Deserted wigwams and abandoned villages dotted the landscape of southern New England in the early 17th century -- a grim testament to the tragic effects of European colonization on Native society and culture. 

When the first Europeans settled in New England, they brought with them more than just strange customs and novel goods -- they also carried European diseases that spread rapidly through Native communities.  Within twenty years of the founding of Plymouth Colony, the Pequots and other southern New England Native groups had been decimated by virgin soil epidemics – outbreaks of European diseases that Native people had never before encountered.

Two major epidemics occurred in southern New England in the early 17th century. The first, possibly an outbreak of bubonic plague, took place during the years 1616 through 1619.  The second and more widespread case was the smallpox epidemic of 1633 and 1634, which swept across the entire Northeast.

Smallpox and the other diseases brought over by Europeans killed entire families, but the young were particularly vulnerable.  The loss of so many children and young people made it difficult for the Pequot population to rebound even after the epidemics had run their course. 

Native population in New England plummeted by over 70% as a result of these epidemics, and some Native groups lost up to 95% of their members.  Like other Native tribes in southern New England, the Pequots suffered extremely high mortality rates during this period, leaving behind a population in 1636 of an estimated 4,000 people – a small fraction of the tribe’s population prior to European contact.

Those who survived the disease had to face political and social upheaval. The loss of sachems and other leaders often left a political vacuum and disrupted alliances between groups.  And when many of the elders died,  generations of wisdom and knowledge went with them. 

As disease diminished Native population and forced survivors to abandon their villages, Europeans quickly moved into the depopulated land.  One 17th-century Englishman observed that the English planted especially on land where “a great mortality" had claimed the lives of Native occupants.  Many Europeans interpreted the catastrophic diseases that killed so many Native people as God’s will -- clearing the New England countryside to make room for their settlement.