Onesimus was a man from West Africa who was enslaved by Cotton Mather. During an 18th-century smallpox epidemic, Onesimus suggested to Mather a method of preventing the disease that originated in his homeland. Onesimus’s method helped pave the way for scientists and epidemiologists to discover the precursor to contemporary inoculation.
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The timeline below shows where the character Onesimus appears in Caste. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter Fifteen: The Urgent Necessity of a Bottom Rung
...people quickly began dying. Cotton Mather, a minister and scientist, owned an African man named Onesimus, who told him about a procedure he’d undergone in his homeland, Africa, to protect him...
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