Smallpox was a highly contagious disease ripping through Boston in the early 1700s.
Without immunity, communities were unable to fight off smallpox and masses fell victim. In 1706, a man known in records as only Onesimus, was enslaved by a Puritan minister living in Boston. Onesimus informed the minister of a way to prevent contraction.
The procedure consisted of rubbing pus from an infected person inside the open wound of another. Once the infectious material was introduced to the body, that person would be inoculated, or mostly protected against the disease through activation of the immune system.
“We remember Onesimus, a man who passed on knowledge that led to the elimination of one of the western world’s most deadly diseases,” said Charles Blow.
All this and more on “Prime.”
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