Health Equity Timeline of MetroWest | Leverage The Power of Our Past

Onesimus, a Black slave in Boston, shares the African practice that ultimately leads to the eradication of smallpox.

Smallpox is a significant threat in the area. Native populations lack immunity and suffer tremendously when European settlers bring the disease. In the early 1700s, Black slave Onesimus explains to his enslaver that Africans use the practice of variolation, a form of inoculation, to help people build immunity. They do so by dosing healthy people with infected pus from those who are ill. In a later resurgence of smallpox, Onesimus' owner and a local surgeon use this information to run a study and publish the results.

Sources

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/onesimus/ https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/dr-boylston-experiments-with-smallpox-inoculation.html

Onesimus: Public Health Pioneer Against Smallpox