What the Africans of Boston Knew about Inoculation
- Written
- 1721
- Place
- Boston
- Language
- English
- Kind of source
- pamphlet
- Reading time
- 4 minutes
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Intensity
- Medium: contemptuous language about Africans (“like Ideots,” “Poor Creatures,” “like Rotten Sheep”), enslavement in the background, a bomb thrown at a house; prepare students for the language and discuss it
SmallpoxInoculation and vaccinationDoctors and medical ideas
“There is at this Time a considerable Number of Africans in this Town,” the pamphlet says, and all of them tell the same story: in Africa people cut the skin, put in a drop of smallpox matter, fall a little sick, and never have smallpox again.
The pamphlet was printed in Boston in August or September 1721, during a smallpox epidemic, under the name of Zabdiel Boylston (1679–1766), the doctor who answered the minister Cotton Mather’s appeal to try inoculation. Boylston appears on the title page only as the man who “published” it, and the short introductory note before page 1, which opens this selection, is apparently his. The summary of two reports from the Ottoman Empire is taken from Mather’s letter to Boston’s doctors, and the closing Queries on whether inoculation is lawful are Mather’s too. The Remarks mix the two men: the sixth speaks as Boylston, the man making the “experiments,” while the passage on the Africans reappears almost word for word in a manuscript of Mather’s own, where he speaks as the man who questioned them.
Mather had first heard of inoculation from Onesimus, an African man he enslaved, whom members of his congregation bought and gave him in December 1706. In a letter of July 1716 to John Woodward of the Royal Society, Mather wrote that Onesimus had undergone the operation, that it “was often used among the Guramantese,” and that he showed Mather the scar. The pamphlet does not name him. Boylston’s first patients, on June 26, 1721, were his son Thomas, about six, and two people he enslaved, Jack, a man of about thirty-six, and Jackey, a boy of two and a half.
Mather knew of the practice only through what Africans told him and what he read. He wrote down their words in a broken English, and his other versions of the same testimony word it differently. He argued that their evidence was believable because he thought them too simple to lie.
Watch for both things at once: the writers depend on African knowledge, and they write about the people who gave it with contempt.
What we know now
Inoculation was practiced in North and West Africa at least from the late seventeenth century; whether it began there is not known (Fenner et al. 1988). In Boston it worked as the writers hoped, though not without risk. By Boylston’s own count, 6 of the 280 people inoculated in Boston and nearby towns in 1721–1722 died, while 844 of the 5,759 who caught smallpox the natural way in Boston died, between one in six and one in seven (Boylston 1726). The inoculated could also pass natural smallpox to people around them (Fenner et al. 1988). Mather’s 1716 letter naming Onesimus stayed in manuscript until 1912 (Kittredge 1912). By 1721 Onesimus had left most of his service: in an undated paper, which the diary’s editors print beside an entry of July 1716, Mather released him on conditions, after Onesimus paid part of the price of another enslaved youth to replace him (Mather, Diary).
Read alongside
- Engrafting against Smallpox
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu watched engrafting at Adrianople in 1717 and learned it from Greek and Turkish practice, as Mather learned it from Africans in Boston. Compare how each writer describes the people who taught them, and what each expects English or Boston doctors to say.
- A Sermon against Inoculation
In London in 1722 Edmund Massey preached that inoculation usurped God’s power over life and death. Set his religious objection beside Mather’s answer to those who said Christians must not learn from the heathen.
- Instructions for Vaccine Inoculation
Edward Jenner’s cowpox vaccine, eighty years later, replaced inoculation with smallpox matter. Compare the evidence Jenner offers doctors with the testimony Mather gathered from Africans.
The edited translation, in simplified modern English. Bracketed words were added for clarity; [...] marks a cut. Tap a note number to read the note.
The public having been lately entertained with a very dark and partial account of this new method of receiving the smallpox; and this account being given as is pretended from the very letters of Dr. Timonius and Pylarinus;1 it is thought reasonable and fitting to lay before the public this following abstract of what those learned gentlemen have said of this practice. But because the gentleman who only hath these letters by him2 refuses now to lend them; the account here following is chiefly taken from a known letter written by a learned gentleman of Boston3 to the worthy physicians of the town.
