Onesimus
Carried West African inoculation practice into colonial Boston
At a glance
- Inventor
- Onesimus
- Life
- fl. early 1700s
- Birthplace
- West Africa (likely Akan region)
- Country
- West Africa / Colonial Massachusetts
- Region
- United States
- Era
- Early Modern
- Fields
- Medicine & Health
- Evidence
- Documented
- Records
- 0 in this archive
What they did
Onesimus, an enslaved African man in Boston, described to Cotton Mather a variolation procedure he had undergone in Africa — deliberate inoculation with smallpox matter to produce mild illness and immunity.
Historical context
Boston's 1721 smallpox epidemic. Mather and Dr Zabdiel Boylston used the account to argue for inoculation against fierce public and medical opposition; the inoculated cohort had markedly lower mortality.
The legacy
An early documented instance of African medical knowledge entering European-American practice, decades before Jenner's vaccination work.
The evidence
Cotton Mather, 'The Angel of Bethesda' and 1721 inoculation correspondence
Boylston inoculation records, 1721–22
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