American Presidents and Vaccines: Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Inoculation Riots
Before Edward Jenner widely publicized his observations on vaccination, the only protection against smallpox was the practice of variolation (also known as inoculation). Variolation consisted of artificially exposing a person to smallpox (usually Variola minor since it caused less death than Variola major) under the care of a physician. Observations on this practice — along with observing those who survived full-blown smallpox — led physicians to conclude that some sort of immunity resulted from infection. However, they lacked the scientific instrumentation and understanding to truly know how the human immune system worked to protect against future disease.
The practice of variolation arrived at the American British colonies in several waves, the first of which was through the wisdom brought over by Onesimus, an enslaved man living in the Massachusetts colony in the late 1600s and early 1700s. Onesimus told his enslaver, Rev. Cotton Mather, that slaves in North Africa were given smallpox artificially to make them immune to the disease, and thus more productive and profitable. Mather consulted with Dr. Boyleston of Boston, and Dr. Boyleston confirmed that this practice was being promoted in parts of the Middle East and Northern Africa. At the same time, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a British aristocrat…
