Note that by 1674 the English population of the region was 80,000 and the natives were down to 10,000 total, largely because of disease (accidentally transmitted, because nobody got germs theory at that point).

Eeeeeeee, I have a job interview tomorrow! Well, a "meet and greet" with a staffing company, but they contacted me with a specific temp-to-perm job to come in about. i haven't had a job interview in a very long time. Maybe 2005? Bonkers.

So of course the pressing question is - what do I wear?

Exciting, -t! I always vote suit, but you don't necessarily have to get that dolled up.

largely because of disease (accidentally transmitted, because nobody got germs theory at that point).

Do I recall right that there were no casually transmitted diseases in the Americas until whitey got here?

Jesse: [link]

Osteologic data demonstrate that native groups were most definitely not living in a pristine, disease-free environment before contact. Although New World indigenous disease was mostly of the chronic and episodic kind, Old World diseases were largely acute and epidemic. Different populations were affected at different times and suffered varying rates of mortality.19 Diseases such as treponemiasis and tuberculosis were already present in the New World, along with diseases such as tularemia, giardia, rabies, amebic dysentery, hepatitis, herpes, pertussis, and poliomyelitis, although the prevalence of almost all of these was probably low in any given group.14 Old World diseases that were not present in the Americas until contact include bubonic plague, measles, smallpox, mumps, chickenpox, influenza, cholera, diphtheria, typhus, malaria, leprosy, and yellow fever.19 Indians in the Americas had no acquired immunity to these infectious diseases, and these diseases caused what Crosby referred to as “virgin soil epidemics,” in which all members of a population would be infected simultaneously.20

Yikes. People are a mess, even when they aren't trying.

I listened to that TAL episode today. Incredibly depressing.

msbelle, insent.

I don't have a suit, but I could do black pants and black blazer. Or a black skirt and a black blazer. And then a white shirt, or green shirt, or possibly red shirt.

Oh, I do have a suit, but it's a black skirt and a floral print jacket, not exactly conservative looking. Hm.

This is an excellent prospect for a first interview, in the sense that it's a job I could do and wouldn't mind doing, but I won't be heartbroken if I don't get it. Pretty low stress.

Green shirt! (I always vote green shirt, I think.) Blazer and whatever.

I vote green shirt, too.

Let me recommend two excellent books, 1491 and 1493, which really deal with what's known about Native American populations and civilizations before and after Columbus.

Basically, if you want to go the alternate history route, you're going to have to allow for the conceptual antithesis of decimation -- where 9 out of 10 of your native population dies over a hundred year period.