The air of the chamber must be kept very temperate. The Greek operatrix4 pricked more places, and less fleshy ones than Pylarinus approved of; with an oblique stroke pricking the places, with an iron or golden needle, dropping and thrusting the pus into the wound; and so binding all with fillets.5 Her way was thus to prick the forehead, the chin, both cheeks, both wrists, both insteps. This was doubtless overdoing. Pylarinus affirms that some have done the business with no more than one little incision in the arm, and it has done very well. [So it has been with such Africans as have shown us the marks of their inoculation.]6
II. There is at this time a considerable number of Africans in this town who can have no conspiracy or combination to cheat us. Nobody has instructed them to tell their story. The more plainly, brokenly, and blunderingly, and like idiots, they tell their story, it will be with reasonable men, but the much more credible. For that these all agree in one story: “That abundance of poor Negroes die of the smallpox, till they learn this way; that people take the juice of the smallpox, and cut the skin, and put in a drop; then by’nd by a little sick, then few smallpox; and nobody die of it: nobody have smallpox any more.” Here we have a clear evidence that in Africa, where the poor creatures die of the smallpox in the common way like rotten sheep, a merciful God has taught them a wonderful preservative. It is a common practice, and is attended with success. I have as full evidence of this as I have that there are lions in Africa. And I don’t know why ’tis more unlawful to learn of Africans how to help against the poison of the smallpox than it is to learn of our Indians7 how to help against the poison of a rattlesnake.
VI. I have made my experiments with all the disadvantages that can be imagined, on old and young, on strong and weak, on male and female, on white and black, and in the worst season of the year; and on greater numbers than I judge proper (considering the unaccountable rage of unadvised people8) to mention, but more than twice seven, I can assure you; and it has succeeded well in all, even beyond expectation.
X. It is cavilled9 (for to say “objected” would be too easy a word for such impertinence) that this new way comes to us from the heathen,10 and we Christians must not learn the way of the heathen. I inquire whether our Hippocrates were not a heathen? And whether our Galen were not a heathen?11 And whether we have not our mithridate12 from the heathen? And whether the first inventor of our treacle were not Nero’s physician?13 And whether we have not learned some of our very good medicines from our Indians? But this new way has been used by many thousands of Christians, and it is from Christians we have the communications of this new way which we most rely upon. But are there none who pass for Courant-Christians14 that are worse than infidels? And, gentlemen smokers, I pray, whom did you learn to smoke of?15
Notes
- Emanuel Timonius and Jacobus Pylarinus, doctors working in the Ottoman Empire, whose accounts of inoculation at Constantinople the Royal Society of London printed in 1714 and 1716. Pylarinus had been the Venetian consul at Smyrna. back
- William Douglass, a Boston doctor who opposed inoculation. He owned the issues of the Royal Society’s journal that printed the two accounts, had lent them to Mather, and now refused to lend them again. back
- Cotton Mather, who had written to Boston’s doctors in June 1721 urging them to try inoculation. back
- A woman who performed the operation. Pylarinus’s account, summarized here, describes a Greek woman inoculator. back
- Bandages. back
- The square brackets are in the pamphlet. They mark a comment by the Boston writer, added to his summary of Pylarinus. back
- The Native peoples of New England. back
- Opponents of inoculation were already furious. Later, on November 14, 1721, someone threw a lit bomb into Mather’s house, where a relative was staying to be inoculated; it failed to go off. back
- Raised a petty objection. back
- Non-Christians. The objectors meant the Africans and Turks from whom the practice came; Mather answers with the pagan doctors of ancient Greece and Rome. back
- Hippocrates and Galen, the most famous doctors of ancient Greece and Rome, whose teachings European medicine still followed. back
- An ancient antidote to poison, named for King Mithridates VI of Pontus, who was said to have invented it. back
- Treacle here is theriac, a famous antidote. Andromachus, physician to the Roman emperor Nero, was said to have improved it. back
- Readers of the New-England Courant, a Boston newspaper that attacked inoculation and mocked Mather. back
- The colonists learned to smoke tobacco from Native Americans. back
THE Publick having been lately entertained with a very dark and partial Account of this New Method of receiving the Small Pox; and this Account being given as is pretended, from the very Letters of Dr. Timonius and Pylarinus; it is thought reasonable and fitting to lay before the Publick this following Abstract of what those Learned Gentlemen have said of this Practice. But because the Gentleman who only hath these Letters by him, refuses now to lend them; the Account here following is chiefly taken from a known Letter written by a Learned Gentleman of Boston to the Worthy Physicians of the Town.
