DISEASE BLANKETS
history, things on stage
We should not have burned those villagers, you know? We shouldn’t have given out those disease blankets. That was too much. I don’t know. I just feel lost. – Ben as Conquistador
Yes, that definitely happened across North, Central, and South America, starting in the 1530’s. Small pox and other infectious diseases were easily spread to native people who had not built up immune to diseases from Europe.
Here is just one of the many documented examples of using disease blankets to purposefully spread biological warfare:
Colonel Bouquet wrote to General Amherst,
“I will try to inoculate the Indians with some blankets that may fall into their hands, and take care not to get the disease myself. I wish we could make use of the Spanish method to hunt them with English dogs, supported by rangers and some light horse, who would, I think, effectually extirpate or remove that vermin.”
On July 16, Amherst replied,
“You will do well to try to inoculate 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.”
reference: A Country Between: The Upper Ohio Valley and Its Peoples, 1724-1774; Michael N. McConnell; University of Nebraska Press; 1992; Pgs. 190-6