Key Narrative: Clara

Identified within an extensive footnote in Volume II (Book IV) of Bryan Edwards' History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies, the narrative of Clara tells the story of a woman taken from Africa’s Gold Coast to Jamaica. Edwards related Clara’s story of her time in Africa, where she discusses knowing of a treatment for Yaws, a viral infection known to cause painful lesions to the skin and compromise bone density. In Clara's native Gold Coast, the disease was particularly painful and life-threatening to those who came in contact with the disease in late childhood or adulthood. Clara explains that by 'inoculating' infants with some of the viral matter they are exposed to the disease and able to work through it at a much less severe and consequential rate. This treatment is not unlike any 'modern' vaccinations-- which were reaching popularity concurrently at the end of the 18th century.