The public having been lately entertained with a very dark and partial account of this new method of receiving the smallpox; and this account being given as is pretended from the very letters of Dr. Timonius and Pylarinus; it is thought reasonable and fitting to lay before the public this following abstract of what those learned gentlemen have said of this practice. But because the gentleman who only hath these letters by him refuses now to lend them; the account here following is chiefly taken from a known letter written by a learned gentleman of Boston to the worthy physicians of the town.
- Emanuel Timonius and Jacobus Pylarinus, doctors working in the Ottoman Empire, whose accounts of inoculation at Constantinople the Royal Society of London printed in 1714 and 1716. Pylarinus had been the Venetian consul at Smyrna.
- William Douglass, a Boston doctor who opposed inoculation. He owned the issues of the Royal Society’s journal that printed the two accounts, had lent them to Mather, and now refused to lend them again.
- Cotton Mather, who had written to Boston’s doctors in June 1721 urging them to try inoculation.
The Air of the Chamber must be kept very Temperate. The Greek Operatrix, prick't more places, and less fleshy ones than Pylarinus approved of; with an oblique stroke pricking the Places, with an Iron, or Golden Needle dropping, and thrusting the Pus into the Wound; and so binding all with Fillets. Her way was thus to prick the Forehead, the Chin, both Cheeks, both Wrists, both Insteps. This was doubtless overdoing. Pylarinus affirms that some have done the Business, with no more than One little Inscision in the Arm, and it has done very well. [So it has been with such Africans, as have shown us the Marks of their Inoculation.]
The air of the chamber must be kept very temperate. The Greek operatrix pricked more places, and less fleshy ones than Pylarinus approved of; with an oblique stroke pricking the places, with an iron or golden needle, dropping and thrusting the pus into the wound; and so binding all with fillets. Her way was thus to prick the forehead, the chin, both cheeks, both wrists, both insteps. This was doubtless overdoing. Pylarinus affirms that some have done the business with no more than one little incision in the arm, and it has done very well. [So it has been with such Africans as have shown us the marks of their inoculation.]
- A woman who performed the operation. Pylarinus’s account, summarized here, describes a Greek woman inoculator.
- Bandages.
- The square brackets are in the pamphlet. They mark a comment by the Boston writer, added to his summary of Pylarinus.
II. There is at this Time a considerable Number of Africans in this Town, who can have no Conspiracy or Combination to cheat us. No body has instructed them to tell their Story. The more plainly, brokenly, and blunderingly, and like Ideots, they tell their Story, it will be with reasonable Men, but the much more credible. For that these all agree in one Story; "That abundance of poor Negro's die of the Small Pox, till they learn this Way; that People take the Juice of the Small Pox, and Cut the Skin, and put in a drop; then by'nd by a little Sick, then few Small Pox; and no body dye of it: no body have Small Pox any more."
II. There is at this time a considerable number of Africans in this town who can have no conspiracy or combination to cheat us. Nobody has instructed them to tell their story. The more plainly, brokenly, and blunderingly, and like idiots, they tell their story, it will be with reasonable men, but the much more credible. For that these all agree in one story: “That abundance of poor Negroes die of the smallpox, till they learn this way; that people take the juice of the smallpox, and cut the skin, and put in a drop; then by’nd by a little sick, then few smallpox; and nobody die of it: nobody have smallpox any more.”
Here we have a clear Evidence, that in Africa, where the Poor Creatures dye of the Small Pox in the common way like Rotten Sheep, a Merciful GOD has taught them a wonderful Preservative.
Here we have a clear evidence that in Africa, where the poor creatures die of the smallpox in the common way like rotten sheep, a merciful God has taught them a wonderful preservative.
