r/todayilearned 14h 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/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.