be very glad your Scheme for Hunting them Down by Dogs could take Effect, but England is at too great a Distance to think of that at present.”[30][31][21]
More interesting reading at this link
History of biological warfare – Wikipedia
Also from Wikipedia:
Basic forms of germ theory were proposed by Girolamo Fracastoro in 1546, and expanded upon by Marcus von Plenciz in 1762. However, such views were held in disdain in Europe, where Galen’s miasma theory remained dominant among scientists and doctors.
By the early 19th century, smallpox vaccination was commonplace in Europe, though doctors were unaware of how it worked or how to extend the principle to other diseases. A transitional period began in the late 1850s with the work of Louis Pasteur. This work was later extended by Robert Koch in the 1880s. By the end of that decade, the miasma theory was struggling to compete with the germ theory of disease. Viruses were initially discovered in the 1890s. Eventually, a “golden era” of bacteriology ensued, during which the germ theory quickly led to the identification of the actual organisms that cause many diseases.
The experiment at Fort Pitt was the brainchild of 2-3 people, all British, and failed spectacularly. I dealt with it below already.
The first time smallpox was used as a weapon that I know of was in the siege of Pittsburgh Pa. during the French-Indian war in June and July 1763. The Indians got the pox from the blankets that were intentionally given to them for that purpose and they pulled out and ended the siege. It worked. —ken
Kindly source the genius who knew beforehand that smallpox could be transmitted by infected blankets.
I’ll put cash money on the table that says you couldn’t do it in 50 years of trying.
Granting your thesis:
Who handled those blankets, knowing that they were infected…?
Who collected them?
Who stored them?
Who passed them out?
What sort of hazmat gear did they use, this being a century before anyone knew germs even existed, and what they did?
Beuller? Ferris Beuller…?? Anyone? Anyone…???
I’ll just wait over here…let me know when the penny drops.
Revisionist history sounds great, until you meet someone who knows actual history, and understands how stupid shoehorning 1850 into 1763 really is. You might as well claim they dropped nerve gas on Indians with V-2 rockets; it’s no less ridiculous, and I’ll bet you dollars to donuts I could find a metric fuckton of college freshman who would agree to the idea on any campus right this minute just by doing doofus-on-the-campus interviews.
read en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Fort_Pitt. It may not have worked but there is no question that the attempt was made. The historian Allan W. Eckert wrote about this in detail also. But you obviously know everything so you can argue with factual history. —ken
The experiment at Fort Pitt was the brainchild of 2-3 people, all British, and failed spectacularly. I dealt with it below already.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-56Q_VXUvg
Point Of Order:
While the douchebaggery of government evil knows no bounds, ponder this:
Buffalo have neither opposable thumbs, nor AR-15s.
Call that toss in the air, if’n you feel lucky.
Two volleys and there’s no more fedgov.
Three to four, and it’s 1620 again.
Think about that long and hard.
And while you’re up, let me know how long (probably in milliseconds) you think the soy boys of antifa would last in such historic hotbeds of genteel tolerance as Tombstone, Dodge City, or Deadwood.
If it’ll help you out, imagine Billy Clanton telling Wyatt Earp, “I demand my lawyer!!!”, or some entitled Karen telling Bill Hickok he ought to mind his own business.
I don’t know if the story is true or not. But I do know that REAL history requires primary sources. Anyone?
But nobody needed germ theory to know about the spread of pox, small or great (The great pox of course, was syphilis).
“Nobody needed germ theory to know about the spread of pox, small or great…”
Hippocrates, ca. 350 B.C., would like a word with you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theory
As to primary sources:
https://truewestmagazine.com/smallpox-among-the-plains-indians/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27774278?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3Ac0a54257af88c38a6d71a50042c17a2e&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
https://www.history.com/news/colonists-native-americans-smallpox-blankets#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThere%20is%20no%20evidence%20that,smallpox%20had%20already%20had%20it.%E2%80%9D
TL;DR: It was possibly attempted one time, it didn’t work, the Indians had already been infected by person-to-person contact, and it was the British, not Americans, who tried it.
But the myth won’t die, because it’s just too good not to repeat, so it keeps getting told.
Including as being done by Columbus, Cortez, Spain, France, the U.S. Army, and probably even Bigfoot and the Wicked Witch of the West, if you look far and wide enough.
It’s a lot like fairtytales about people thinking the earth was flat (ships sail over the horizon and return at even a few miles from land, since ever), when the Greeks had calculated the circumference of the very round earth to within a few hundred miles as far back as hundreds of years B.C.
What they actually didn’t know was how far it was to Asia going straight west from Europe (accurate longitude wasn’t a thing until the late 1700s), and two complete continents in the way came as a complete surprise.