Present to Past
Medical Racism
![A color photograph of a portion of a Stop Aids graffiti mural in New York City. The mural is painted on a light tan wall. The bottom half of the image features a depiction of a white brick wall with cracks running through many of the bricks, running the full length of the image. A light and dark blue cloud features prominently on the left side of the image with the words [STOP / AIDS] spray painted in yellow letters outlined in red. The middle of the image features an illustration two men standing in profile, facing each other, on either side of a tombstone. The front of the tombstone has the text [USE YOUR / HEAD BEFORE / YOU END UP / DEAD.] written in black text. The word [DEAD] is underlined and the letters have drip lines giving it a bloody text effect. The man on the left is featured wearing a yellow shirt, yellow pants, and black shoes with yellow laces. He has three black thought bubbles above, and to the right of his head. He is holding his proper left hand splayed out, reaching for a syringe with a bloody hypodermic needle in the proper right hand of the man depicted on the right of the tombstone. The man on the right is depicted with red spikey hair, a green shirt, green pants and black shoes with white laces. On the far right of the image is the text [THE LAW] written in red block letters, outlined in black, above a depiction of scrolled paper with the text [I. DON’T “SHOOT” / DRUGS. / II. USE CONDOM. / III. HAVE SEX WITH FAiTHFUL / PARTNER.] written in black text. There are no inscriptions on the recto. On the verso the image is signed in blue ink by the photographer.](/static/bc247fe92533cf2c8170cc1ed60d5da9/40176/2015_132_262_001.webp)
1721Smallpox and Yellow Fever Pandemics
Narrative of Black Aid-work during the 1793 Pandemic
Past Pandemics' Impact on African Americans
Boston’s smallpox epidemic of 1721 killed nearly 15 percent of the city’s population. The disease would have claimed more lives were it not for the advice and medical knowledge of an enslaved man named Onesimus. Smallpox was an extremely contagious virus that plagued much of the world for millennia, but some African societies had developed a method to combat spread of the disease.
Onesimus was enslaved by Cotton Mather, a prominent Boston minister who wrote extensively about witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. Onesimus described the long-standing African practice of inoculation, introducing pathogens to open wounds to produce antibodies and induce immunity. Although Mather believed that Africans worshiped the devil and engaged in “devilish rites,” he took Onesimus’ advice and convinced a Boston doctor to inoculate hundreds of people.
Decades later, another American city would experience a viral outbreak and rely on African American medical prowess to save lives. In 1793 Philadelphia many falsely believed African Americans were immune to yellow fever. City officials asked the Free African Society, a mutual aid society founded by Absolom Jones and Richard Allen, to organize nurses to care for the sick and bury the dead. In fact, African Americans were not immune to the virus and many of the nurses and volunteers contracted yellow fever and died.
After the outbreak local politicians blamed the city’s death toll on the quality of care provided by Black nurses. Absolom Jones and Richard Allen refuted these claims in a pamphlet that detailed African American contributions during the outbreak.