# Mental diseases of American slaves- "Drapetomania" & "Dysaesthesia aethiopica"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-diseases-of-american-slaves-drapetomania-dysaesthesia-aethiopica/657673>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 7, 2013, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-diseases-of-american-slaves-drapetomania-dysaesthesia-aethiopica/657673 "2013-05-07T01:42:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2013, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-diseases-of-american-slaves-drapetomania-dysaesthesia-aethiopica/657673/1 "2013-05-07T01:42:09Z")

</div>

They’re mad! Mad I tell you!

[Drapetomania](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drapetomania)

> [@](#):
>
> In Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race, Cartwright points out that the Bible calls for a slave to be submissive to his master, and by doing so, the slave will have no desire to run away.[4]
> 
> 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 hearing towards him, without condescension, and at the sane time ministers to his physical wants, and protects him from abuses, the negro is spell-bound, and cannot run away.[4]

[Dysaesthesia aethiopica](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysaesthesia_aethiopica)

> [@](#):
>
> Found exclusively among Blacks, dysaesthesia aethiopica — “called by overseers ‘rascality’” — was characterized by partial insensitivity of the skin and “so great a hebetude of the intellectual faculties, as to be like a person half asleep.”[3] Other symptoms included “lesions of the body discoverable to the medical observer, which are always present and sufficient to account for the symptoms.”[4][5] Cartwright noted that the existence of dysaesthesia aethiopica was “clearly established by the most direct and positive testimony,” but other doctors had failed to notice it because their “attention [had] not been sufficiently directed to the maladies of the negro race.”[3]

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2013, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-diseases-of-american-slaves-drapetomania-dysaesthesia-aethiopica/657673/2 "2013-05-07T12:26:51Z")

</div>

Is this part of the “psychiatry is dishonest” meme?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-diseases-of-american-slaves-drapetomania-dysaesthesia-aethiopica/657673/3 "2013-05-08T00:55:47Z")

</div>

> [@Jackmannii](#):
>
> Is this part of the “psychiatry is dishonest” meme?

I assumed. Though I more often see Soviet mental hospitals brought up in that regard, probably because slavery predates modern psychiatry.