The disease of having a dark skin color and being from Africa. Benjamin Rush, MD (17461813), signer of the Declaration of Independence, Dean of the Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania and the Father of American Psychiatry, described Negroes as suffering from an affliction called Negritude, which was thought to be a mild form of leprosy. The only cure for the disorder was to become white. It is unclear as to how many cases of Negritude were successfully treated. The irony of Dr. Rushs medical observations was that he was a leading mental health reformer and co-founder of the first anti-slavery society in America. Dr. Rushs portrait still adorns the official seal of the American Psychiatric Association. However, Dr Rushs observation-The Africans become insane, we are told, in some instances, soon after they enter upon the toils of perpetual slavery in the West Indies-is not often cited in discussions of mental illness and African-Americans, how-ever valuable it might be in understanding the traumatic impact of enslavement and oppression on Africans and their descendants. In1851, Dr. Samuel Cartwright, a prominent Louisiana physician and one of the leading authorities in his time on the medical care of Negroes, identified two mental disorders peculiar to slaves. Drapetomia, or the disease causing Negroes to run away, was noted as a condition, unknown to our medical authorities, although its diagnostic symptom, the absconding from service, is well known to our planters and overseers. Dr. Cartwright observed, The cause in most cases, that induces the Negro to run 4 away from service, is such a disease of the mind as in any other species of alienation, and much more curable, as a general rule. Cartwright was so helpful as to identify preventive measures for dealing with potential cases of drapetomania. Slaves showing incipient drapetomania, reflected in sulky and dissatisfied behavior should be whipped-strictly as a therapeutic early intervention. Planter and overseers were encouraged to utilize whipping as the primary intervention once the disease had progressed to the stage of actually running away. Overall, Cartwright suggested that Negroes should be kept in a submissive state and treated like children, with care, kindness, attention and humanity, to prevent and cure them from running away. Dr. Cartwright also diagnosed Dysaethesia Aethiopica, or hebetude of the mind and obtuse sensibility of the body-a disease peculiar to Negroes called by overseers-Rascality. Dysethesia Aethiopica differed from other species of mental disease since physical signs and lesions accompanied it. The ever-resourceful Dr. Cartwright determined that whipping could also cure this disorder. Of course, one wonders if the whipping were not the cause of the lesions that confirmed the diagnosis. Not surprisingly, Dr. Cartwright was a leading thinker in the pro-slavery movement.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 13:41:40 +0000
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