the mental illness of refusing to submit to slavery

In the annals of medical history, there are few tales as delightfully absurd as drapetomania, the “mental illness” that made running away from slavery a diagnosable condition. Because, you know, wanting to escape a life of forced labor and brutal oppression is clearly a sign of insanity… or so thought Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright in 1851.

This Louisiana physician, with a medical degree and a PhD in creative racism, decided that the real problem wasn’t slavery itself, but the slaves’ pesky desire for freedom. It’s like saying, “Why would anyone want to leave this fabulous plantation resort with its complimentary whippings and family separations?” Clearly, these slaves were suffering from a bad case of drapetomania – a disease so severe, it made them think they were human beings with rights.

Cartwright’s groundbreaking research (read: racist ramblings) concluded that drapetomania was caused by “the disobedience of the slave to his master”. Because, naturally, the problem wasn’t the master’s behavior, but the slave’s refusal to be enslaved. It’s like diagnosing a prisoner with “jailbreak-itis” because they tried to escape.

But don’t worry, Cartwright had a cure! His prescription? A healthy dose of “whipping the devil out of them”. Because nothing says “therapeutic” like a good lashing. It’s like a spa treatment, but with more blood and fewer cucumber slices.

This revolutionary diagnosis was published in a reputable medical journal, proving that even in the 1850s, you could get anything printed if you had enough audacity and a complete lack of human decency. It’s like they say: “If you want to make a good first impression, start with a good last impression… of your whip.”

Drapetomania enjoyed a brief moment in the sun before being rightfully mocked into oblivion. Today, it’s remembered as a symbol of the absurd lengths people will go to justify oppression. It’s been used by activists to highlight the ongoing struggle against racism and the misuse of science to support bigotry.

So, there you have it, folks. Drapetomania: the “disease” that proved sometimes the real mental illness is thinking you can diagnose away basic human rights. Remember, if your slaves are running away, it’s not because they’re crazy – it’s because you are. And if you’re still unsure, just ask Dr. Cartwright… or his ghost, which is probably still trying to whip some sense into the spirits of the enslaved.

Some quotes from that licensed imbecile:

If treated kindly, well fed and clothed, with fuel enough to keep a small fire burning all night—separated into families, each family having its own house—not permitted to run about at night to visit their neighbors, to receive visits or use intoxicating liquors, and not overworked or exposed too much to the weather, they are very easily governed—more so than any other people in the world. If any one or more of them, at any time, are inclined to raise their heads to a level with their master or overseer, humanity and their own good requires that they should be punished until they fall into that submissive state which was intended for them to occupy. They have only to be kept in that state, and treated like children to prevent and cure them from running away.

If the white man attempts to oppose the Deity’s will, by trying to make the negro anything else than “the submissive knee-bender” (which the Almighty declared he should be), by trying to raise him to a level with himself, or by putting himself on an equality with the negro; or if he abuses the power which God has given him over his fellow-man, by being cruel to him, or punishing him in anger, or by neglecting to protect him from the wanton abuses of his fellow-servants and all others, or by denying him the usual comforts and necessaries of life, the negro will run away; but if he keeps him in the position that we learn from the Scriptures he was intended to occupy, that is, the position of submission; and if his master or overseer be kind and gracious in his bearing towards him, without condescension, and at the same time ministers to his physical wants, and protects him from abuses, the negro is spell-bound, and cannot run away.

And a few quotes by better thinkers:

official Western medicine recognized drapetomania, the tendency of slaves to run away from their owners, as a disease. … With hindsight, drapetomania is easily dismissed as a harmful fabrication of fictitious disease, in a culture violating human rights. Less easy is it to recognize harmful fabrications of our own era for what they are. Are you sure that medicine and psychiatry are on the right track, morally and scientifically, in providing millions of PERSONS with drugs after having diagnosed them as depressed?

_{^{Wm J. van der Steen, Vincent K. Y. Ho, Ferry J. Karmelk, Beyond Boundaries of Biomedicine: Pragmatic Perspectives on Health and Disease (2003), p. 29}}

The refusal to adjust to inhumane conditions and circumstances, whether in slavery or in employment, indicates a normal and healthy reaction to pain, cruelty, or abuse. Characterizing oppressed people as mentally ill, as Cartwright did, is both scientifically wrong and morally reprehensible. Physician, heal thyself.

^{_{Dale Hartley MBA, Ph.D., Drapetomania: When Fighting Oppression is a “Mental Illness” Corrupt, but… seasoned with a gracious voice. —The Merchant of Venice, PSYCHOLOGY TODAY WEBSITE, Posted May 21, 2021}} 

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia contributors. “Drapetomania.” Wikipedia.
2. Wikipedia contributors. “Samuel A. Cartwright.” Wikipedia.
3. PBS. “Africans in America/Part 4/’Diseases and Peculiarities’.”
4. Myer, Bob. “Drapetomania: Rebellion, defiance, and Free Black insanity in the antebellum United States.” [thesis] 2014.
5. Watch The Yard. “In 1851 A Scientist ‘Discovered’ A Disease That Caused Slaves To Run Away.”