The African connection. Cotton Mather and the Boston smallpox epidemic of 1721-1722

T. H. Brown
Department of English, University of Alabama, Birmingham 35294.

The contributions of black Americans to early American culture have still not been fully explored or given the attention deserved. A case in point is the significant contributions African slaves made to 18th-century American folk medicine. A review of the events incident to the smallpox epidemic in Boston in 1721 will illustrate the degree to which some reputable men of science depended on the testimony and experience of Africans in dealing with a particularly dread disease.