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Article: Disease: the unexpected enemy.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Cobblestone
- Article date:
- October 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Carus Publishing Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The story of colonial Virginia includes the story of disease. Illness was everywhere. It killed English settlers and American Indians alike. White men and Indians fought wars and died of starvation. But the greatest enemy, for both sides, was disease.
The problem was obvious in the case of the settlers. The ships in which the colonists sailed from Europe to the New World were cramped, disease-ridden, and filthy. Once across the Atlantic Ocean, settlers were unprepared for the hot, muggy climate of Virginia. Their miserable living conditions in the colony also contributed to illness, as did the local mosquitoes, which carried microbes that caused yellow fever and ...