It is a Common Practice, and is is attended with Success. I have as full Evidence of this, as I have that there are Lions in Africa. And I don't know why 'tis more unlawful to learn of Africans, how to help against the Poison of the Small Pox, than it is to learn of our Indians, how to help against the Poison of a Rattle-Snake.
It is a common practice, and is attended with success. I have as full evidence of this as I have that there are lions in Africa. And I don’t know why ’tis more unlawful to learn of Africans how to help against the poison of the smallpox than it is to learn of our Indians how to help against the poison of a rattlesnake.
- The Native peoples of New England.
VI. I have made my Experiments with all the Disadvantages that can be imagined, on Old and Young, on Strong and Weak, on Male and Female, on White and Black, and in the worst Season of the Year; and on greater Numbers, than I judge proper (considering the unaccountable Rage of unadvised People,) to mention; But more than twice Seven, I can assure you; and it has succeeded well in all, even beyond Expectation.
VI. I have made my experiments with all the disadvantages that can be imagined, on old and young, on strong and weak, on male and female, on white and black, and in the worst season of the year; and on greater numbers than I judge proper (considering the unaccountable rage of unadvised people) to mention, but more than twice seven, I can assure you; and it has succeeded well in all, even beyond expectation.
- Opponents of inoculation were already furious. Later, on November 14, 1721, someone threw a lit bomb into Mather’s house, where a relative was staying to be inoculated; it failed to go off.
X. It is Cavilled (for to say, Objected, would be too easy a word for such Impertinence) that this New Way comes to us from the Heathen, and we Christians must not Learn the Way of the Heathen. I Enquire, whether our Hippocrates were not an Heathen? And whether our Galen were not an Heathen? And whether we have not our Mithradate from the Heathen? And whether the first Inventer of our Treacle were not Nero's Physician? And whether we have not learnt some of our very Good Medicines from our Indians? But this New Way has been used by many Thousands of Christians; And it is from Christians we have the Communications of this New Way which we most rely upon. But are there none who pass for Courant-Christians that are worse than Infidels? And, Gentlemen-Smoakers, I pray, whom did you learn to Smoke of?
X. It is cavilled (for to say “objected” would be too easy a word for such impertinence) that this new way comes to us from the heathen, and we Christians must not learn the way of the heathen. I inquire whether our Hippocrates were not a heathen? And whether our Galen were not a heathen? And whether we have not our mithridate from the heathen? And whether the first inventor of our treacle were not Nero’s physician? And whether we have not learned some of our very good medicines from our Indians? But this new way has been used by many thousands of Christians, and it is from Christians we have the communications of this new way which we most rely upon. But are there none who pass for Courant-Christians that are worse than infidels? And, gentlemen smokers, I pray, whom did you learn to smoke of?
- Raised a petty objection.
- Non-Christians. The objectors meant the Africans and Turks from whom the practice came; Mather answers with the pagan doctors of ancient Greece and Rome.
- Hippocrates and Galen, the most famous doctors of ancient Greece and Rome, whose teachings European medicine still followed.
- An ancient antidote to poison, named for King Mithridates VI of Pontus, who was said to have invented it.
- Treacle here is theriac, a famous antidote. Andromachus, physician to the Roman emperor Nero, was said to have improved it.
- Readers of the New-England Courant, a Boston newspaper that attacked inoculation and mocked Mather.
- The colonists learned to smoke tobacco from Native Americans.
Questions a reader might ask, with short answers and the sections they rest on. Checked in a separate review.
What happens
Why does the pamphlet begin by complaining about another account?
Someone had given the public a "dark and partial" account of inoculation, claiming to quote Timonius and Pylarinus. The man who owned their letters would not lend them, so this summary was taken from a letter that Mather had written to Boston's doctors.
Read section 1
What do the Africans in Boston say?
That many Africans died of smallpox until they learned this way. People cut the skin, put in a drop of smallpox juice, fell a little sick with a few pocks, and then nobody died of it or ever had smallpox again.
Read section 3
Thinking further
Why does the writer think the Africans' story is believable?
Because they could not have plotted together, no one taught them what to say, and they all tell one story. He even claims that their broken way of speaking makes them more believable, an argument that shows his contempt for them.
