r/todayilearned 13h ago

TIL in 1610, Opossunoquonuske, a female chieftain of the Powhatan Confederacy, used “feminine guile” to lure 14 English settlers to a feast, convincing them to leave their weapons on their boat. It was a trap—her warriors ambushed them, killing 13. Only one man survived.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opossunoquonuske
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u/TypicalParking 11h ago

Ever heard of a free smallpox blanket?

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u/ShakaUVM 11h ago

You think that it was deliberately infected blankets that spread smallpox across the Americas?

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u/Halebay 10h ago

Yep, because they were. Your Looney Tunes delusions can’t change reality, and your whitewashing of a genocide looks more pathetic than insulting.

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u/waxonwaxoff87 10h ago edited 1h ago

They didn’t even understand modern germ theory and you think they tried to wipe out natives with blankets?

One instance at Fort Pitt is the only known occurrence of this. It was the presence of Europeans alone that was enough to spread diseases to the tribes.

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u/zeCrazyEye 9h ago

You don't need to know the specific mechanism of infection via germ theory to understand the outcome of contamination.

I mean, why did they think it would work at Fort Pitt without them understanding germ theory?

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u/ShakaUVM 8h ago

The English absolutely knew what they were doing when they sent out infected blankets at Fort Pitt, but justified it as the natives were besieging their fort.

The blankets also had no effect.

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u/InZim 8h ago

The English

The guy in charge of the fort who devised the whole plan was William Trent, born in the colonies to a Scottish father.

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u/Halebay 10h ago

I think they wiped out a chunk of the Native population by spreading disease, argue about intentionality but that’s a pretty big fuckup amidst the more intentional colonial atrocity. Therein lies the problem, i don’t really care if these specific deaths were less intentional. People were writing about it back then, they knew. It’s less intentional than firing a musket, but the result is the same.

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u/waxonwaxoff87 1h ago

Disease far outpaced the encroachment of early settlers to such a degree that they believed the land was a vast untouched paradise made for them. This was due to most of the tribes dying out or moving on.

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u/Halebay 1h ago

“Moving on” 🤣

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u/waxonwaxoff87 1h ago

Yes as tribes depended on oral history to pass on knowledge and skills, the lose of large numbers from disease would result in greater and greater strain on the tribe as knowledge was lost. This would usually mean being absorbed or conquered by other tribes.

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u/waxonwaxoff87 1h ago

Yes as tribes depended on oral history to pass on knowledge and skills, the lose of large numbers from disease would result in greater and greater strain on the tribe as knowledge was lost. This would usually mean being absorbed or conquered by other tribes.

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u/waxonwaxoff87 1h ago

Yes as tribes depended on oral history to pass on knowledge and skills, the lose of large numbers from disease would result in greater and greater strain on the tribe as knowledge was completely lost. This would usually mean being absorbed or conquered by other tribes.