The pandemic of 2020 is not the first time that we have faced a mysterious illness and were unsure of how to defeat it. In 1721 a smallpox epidemic occurred in Boston, and Onesimus, who was an enslaved man from Africa belonging to Cotton Mather, explained to Mather the concept of inoculation. Mather took what he said to heart and believed that this was indeed the answer to saving thousands of people in Boston. Listen to this podcast to learn how the government and the medical community treated this discovery.
American History, Colonial America, Cotton Mather, History, pandemic, Philadelphia, podcast, Uncategorized
