The first American inoculation succeeded yet met horrified public resistance

Evidence

The only doctor who responded to Mather was Zabadiel Boylston, President John Adams’s great-uncle. When Boylston announced his successful inoculation of his six-year-old son and two enslaved Africans on July 15, 1721, area doctors and councilmen were horrified. It made no sense that people should inject themselves with a disease to save themselves from the disease. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 183

Categorization

• CANDY: The first American inoculator was John Adams’s great-uncle, and his first three patients were his own son and two enslaved Africans.