174:. Doctors, ministers, laymen, and Boston city officials argued that the practice of inoculating healthy individuals would spread the disease and that it was immoral to interfere with the working of divine providence. Also, Mather was ridiculed publicly for relying on the testimony of an enslaved person. It was commonly anticipated that enslaved Africans would attempt an overthrow of white society; therefore, the medicinal wisdom of Onesimus was met with severe mistrust and assumed to be a ploy to poison white citizens.
212:
In 1716, Onesimus attempted to buy his freedom from Mather, raising funds to "purchase" another enslaved man named
Obadiah to take his place. Mather placed conditions on his release; however, requiring that he remain available to perform work in the Mather household at their command and return five
203:
After the deaths of his children, Mather attempted to convert
Onesimus to Christianity, overtures Onesimus rejected. Mather saw his inability to convert the man he enslaved as his failure as a Puritan evangelist and head of his household, as Onesimus' refusal was supposed to bring God's displeasure
131:
Enquiring of my Negro-man
Onesimus, who is a pretty Intelligent Fellow, Whether he ever had the Small-Pox; he answered, both, Yes, and No; and then told me, that he had undergone an Operation, which had given him something of the Small-Pox, and would forever preserve him from it, adding that it was
195:
Onesimus earned independent wages and afforded a household for himself and the wife he took while serving the Mather family. It is unclear whether his wife was a free woman. They had two children, both of whom died before they were ten years old. His son, Onesimulus, died in 1714. Katy, his second
186:
from an infected person's body and scraping the infected needle across a healthy person's skin. Dr. Boylston first inoculated his six-year-old son and two of his slaves. Two hundred eighty individuals were inoculated during the 1721ā22 Boston smallpox epidemic. The population of 280 inoculated
120:
Mather saw
Onesimus as highly intelligent and educated him in reading and writing with the Mather family (for context, according to biographer Kathryn Koo, at that time, literacy was primarily associated with religious instruction, and writing as means of note-taking and conducting business).
162:
Mather followed
Onesimus's medicinal advice because, as Margot Minardi writes, "inferiority had not yet been indelibly written onto the bodies of Africans." Additionally, Mather believed that disease, specifically smallpox, was a spiritual and physical punishment, so he saw a cure as "God's
187:
patients experienced only six deaths (approx. 2.2 percent), compared to 844 deaths among the 5,889 non-inoculated smallpox patients (approx. 14.3 percent). An inscription on his tomb incorrectly identifies
Boylston as the "first" to have introduced the practice of inoculation into America.
142:
In 1716 or shortly before, Onesimus had described to Mather the process of inoculation that had been performed on him and others in his society in Africa (as Mather reported in a letter): "People take Juice of Small-Pox; and Cut the Skin, and put in a drop." In the book,
85:
Onesimus's name at birth and place of birth are unknown with certainty. He was first documented as living in the colonies in 1706, having been brought to North
America as an enslaved person. In December of that year, he was given as a gift by a church congregation to
208:
in his free time as Mather attempted to convert him to
Christianity. Onesimus' refusal to convert led to Mather's unhappiness with his presence in the household. Mather's diary reports "stubborn behavior" from Onesimus following the death of his children.
200:. Culturally, Puritans believed that children "belonged to God", and parents were admonished to be prepared for the loss of a child. Likely, this belief was connected to the fact that, between 1640 and 1759, one in four children died before age ten.
178:
passed in Boston, which included race-based punishments and codes to prevent enslaved or servant uprisings (because
Bostonians feared conspiracy and conflict), showed a society skeptical of African medicine.
170:, Mather promoted inoculation as protection against it, citing Onesimus and African folk medicine as the source of the procedure. His advocacy for inoculation met resistance from those suspicious of
132:
often used among the
Guramantese, & whoever had the Courage to use it, was forever free from the Fear of the Contagion. He described the Operation to me, and showed me in his Arm the Scar.
726:
The Acts And Resolves, Public And Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay: to Which Are Prefixed the Charters of the Province: With Historical And Explanatory Notes, And an Appendix
51:
After a smallpox outbreak began in Boston in 1721, Mather proliferated Onesimus's knowledge to advocate for inoculation in the population. This practice eventually spread to other colonies.
232:
declared that smallpox had been completely eradicated due to global immunization efforts, making it the first and only human infectious disease for which this has been accomplished.
221:
Boston and London, in 1726 and 1722, respectively, performed trials on citizens, and, on average, inoculation decreased the mortality rate from 17% to 2% of the infected population.
147:, Kelly Wisecup wrote that Onesimus is believed to have been inoculated at some point before being sold into slavery or during the slave trade, as he most likely traveled from the
228:
development of vaccination for smallpox and cowpox. Thereafter, vaccination became compulsory in Wales and England, and variolation was banned for its side effects. In 1980, the
159:
people from many regions of Africa and, throughout the slave trade in the Americas, slave communities continued the practice of inoculation despite regional origin.
77:
noted that "Onesimus reversed many of traditional racial assumptions... e had a lot more knowledge medically than most of the Europeans in Boston at that time."
435:
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providential gift", as well as a means of receiving recognition from New England society and re-establishing the influence of religious figures in politics.
904:
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Nonetheless, a physician, Zabdiel Boylston, carried out the method Onesimus had described, which involved sticking a needle into a
60:
magazine survey, for his contributions to medical science, Onesimus was declared one of the 100 Best Bostonians of All Time.
924:
341:
Wisecup, Kelly (2011). "African Medical Knowledge, the Plain Style, and Satire in the 1721 Boston Inoculation Controversy".
