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Onesimus, African Slave who help and brought the concept and inoculation of Small Pox in 1721

Posted by Ebube Kingsley Oge April 25, 2023

Right on today’s history, Blackhistorycom.ng will be telling the story of popular and great Onesimus who was an African slave in America in the 17th century.

Onesimus has somehow been forgotten by many but you should know that he was the man who saved millions of life with the invention of smallpox vaccine in 1721.

Onesimus According to Wikipedia was born in the late 1600 and he was an African slave who was given to the New England Puritan minister Cotton Mather in 1709 and he renamed him but his original name is still unknown.

So even though Onesimus has been forgeten, let’s not forget that he was the one who give concept of mitigation of the impact of a smallpox outbreak in Boston, Massachusetts and this saved hundreds of life in 1721.

Yes, his role has hardly been told and this all started in the year 1716, when he was asked by his master about a scar which he incurred on his forearm, and there Onesimus described the basics of smallpox inoculation.

This inoculation was very common then in Africa and unknown to Americans and this concept according to hi was that when a Pus is transmitted to the skin of a negative from an infected person (positive), the person who just gets the infection will had a mild reaction, but becomes immune to future infection of pus.

He played a great role smallpox outbreak in Boston, Massachusetts in 1721 and and the concept that Onesimus introduced to his master, Mather to prevent the disease helped a lot by laying a concept for provision of vaccines for the infection.

Mather used this advice and he she shared the CONCEPT to the population and also with physician Zabdiel Boylston, who went in to attempt the procedure on his son, and then on other patients and this concept soon spread to other American colonies.

After the inoculation procedure Edward Jenner’s discovered the infection vaccination so in a way, Onesimus helped a lot and yet forgotten but in 2016, Boston magazine survey, declared Onesimus as one of the “Best Bostonians of All Time.

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