Black History in Microbiology

2020 has been a crazy year, microbiology has suddenly found itself at the top of every news programme, with scary numbers and panic bulk-buying aplenty.

I would never have believed that the whole world would turn its focus away from a global pandemic and focus on an 8 minute video, but that is exactly what happened. George Floyd’s murder was caught on video and spread faster than COVID-19. The world was unified by lockdowns, everyone felt connected by a shared experience and this resulted in a conversation around race, police and modern democracy so loud that no one could ignore it.

I like to think that I am welcoming of different cultures and that I celebrate diversity, but
in this new wave of attention for the conversation about equality, I asked myself a simple question;

“How many black microbiologists can you name?”

I am beyond ashamed to say that I could only name a handful, all of whom I have met in the last two years, mostly at conferences and other events. The answer to this question left me with more questions, but the one that gave me the most concern;

“Of those microbiologists, how many have their own research group?”

None. 

Admittedly, many of them are fellow PhD students and my sample size is small. But this is still concerning to me. Recently, #blackintheivory on twitter (check it out if you haven’t seen it already) showed that there are plenty of examples of faculty members in academia facing discrimination because of their race. 

Considering that October is black history month, I decided to educate myself. It wasn’t difficult, a quick google search of “black microbiologist”, starting from the top result and then diving deeper to find out more about the names listed on that page. I found some incredible stories of humans who happened to be in the right place at the right time with the right knowledge to save lives. Stories of humans who dedicated their lives to the pursuit of knowledge. Throughout black history month we will tell the stories of humans who dedicated their lives to the pursuit of knowledge.

Onesimus

Onesimus was a West African slave in Boston owned by the prominent puritan minister Cotton Mather (Some may recognise his name from the Salem Witch Trials). Onesimus arrived in Boston in 1706 and was given his name by Mather, a Biblical name which meant ‘Useful’ – his real name is not known. Though contrary to the name, Mather recorded in his diary that Onesimus displayed characteristics of “thievish” behaviour and that he was “wicked” and “useless”.

Then we get to 1716, a fresh wave of smallpox has arrived in Boston. Onesimus tells his master that he knows how to prevent the disease. Now the description of Onesimus in Mather’s diary somewhat changes to “a pretty intelligent fellow”. Onesimus told Mather he “had undergone an operation, which had given him something of the smallpox and would forever preserve him from it… and whoever had the courage to use it was forever free of the fear of the contagion”. Mather was talking about inoculation – the precursor to vaccination.

Mather and Zabdiel Boylston (the only physician to support the technique) inoculate 242 people. Six of these people died, a rate of one in 40 compared to one in seven for the rest of the city. 844 people died in that epidemic, 14% of the population, but this work provided hope and helped set the stage for Edward Jenner in 1796 with his cowpox vaccine.

We don’t know much about Onesimus, other than he paid Mather enough money to buy his freedom (at that time, it meant Onesimus provided the funds for Mather to replace him with another slave) and the fact that his knowledge helped save hundreds of lives and contributed to the eradication of small pox.

Read more about Onesimus at the Boston Globe.

Read more about Onesimus at History.com.

Come back on 08/10/2020 to see the seond entry in this list!

Caleb Marsh

ECS Committee Lead Communications Officer