European colonists witnessed and wrote about the devastating effects of smallpox on American Indian populations. Following are t
wo descriptions by English colonial leaders in North America during the seventeenth century: "For the natives, they are near all dead of smallpox, so as the Lord hathe [has] cleared our title to what we possess." —John Winthrop, first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony "[Thank God for sending] smallpox, etc. to lessen their numbers: so that the English, in comparison with the Spaniard, have but little Indian blood to answer for." —John Archdale, governor of South Carolina, 1695–1696 What do these quotations tell you about English attitudes toward American Indians?
These two quotations from John Winthrop and John Archdale tells us the the British despise the Americans Indians: they are thankful for the diseases that are killing them fast, and believed is a work of God who want the British to rule and poses that land.
