Aight, I checked the C/ rules via my app of choice and saw no rules at all.

So, I’m not a historian, which means you gotta take that into account.

But, no. Benjamin Franklin wasn’t opposed to inoculation in the first place. It was James Franklin that was publicly opposed to the practice.

To the contrary, Benjamin was supporter of it from his first public mentioning of it. There aren’t any records of his opinions back when his brother was opposing it, but he was a teenager at the time, so why would there be?

Benjamin’s son died of smallpox, and he later lamented that he delayed inoculating his son. At the time, the boy was ill with dysentery, and the decision to not inoculate until he was recovered was made. Franklin directly expressed regret that he delayed, and publicly specified that the dysentery he had, and the ensuing smallpox were not the result of inoculation. He made that statement because of rumors inoculation had caused his son’s death.

In his autobiography, he said it again, that he regretted the delay in inoculating his son, and encouraged parents that feared the practice to think about the risks of not having it done being higher than that of having it done.

So, that means that the connection to africa is moot.

But what about James? Was his objection to the African connection?

Nope, he just hated Cotton Mathers. For that matter, Benjamin wasn’t exactly a fan, he wrote some of the more scathing essays published in his brother’s paper. But James had a bit more of a hate-on, where Benjamin had more of an objection to Puritanism than Mathers in specific.

The whole thing was about Mathers, and afaik, neither of them ever used the origins of the inoculation practice in any of their recorded statements on the matter.

Also, you gotta read Benjamin’s autobiography. Dude was incredibly interesting, and his own words show exactly why he was such a powerful influence in early America. For all the flaws he had, he was a brilliant man.