Joyanna Adams

Nobody's Opinion

Pilgrams, Cornwallis, and Mosquitos…Or—Blame the Poor Innocent Bug.

Nobody Remembers

In 1605, the French explorer Samuel de Champlain, sailed down the coast of New England looking for a nice place to settle. The New England coast was a GREAT place, but Champlain decided that too many people lived there.  He didn’t even try to stay. Fifteen years later the English showed up in Massachusetts. The Pilgrims set down, failed miserably at first, then took a strong foothold.

Why did they succeed while the French did not?  According to Pilgrim colonist, William Bradford, three years before the Mayflower, a ship of Frenchmen shipwrecked and set up on Cape Cod. The Indians killed all of them but 3 or 4. ONE of those captors gave the Indians a disease which was carried all along the New England coast. So many Indians died so quickly that they didn’t even have time to bury their dead. The Indians had no protection against smallpox, influenza, measles or malaria. Almost two-thirds of the populace died, which explains why it was so easy for the British to survive. Nobody was around. 

And that wasn’t the first time that disease influenced our history.

Because of an outbreak of malaria in the South, (In the beginning)  so many people died that it created a labor shortage. The demand for black African slaves started, due to a bug. Most Africans were immune to the type of malaria that was imported from England.

You could say that a mosquito, caused the importation of slaves. This was long before the local grocery store.

(Always follow the money. It works every time.)

It was also here that during the American Revolution, British general Charles Cornwallis, occupied the Carolinas, where mosquitoes thrived with  the malaria eggs inside them. With half his army sick, Cornwallis retreated to Yorktown, where the rest of his army fell sick. He lost the war soon afterwards.

So…who knows what would have been the outcome of the Revolution if Cornwallis’s army had not come down with malaria, you might ask?

Nobody Thinks: We would have still won.

Before you think that the poor Cornwallis was robbed of his army remember: Washington lost as many of his battles due to horrible disease, cold, and lack of supplies— Valley Forge being the prime example–yet still manage to win, so,  Nobody Thinks he still deserves the historical credit, even with and despite…our home stand advantage.

July 6, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | 3 Comments