Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
The claims that smallpox was deliberately used as a genocidal weapon on a massive scale are overblown, but its use as a weapon was not unknown, and it seems indeed to have been used against Native Americans.
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Cecil Adams at The Straight Dope, has a
discussion about Lord Jeffrey Amherst, commander of British forces in North America during the French and Indian War (1756-'63), who seems to have seriously considered giving Indians infected blankets. No proof that it was actually done, though Lord Amherst considered Native Americans subhumans who ought to be exterminated.