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An illustration of a doctor tending to a patient covered in smallpox. An additional four patients are laid in bed, covered with a blanket.
Illustrations from the Florentine Codex depicting smallpox outbreaks in the 16th century.

Colonization brings radically different diseases to Turtle Island.

1492-1600

The Story of Tuberculosis
COL
INDG
EPD
BIOW
ENV
MED
Illustrations from the Florentine Codex depicting smallpox outbreaks in the 16th century.

Indigenous people lack the genetic resistance and suffer overwhelming mortality when exposed to smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, and other diseases. In addition to a lack of resistance, colonizer destruction of the environment and systems of social and cultural care create communities more vulnerable to infection. The disease environment is also hostile to European settler-colonists, especially in the Southern colonies. Malaria is endemic in the South, with very high mortality rates for new arrivals.