Drapetomania

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A Ride for Liberty — The Fugitive Slaves c. 1862, by Eastman Johnson (1824-1906)
A Ride for Liberty — The Fugitive Slaves c. 1862, by Eastman Johnson (1824-1906)

In psychiatry [1], drapetomania was a mental illness described by American physician Samuel A. Cartwright in 1851 that caused black slaves to flee captivity.[2] Today, drapetomania is considered an example of pseudoscience,[3] and part of the edifice of scientific racism.[4] The term derives from the Greek δραπετης (drapetes, "a runaway [slave]") + μανια (mania, "madness, frenzy").[5]

Samuel Cartwright, 1793-1863
Samuel Cartwright, 1793-1863

Cartwright described the disorder — which, he said, was "unknown to our medical authorities, although its diagnostic symptom, the absconding from service, is well known to our planters and overseers"[5] — in a paper delivered before the Medical Association of Louisiana[6] that was widely reprinted. He stated that the malady was a consequence of masters who "made themselves too familiar with [slaves], treating them as equals."[7] In Diseases and Pecularities of the Negro Race, Cartwright writes that the Bible calls for the slave to be submissive to his master, and by doing so, the slave will have no desire to run away.[8] In addition to identifying drapetomania, Cartwright prescribed a remedy to cure the malady. His feeling was that with "proper medical advice, strictly followed, this troublesome practice that many Negroes have of running away can be almost entirely prevented."[5] In the case of slaves "sulky and dissatisfied without cause" — a warning sign of imminent flight — Cartwright prescribed "whipping the devil out of them" as a "preventative measure."[9][10][11]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Moffic, Steven H. The Psychiatric Times. "Cultural Psychiatric Services: Past, Present, and Future". Vol XX, Issue 10. October 2003.
  2. ^ Kevin White (2002). An Introduction to the Sociology of Health and Illness. Sage Publications, 41. ISBN 0761964002. 
  3. ^ Arthur L. Caplan, James J. McCartney, and Dominic A. Sisti (2004). Health, Disease, and Illness: Concepts in Medicine. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, p. 2. ISBN 1589010140. 
  4. ^ Pilgrim, David (November 2005). Question of the Month: Drapetomania. Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
  5. ^ a b c Cartwright, Samuel A. (1851). "Report on the Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race". DeBow's Review XI. 
  6. ^ Caplan et al, p. 291.
  7. ^ Baynton, Douglas C. "Disability and the Justification of Inequality in American History". The New Disability History: American Perspectives, 2001.
  8. ^ Cartwright, Samuel A. Diseases and Pecularities of the Negro Race. 1851.
  9. ^ Caplan et al, p. 35.
  10. ^ Paul Finkelman (1997). Slavery & the Law. Rowman & Littlefield, 305. ISBN 0742521192. 
  11. ^ Rick Halpern, Enrico Dal Lago (2002). Slavery and Emancipation. Blackwell Publishing, 273. ISBN 0631217355. 

[edit] Sources

  • Samuel A. Cartwright, "Report on the Diseases and Physical Peculiarities of the Negro Race", The New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal 1851:691-715 (May).
    • Reprinted in DeBow's Review XI (1851). Available at Google Books and excerpted at PBS.org.
    • Reprinted in Arthur Caplan, H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., and James McCartney, eds, Concepts of Health and Disease in Medicine: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Boston: Addison-Wesley, 1980).
    • Reprinted in Arthur L. Caplan, James J. McCartney, Dominic A. Sisti, eds, Health, Disease, and Illness: Concepts in Medicine (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2004) ISBN 1589010140

[edit] External links