1667 — Smallpox Epidemic, Native Americans, VA, especially eastern shore VA — >300

—>300  Blanchard “translation” of “hundreds” into a number for the purpose of a tally.

–Hundreds. Duffy. Epidemics in Colonial America. 1953 and 1979, p. 71, citing Robertson.

Narrative Information

Duffy: “In 1667, a sailor infected with smallpox landed in what is now Northampton County,[1] Virginia, and passed the disorder on to members of the local tribes, who ‘died by the hundred.’ So devastating was the attack that ‘practically every tribe fell into the hands of the grim reaper and disappeared, the only exception being the Gingaskins.’”[2]

Source

Duffy, John. Epidemics in Colonial America. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1953 and reprinted 1979.

[1] Northampton County comprises the southern tip of the peninsula extending down from Maryland on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay. On the west side is the Chesapeake, and on the east is the Atlantic. The peninsula is not connected to the Virginia mainland.

[2] Cites, in footnote 2, Thomas B. Robertson, “An Indian King’s Will,” in Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, XXXVI ((1928), 192-93.