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909:
171:
155:
method of inoculation was long practiced in Africa among sub-Saharan people. The practice was widespread among enslaved
229:
20:
663:
Minardi, Margot (2004). "The Boston Inoculation Controversy of 1721-1722: And Incident in the History of Race".
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306:
301:
402:
175:
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Of Medicine and Statecraft: Smallpox and Early Colonial Vaccination in French West Africa (Senegal-Guinea)
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Mather, in a 1716 letter to the Royal Society of London, on his introduction to inoculation from Onesimus
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820:"Strangers in the House of God: Cotton Mather, Onesimus, and an Experiment in Christian Slaveholding"
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680:
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African Medical Knowledge, the Plain Style, and Satire in the 1721 Boston Inoculation Controversy
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Mather referred to the ethnicity of Onesimus as "Guaramantee", which may refer to the
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486:
471:"The African Connection: Cotton Mather and the Boston Smallpox Epidemic of 1721ā1722"
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87:
48:, which prevented smallpox and laid the foundation for the development of vaccines.
37:
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Recognition for Onesimus's contributions to medical science came in 2016, when the
33:) man who was instrumental in the mitigation of smallpox in Boston, Massachusetts.
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magazine declared him among the 100 Best Bostonians of All Time. Historian
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In 1796, the inoculation methodology Onesimus introduced was replaced by
99:
684:
183:
91:
403:"How an African Slave in Boston Helped Save Generations from Smallpox"
859:
676:
753:
Stewart and Delvin (2006). "The History of the Smallpox Vaccine".
114:
102:. The name, "Onesimus" means "useful, helpful, or profitable".
94:
minister of North Church, as well as a prominent figure in the
213:
pounds that Mather claimed that Onesimus had stolen from him.
604:
Gates, Henry Louis Jr.; Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks (2004).
729:. Laws, etc. Boston: Wright & Potter. pp. 535ā36
723:
Madison Bigelow, Melville; Cheney Goodell, Abner (1869).
706:
704:
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700:
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436:"How an African slave helped Boston fight smallpox"
827:Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society
244:, African-American healer and slave emancipator
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321:
98:. Mather renamed him after a first-century AD
36:He introduced his enslaver, Puritan clergyman
8:
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394:
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29:(late 1600sā1700s) was an African (likely
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869:Student Bible: New International Version
854:: Northwestern University. p. 229.
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546:Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
40:, to the principle and procedure of the
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867:Yancey, Philip; Stafford, Tim (2011).
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100:enslaved person mentioned in the Bible
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272:"The 100 Best Bostonians of All Time"
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125:Inoculation advocacy and controversy
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204:on the Mather family. Onesimus was
846:Hayden, Christopher Ellis (2008).
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487:10.1001/jama.1988.03410150095037
469:Brown, Thomas H. (1988-10-21).
665:The William and Mary Quarterly
16:African man enslaved in Boston
1:
905:People from North End, Boston
302:Introducing Inoculation, 1721
930:18th-century American slaves
542:"The origins of inoculation"
900:People from colonial Boston
610:. Oxford University Press.
434:Widmer (October 17, 2014).
946:
767:10.1016/j.jinf.2005.07.021
322:Yancey & Stafford 2011
166:When Boston experienced a
81:Early life and enslavement
18:
540:Boylston, Arthur (2012).
343:Early American Literature
274:. Boston. January 5, 2016
230:World Health Organization
168:smallpox outbreak in 1721
21:Onesimus (disambiguation)
558:10.1258/jrsm.2012.12k044
75:Macaulay Honors College
607:African American Lives
324:, verse Philemon 1.16.
134:
925:Vaccination advocates
818:Koo, Kathryn (2007).
355:10.1353/eal.2011.0004
176:The Acts and Resolves
920:Smallpox eradication
850:(Thesis). Evanston,
755:Journal of Infection
19:For other uses, see
915:18th-century deaths
910:17th-century births
196:child, died due to
805:, pp. 159ā60.
713:, pp. 143ā75.
530:, pp. 160ā62.
96:Salem Witch Trials
309:, January 1, 2021
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882:978-0-31043731-4
871:. Grand Rapids,
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481:(15): 2247ā9.
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875:: Biblica.
837:October 25,
812:Works cited
733:October 25,
623:October 24,
516:Hayden 2008
445:October 21,
412:October 21,
278:October 24,
198:consumption
153:variolation
149:West Indies
111:Akan people
46:inoculation
42:variolation
894:Categories
648:August 31,
254:References
242:Jane Minor
206:catechized
113:of modern
107:Coromantee
73:of CUNY's
71:Ted Widmer
54:In a 2016
44:method of
566:0141-0768
495:0098-7484
249:Footnotes
833:: 143ā75
803:Koo 2007
791:Koo 2007
775:16176833
711:Koo 2007
584:22843649
528:Koo 2007
384:Koo 2007
371:30221636
363:21688446
236:See also
157:colonial
90:, their
27:Onesimus
685:3491675
575:3407399
503:3050164
407:History
184:pustule
92:Puritan
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217:Legacy
66:Boston
57:Boston
823:(PDF)
681:JSTOR
367:S2CID
115:Ghana
877:ISBN
839:2019
771:PMID
735:2019
650:2016
625:2019
612:ISBN
580:PMID
562:ISSN
499:PMID
491:ISSN
475:JAMA
447:2019
414:2019
359:PMID
280:2019
117:).
31:Akan
856:doi
831:117
763:doi
673:doi
570:PMC
554:doi
550:105
483:doi
479:260
351:doi
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873:MI
852:IL
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