There's a lot of depth to the story, indeed! I wrote a 400 page book about it! I write about how colonists whitewashed the history of inoculation ignoring Onesimus and the Africans and to claim it as their own invention. Even while stepping on its real origins they had no doubt that it was effective - ThreadSky

profwehrman.bsky.social • 17 days ago

There's a lot of depth to the story, indeed! I wrote a 400 page book about it! I write about how colonists whitewashed the history of inoculation ignoring Onesimus and the Africans and to claim it as their own invention. Even while stepping on its real origins they had no doubt that it was effective

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thecreweofthefancy.bsky.social•17 days ago

Apologies. I am so used to seeing people referencing the later 18th century work, but forgetting the prior that I shot first. Haha. Come to think of it, I think I actually used parts of your book in my research. Haha.

profwehrman.bsky.social•17 days ago

I should say, they had no doubt after about the 1750s! No doubts during the Revolution itself is what I mean. Plenty of doubts before then as you rightly mention.

thecreweofthefancy.bsky.social•17 days ago

Do you think the non-doctors knew the history? When I was taught about it in school, it was always Jenner and nothing further was mentioned. When Onesimus working with Cotton Mather and an American born/trained doctor is frankly a better story. That part has been bugging me.

profwehrman.bsky.social•17 days ago

It's a much better story! But white Americans didn't like hearing that this great medical innovation came from Africa. Sometimes histories mentioned Mather or Boylston or that its from Asia or Africa. But starting in the 1730s they claimed Americans improved it enough that it was a new invention.

profwehrman.bsky.social•17 days ago

in New England they credited Boylston, in New York and Philadelphia they credited George Muirson or Adam Thomson, in the South they credited James Kilpatrick for improving inoculation. I'm not sure non-doctors new much about inoculation's origins but by the Revolution they knew it wasn't British.

profwehrman.bsky.social•17 days ago

Then when vaccination was discovered and published by Jenner in the 1790s. He was given credit for it. With the Revolution behind them, Americans didn't have a problem with it being a British invention, perhaps it was even easier to stomach than the African or Asian origins of inoculation.

thecreweofthefancy.bsky.social•17 days ago

I was going over some of the Royal Society letters and was just dumbfounded at how much work was going on in the early 18th century to figure it out. There was also definitely this mix of, "this is awesome," but "how can we make it ours?" going on.

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