The story of vaccines in America starts with an enslaved African man

How Onesimus introduced inoculation to America, saving hundreds of lives during the smallpox epidemic.

Joel Christian Gill is a cartoonist, historian, and associate professor of illustration at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He wrote the words and drew the pictures in the series Strange Fruit and Tales of The Talented Tenth. His latest work is a memoir chronicling how children deal with abuse and trauma: Fights: One Boy’s Triumph Over Violence.