I heard that in the end of the French and Indian war, that the British gave the Native Americans items that they knew had been exposed to smallpox, resulting in over 100 Native American deaths, and possibly more if the epidemic spread. Is this true, and is there evidence that this was done at earlier times - such as initial European settlement in North America - as a way of wiping out native populations? Sources would be appreciated.
Always more to say on topics such as these, but your specific enquiry has been addressed a couple of times before and it may be helpful to review these responses while waiting for an answer that deals in more detail with the early period you are interested in. (The tl;dr is that there are lots of unverified claims in secondary sources, but only one proven instance of deliberate attempts to infect, dating to the 1760s.)
Were smallpox blankets really a thing, with u/Reedstilt
Smallpox Blankets; Were they actually distributed to Native Americans, how did the distributors pull this off without infecting themselves?, with u/dimuqratiyyah
How widespread were Smallpox blankets?, with u/tinrond