Onesimus: The Slave That Saved Generations from Smallpox
What if I told you that a Boston slave, likely from West Africa, saved generations from smallpox simply by educating his slave master on the process of inoculation? Well, it’s true, and the slave master’s diary is our primary window into how this came to be!
Onesimus was purchased as a gift from a Puritan congregation to their minister, Cotton Mather, in December of 1706. Of course, Onesimus was his enslaved name and not his birth name. Mather’s named him Onesimus, which means “useful” in Greek, as a reference to a slave from the Bible. Go figure!
Based on Mather’s diary it is believed that Onesimus was a member of the Akan culture group from modern-day Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Which makes sense, as the process of inoculation was no stranger to the beautiful West African of the times. In addition to inoculation, the Akan culture is well known for its beautiful jewelry, sculptures, colorful hand-woven Kente cloth, and intricate brass weights for measuring gold.
Mather’s believed in converting slaves to Christianity and educating them to read and write just enough for him to remain in control of them. While control may have been his ultimate goal, the two men reportedly had conflicting views on religion, and we’re sure much more. However, what we do know is that Onesimus absolutely refused to convert to Christianity.
In addition to working on Mather’s slave plantation, Onesimus worked outside of the property for pay and was able to pay for his “freedom” from Mathers in 1721. To gain his freedom, Onesimus had to purchase a slave to be his replacement, compensate Mather for the time Onesimus spent working off the plantation, and was required to do several odd jobs for Mathers without pay. Some of these jobs included shoveling snow, fetching water, and bringing in firewood every evening. In addition to Mather’s list of demands, the city of Boston required him, and every other free Black man, to repair roads and highways without pay indefinitely, which was very common.
The smallpox epidemic began the same year that Onesimus gained his “freedom”, and it was different than any other epidemic that came before it. Smallpox was extremely contagious and patients who contracted the virus often experienced fever, fatigue, and a rash that left a disfiguring scar. In fact, up to 30% of the people that contracted it would die from it. However, as deadly and mysterious as it was to much of America, it was still no stranger to Onesimus, who had intentionally contracted it in West Africa through a process called inoculation. Inoculation is the process whereby a physician rubs pus from an infected person into an open wound of an uninfected person. This intentional way of contracting the virus allowed the patient to experience mild symptoms while still gaining immunity.
After sharing this information along with his personal experiences with Mather’s, Mather shared this information with just about everyone in Boston. To be expected, most everyone thought Mather’s was crazy for listening to a slave and believing that intentional infection of the virus would save lives. However, one physician, Zabdiel Boylston, believed in the power of inoculation and performed it on 242 Bostonians. Of the 242 patients, only 6 died (2.5%) compared to the 14% of deaths among the infected Bostonians who didn’t undergo the procedure.
Did Onesimus get to live to see the success of his inoculation idea? Well, it seems so. There are records of him still working for the city of Boston as late as 1738. We aren’t sure how, when, or where he died, but we do know that he was a very intelligent, ambitious, and determined man. Not only was he able to survive being ripped away from his old life, forced into slavery, and secure his freedom, but his knowledge of inoculation was able to save the lives of generations that came after him.
