Fort Pitt Research Paper

1. There are many accusations of who was responsible for the smallpox outbreak in Fort Pitt, during the summer 1763. Many of the Native Americans accused the British soldiers of being responsible for the outbreak. There is suspension that Jeffery Amherst, the British commander in chief, knew of smallpox infected blankets being given to Natives by the end of June. William Trent is also credited with writing an account of the event in his diary. The Fort Pitt account books clearly states that the British military paid for and sanctioned the handing out of infected objects. Records for June 1763 document the numbers for how many were given out. This handing out of infected objects was certified by Captain Simeon Ecuyer. These are only a few examples of the many accusations surrounding the Fort Pitt smallpox outbreak.

2.

The article does succeed in broadening the debate over Fort Pitt and putting it in context. Fenn starts by talking about the Fort Pitt incident and then after that she talks about other incidents related to small pox. In the other accusations and incidents section of the article Fenn displays information about other instances of the possibility of smallpox being used as a biological weapon. In doing this she was showing that there had been other instances of the use of smallpox as a weapon but these other instances did not surpass the results of Fort Pitt. She talks about even occasions of outbreaks during the Revolutionary War. Through talking about other instance of the use of smallpox Fenn helps the reader realize the true horribleness of the Fort Pitt outbreak. In a sense she uses the other accusations to back up an early point she made where she said that “the most famous “smallpox blanket” incident in American history took place in the midst of Pontiac’s Rebellion in 1763” (qtd. Fenn). The other instance she writes about helps to prove her point that it was the most famous incident. Through the article Fenn does a good job of broadening the