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Abstract: The 1616-1619 epidemic among the Native Americans of coastal New England resulted in a highly significant depopulation. Although the microbial etiology of the disease has not been identified, its epidemiological characteristics of limited geographic distribution, restriction in time, and exceptionally high mortality are well-documented and known to be crucial to its historical impact. The epidemic resulted in the devastation of the Wampanoag while, remarkably, sparing their rivals, the Narragansett. The unique combination of the epidemic's timing, restricted location, and lethality forced Wampanoag leader Massasoit to enter into a treaty with the Pilgrims. Professor Booss argues that, despite the considerable yet inconclusive scholarly speculation about the exact nature of the disease, it was the highly unusual conjunction of epidemiological factors which drove the historical consequences. John Booss is a Professor Emeritus at the Yale University School of Medicine}
Without the lethal epidemic that took hold among the Wampanoag on the coast of New England from 1616-1619, the Pilgrims might not have survived. Relations between the colonists and Native Americans during this period were tense. There had been abductions and killings of Natives along the New England coast by European explorers, traders and fishermen who considered them inferior. For example, Tisquantum, popularly known as Squanto, whose subsequent services to the Pilgrims were said to be "almost beyond estimate," had been abducted and sold into slavery by Captain Thomas Hunt in 1614.2 In the words of Sir Fernando Gorges (c. 1568-1647), Hunt's action resulted in "a warre now new begunne between the inhabitants of those parts and us."3 As a result, Native Americans in the region would not have been peaceably disposed toward the Pilgrims and, absent the depleted state of the Wampanoag, might have refused to befriend them. It would not have been surprising if the Indians had simply ignored the starving colonists, or worse, after the deadly first winter of 1620-1621. In this case, the Pilgrims might not have survived to play a crucial role in the mythos of America. The thesis of this paper is that it was the unique epidemiological features of the 1616-1619 epidemic, conditioned by cultural factors, which made the Wampanoag particularly vulnerable.
Numerous attempts have been made to retrospectively identify the microbiological nature of the epidemic (whether it was...