Read section 3
How does the pamphlet answer people who say Christians must not learn from the heathen?
It points out that Hippocrates and Galen were heathens, that common medicines came from heathens and from the Indians, that thousands of Christians now use inoculation, and that the colonists learned to smoke from the Indians.
Who first told Cotton Mather about inoculation, and does the pamphlet say so?
Onesimus, an African man Mather enslaved, who had undergone the operation and showed Mather the scar (see the introduction). The pamphlet does not name him; it speaks only of the Africans in the town and of the marks of inoculation they showed.
Who and what this source names, in the original. Each name links to every source in the library that mentions it. Not yet checked.
Ideas
- Doctors and healers Doctors, surgeons and other healers: what the writers say they could and could not do. Sections 1.
- Inoculation Giving a healthy person smallpox on purpose, from the scabs or matter of a mild case, so that the illness would be mild and never come again. Chinese, Ottoman and African practitioners knew it before it was tried in Boston and London in the 1720s. Sections 2, 6.
- Smallpox An infectious disease that begins with fever and leaves pitted scars. It was unknown in the Americas until Europeans arrived, and it struck Mexico and Michoacán in 1520; most historians identify the Japanese epidemic of 735–737 as smallpox too. Sections 1, 3.
People
- Cotton Mather Minister of the Second Church in Boston, who urged Boston's doctors in June 1721 to try inoculation, citing Africans in the town who had been inoculated. Sections 1.
- Emanuel Timonius A doctor working in the Ottoman Empire whose account of inoculation at Constantinople the Royal Society of London printed in 1714. Sections 1.
- Galen With Hippocrates, one of the most famous doctors of the ancient Greek and Roman world, whose teaching medieval medicine followed. Sections 7.
- God The one God worshiped by Jews, Christians and Muslims. Many writers in the library saw his hand in epidemics, cures, voyages and the fortunes of colonies. Sections 4.
- Hippocrates With Galen, one of the most famous doctors of the ancient Greek world, to whom the medicine of the humors was traced. Sections 7.
- Jacobus Pylarinus A doctor working in the Ottoman Empire, who learned inoculation from a Greek woman and whose account the Royal Society printed in 1716. Sections 1, 2.
- William Douglass The Boston doctor who led the opposition to inoculation in 1721. Sections 1.
Places
Page images of the original object or of the printed edition, from the libraries and archives that hold them. The pages shown are copied here where the holder marks them public domain; titles link to the holder's own viewer. Click a page to see it full size.
Some Account of What Is Said of Inoculating or Transplanting the Small Pox, Boston 1721
Internet Archive (U.S. National Library of Medicine copy). p. [ii] and pp. 7, 9, 11, 21. Public domain (published 1721).
The printed edition our text follows. The NLM copy lacks its title page; a photocopy of the Massachusetts Historical Society copy’s is bound in.
Difficulty: Moderate, eighteenth-century English with old spellings and long sentences; Mather’s rendering of the Africans’ speech needs a short introduction.
Fits these units
- From inoculation to vaccine. How did a new way to prevent smallpox spread, and why did people resist it? (Innovation in History)
- Case study: smallpox. How did a terrifying disease become the only one ever eradicated? (Once in a Lifetime)
Key terms
- inoculation
- giving a healthy person smallpox on purpose through a small cut, so that the illness is mild and never comes again
- enslaved
- held as property and forced to work without pay or freedom
- testimony
- what a witness says happened
- heathen
- an old word, used by Christians, for people who were not Christians
- credible
- believable
- pamphlet
- a short printed booklet, often written to win an argument
Questions
- Comprehension
What do the Africans in Boston say about smallpox and inoculation in Africa, and what does Boylston report about his own patients?
- Analysis
The pamphlet relies on African knowledge and also calls the Africans “Poor Creatures” who speak “like Ideots.” Why does Mather say their broken English makes their story more believable? What does that argument show about how he valued them?
- Analysis (reliability)
Onesimus taught Mather about inoculation, but the pamphlet never names him, and it was printed under Boylston’s name although Mather wrote much of it. Whose voices reach us in this source, whose are hidden, and how can historians recover the hidden ones?
