In 1706, Cotton Mather, a Puritan minister in Boston, received an African slave as a gift from his church congregation, whom he named Onesimus, after a biblical slave. A name of Greek origin meaning "useful, helpful or profitable".  

 At that time, mankind was struggling with infectious diseases such as smallpox, with treatments that included medicinal herbs, bloodletting and even the ingestion of large quantities of beer.  

 But in 1716 Onesimus described to Mather an inoculation process he and other members of his society had undergone in Africa. He explained that to prevent a person from contracting smallpox, one had to rub pus from an infected person into an open wound on the arm.  

 This process, also known as "variolation," was not a vaccine, but it activated an immune response and protected against the disease most of the time and was rejected by the society of the time.  

 A few years later, when an outbreak of smallpox ravaged Boston in 1721, Mather had the opportunity to promote this Onesimus inoculation procedure and, together with physician Zabdiel Boylston, began to apply it and it was a success:  

 A total of 280 people were inoculated during the Boston smallpox epidemic and among those vaccinated, only 6 patients died (2.2%). Compared to the 844 deaths among the 5,889 non-inoculated smallpox patients (14.3%), the overall success of the inoculation process was evident.  

 The medical breakthrough observed during the smallpox outbreak of 1721-22 in Boston helped lay the groundwork for vaccination. In 1796, Edward Jenner developed a smallpox vaccine that would later become mandatory in Massachusetts.  

 Without Onesimus' knowledge and his willingness to share it, hundreds more lives might have been lost to smallpox. 

Jose Frias (Frias Realty Group) 

Thank You, Jose for being a resource to many families through your service and dedication. Mr. Frias and its group join our team to empower and educate number of families in their home buying process!  

Serving “Greater Boston”