“In the early 1700s, as America was being ravaged by smallpox, Onesimus, an African slave who belonged to Cotton Mather, told of a technique, long practiced in Africa, to prevent smallpox by introducing the ‘pus from the ripe pustules’ of a smallpox patient into a small incision on the arm of an uninfected patient. The technique resulted usually in a mild case of smallpox but prevented the full-blown disease. Dr. Zabdiel Boylston (a great-uncle of John Adams), who had gotten the idea from Cotton Mather, tried the technique in America- first in Boston- with great success.” From, “Quitting America” By: Randall Robinson
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