1738-39 — Smallpox, Catawba (NC/SC) and Cherokee Natives (NC) –7,700-11,700

— ~700 Catawba Natives (NC and SC). Lee Sultzman. “Catawba History.”
–7,000-10,000 Cherokee. Anderson and Wetmore. “Cherokee.” NCpedia, 2006.

Narrative Information

Anderson and Wetmore: “In 1738-39 the tribe experienced its worst epidemic from smallpox, when the disease was brought by traders or was brought back from an expedition in which the Cherokee aided the British against the Spanish n Florida. Between 7,000 and 10,000 Cherokees died, representing about one-half of the tribe’s population.”

Hopkins: “When the disease [smallpox] was introduced into Charleston again with a cargo of slaves from West Africa in 1738, it infected over two thousand of the town’s less than five thousand inhabitants before spreading to the nearby Cherokee Indian nation (population included an estimated 6,000 warriors) where it annihilated half of the population in a year’s time.” (Hopkins 2003, 244.)

Sultzman: “Before contact, the Catawba were probably two separate tribes: the Catawba proper and the Iswa. Together, they may have numbered as many as 10,000, but when the first British estimates were made in 1692, their population was about 5,000. During the next 70 years the Catawba absorbed remnants from other Siouan-speaking tribes in the region. Despite this, their population declined rapidly from the combination of disease, war, and alcohol. By 1728 they had 400 warriors and a population of about 1,400. They lost half of these to smallpox epidemic during 1738.” (Sultzman, Lee. “Catawba History.”)

Sources

Anderson, William and Ruth Y. Wetmore (with additional research provided by John L. Bell). “Cherokee.” Encyclopedia of North Carolina (ncpedia), edited by William S. Powell, 2006. Accessed 3-22-2018 at: https://www.ncpedia.org/cherokee/disease

Hopkins, Donald R. The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1st Edition, 1983, with new Introduction, 2003. Google preview accessed 1-9-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=z2zMKsc1Sn0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Sultzman, Lee. “Catawba History.” Accessed 4-19-2012 at: http://www.dickshovel.com/Catawba.html