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Smallpox in North America primarily involves the native born populations that resided in the land before the

Europeans crossed the Atlantic into the new world. The Columbian Exchange in 1492 caused the disease to spread to native populations and thus caused huge mortality rates for Native Americans in the following years. Mortality rates in North America were dramatically higher than those in Asia and Europe due to something known as the virgin soil phenomenon [1]. Since indigenous people had never been exposed to any foreign diseases, they were at a higher risk of catching the disease and could not develop immunity to the disease as quickly as the Europeans did. Mortality rates in North America were at thirty percent overall, but most native American tribes were over forty percent. The Taino tribe had a mortality rate of one hundred percent, which highlights the extent of smallpox in the native populations of North America. These native populations would be affected 100-150 years after the initial infection started to spreaddisease crippled these native tribes and helped the Europeans keep them subdued and unable to stop them from conquering. [1] In comparison with other lands that were affected by smallpox, North America only had 3 million natives that primarily focused on an agrarian form of living. Their way of life was crippled by the diseaseThe first to fall were the Indians along the Massachusetts coast which allowed for new settlers to occupy Plymouth in 1620. [Smallpox and its spread around the world]. This highlights how smallpox actually allowed North America to be settled by Europeans. Without those Indians eliminated at Plymouth, blood and violence could have hit the settlers and not allowed for North America to be settledour world would not be the same. The decimation of native tribes by smallpox allowed for easier submission of Indian tribes that did not want to be invaded by Europeans. Indians also believed that this disease was not transmitted by humans. Exhibit one shows how Europeans utilized smallpox to gain control over the native

Americans[Exhibit one] Lord Jeffrey Amherst, one of the commanding generals of the British infantry in America, suggested blankets that were infected with Smallpox were to be given out to the native Americans to spread the disease. These blankets were treated as gifts by the British and the native Americans thought the same. [insert both letters]. These letters are physical evidence that Amherst actually told his troops to follow through with this plan. European conquests owed a great deal to the spreading of Smallpox throughout the world. Amherst was one of the generals that recognized this, thus highlighting the importance of his letters and philosophy regarding the spread of smallpox with the Indians. Arrival and transmission of smallpox to North America, naturally, started when ships would arrive at the newly created ports. For a while, British settlers were the primary ones bringing smallpox, but later African slaves would carry the disease from the ports. Port cities like Boston, New York, Jamestown, and Charleston all had massive outbreaks of smallpox as the land was slowly being settled. Throughout the conflicts between the French and British, even more people moved to the Atlantic coast cities, which also made smallpox more frequent. An epidemic in Quebec City is said to have wiped out a quarter of the population in the city during this time. This fact also shows that not all of the settlers were immune to smallpox and that smallpox was a mixed blessing in terms of taking land away from the native Americans. [smallpox and its spread around the world] A consequence of these outbreaks resulted in forced quarantines of ships that had anyone infected with smallpox. Smallpox also influenced educationin terms of universities. The risk of catching smallpox in Britain is why colleges were established in the states rather than in Great Britain. The ineffectiveness of quarantine and isolation measures are the major reasons why Boston would have its worst outbreak ever. 5,998 people in Boston had smallpox during this

outbreak and 539 died with 2124 inoculated. Only 174 people that actually stayed within the city of Boston survived this mass outbreak. Smallpox in Canada is often not as researched and isnt discussed as much as North America. Smallpox went up the St. Lawrence River from Massachusetts and would eventually reach the southern tip of present day Manitoba. William Tomison, master of the Hudson Bay Company, recorded the effects and spread of smallpox through 1781 and 1782 in modern day Saskatchewan. Tomison recorded the fact that smallpox was highly contagious and provided a long standing immunity to the victim [nih.gov-canada smallpox]. Tomison was one of the few Caucasians that did not try to utilize smallpox as a weapon against the Indianshe practiced isolation and used a specific type of sulphur to attempt to sanitize the Indians so it might not spread. (artifact: picture of Cumberland House-probably insert before this paragraph). He documents his entire experience at Cumberland House in Saskatchewan and how successful his form of isolation and sanitation actually was. Indians did not become ill as often as their counterparts in the bottom half of North America. The significance of Tomisons discoveries show the first attempts to truly combat the disease and make sure it did not spread in Canada. His descriptions of what the daily schedule would involve. a boy and a girl arrived from the Swampy River having left one man behind, these is all that is alive out of 10 tents. This shows that while not as many people died in Canada, it still spread like wildfire and would eliminate entire groups of people really quickly. In terms of how North America would eradicate the disease, Canada would be the country that was easiest to eliminate smallpox in. Since it was so sparsely populated, distribution of a vaccine was easier to accomplish. Smallpox was completely eliminated in Canada by 1944. [whqlibdoc source]. In the United States portion of North America during the

1900s, only few reported cases of smallpox were documented. But, in 1902-1903 there were two big outbreaks that affected Boston, New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Ohio. The last outbreak was in 1927 and 7400 cases were reported in Cleveland/Toledo, Detroit, and Pittsburgh. After vaccination, for the first time ever, there were no cases in 1927 until 1946. A soldier returning from Japan introduced smallpox to Seattle and someone caught the disease in New York. The panic caused by this outbreak resulted in 6 million vaccinations in New York City and the disease has not been documented since those times.

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