- Connection
Read Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Engrafting against Smallpox. She learned of engrafting from old Greek women at Adrianople; Mather learned it from enslaved Africans in Boston. Compare how each writer describes the people who taught them, and why both expected doctors at home to resist.
Activity
Students make a “chain of knowledge” for inoculation in Boston, 1721: a card for each person or group who passed it on (Onesimus and the other Africans, Timonius and Pylarinus, the Royal Society, Mather, Boylston, Douglass), with what each knew, how they learned it, and whether this pamphlet names them. They then rewrite the pamphlet’s opening line so that it gives credit where the evidence shows it is due.
A printable worksheet for this source · More on Hearth Learning
From the English text of the pamphlet (Boston, 1721). Spelling, capitals, and punctuation are modernized (“Small Pox” to “smallpox,” “Ideots” to “idiots,” “dye” to “die,” “Smoakers” to “smokers”); the writers’ words and their order are kept, including “Negro’s” (modernized as “Negroes”) and the broken English in which Mather rendered the Africans’ account. One misprint, the doubled “is is” in unit 5, is corrected in the modernized text and recorded in the unit note. About a sixth of the pamphlet is included.
- Original
- Text as printed in the named edition or on the object, read from page images. Edition: Some Account of What Is Said of Inoculating or Transplanting the Small Pox. By the Learned Dr. Emanuel Timonius, and Jacobus Pylarinus. With Some Remarks Thereon. To Which Are Added, A Few Quaeries in Answer to the Scruples of Many about the Lawfulness of This Method. Published by Dr. Zabdiel Boylston (Boston: sold by S. Gerrish, 1721), p. [ii] (the unnumbered page before p. 1) and pp. 7, 9, 11, 21. Copy: U.S. National Library of Medicine (title page supplied in photocopy from the Massachusetts Historical Society copy), Internet Archive item 2562061R.nlm.nih.gov. Digital text: that item’s OCR text, extracted by code, read against the page images, and collated with the Evans-TCP transcription (N01860, CC0) where the OCR is poor or the left margin is lost. Long s is printed as s.
- Editor’s review
- Not yet.
- Specialist review
- Not yet. Readings a specialist should confirm are listed for later review.
- Rights
- Original: public domain. Edition: public domain. Our translations and notes: CC BY-SA 4.0; credit “Hearth Library, hearthinteractive.com” with a link.
Sources for the notes
- Some Account of What Is Said of Inoculating or Transplanting the Small Pox. Published by Zabdiel Boylston. Boston: S. Gerrish, 1721. The whole pamphlet, in the page images of the National Library of Medicine copy (Internet Archive) and the Evans-TCP transcription (N01860).
- Kittredge, George Lyman. “Some Lost Works of Cotton Mather.” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 45 (1912): 418–479. Pp. 418–437 (Timonius and Pylarinus in the Philosophical Transactions; Mather’s letter to Woodward of July 12, 1716; Douglass’s copies; the authorship of each part of the pamphlet; The Angel of Bethesda).
- Mather, Cotton. Diary of Cotton Mather. 2 vols. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 7th ser., 7–8. Boston, 1911–1912. Vol. 1, pp. 578–579 (December 13, 1706, Onesimus given to him); vol. 2, pp. 363–364 (July 31, 1716, and the editor’s note on Onesimus’s release), 620–625 (June 1721, with the editor’s note on the pamphlet and on smoking learned from the Indians), and 657–658 (November 14, 1721, the bomb).
- Boylston, Zabdiel. An Historical Account of the Small-Pox Inoculated in New England. London: S. Chandler, 1726. Pp. 1–4 (Mather’s summary; Douglass refuses to lend the Transactions; the first inoculations, June 26, 1721) and 38–40 (the totals and the table).
- Fenner, F., D. A. Henderson, I. Arita, Z. Ježek, and I. D. Ladnyi. Smallpox and Its Eradication. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1988. Chapter 6, “Early Efforts at Control,” pp. 245–258.
- Hudson, Briony. “Theriac: An Ancient Brand.” Wellcome Collection, October 18, 2017. (Mithridatium, and Andromachus, Nero’s physician.)