Drapetomania

Drapetomania was a racist pseudomedical diagnosis coined in 1851 to portray enslaved people’s flight from captivity as mental illness. It pathologized resistance while obscuring slavery’s violence.

Connect

Samuel A. Cartwright: A nineteenth-century American physician who promoted racist theories about Black people and slavery. He coined drapetomania in an 1851 article defending slavery.
Dysaesthesia aethiopica: A racist pseudomedical condition Cartwright claimed caused Black people’s laziness and property damage. Cartwright presented it alongside drapetomania as another disorder supposedly specific to Black people.
Fugitive slaves: Enslaved people who escaped captivity or were legally classified as having fled. Their flight was the behavior Cartwright falsely diagnosed as illness.
Medical racism: Racial prejudice embedded in medical practice, research, institutions, or health policy. Drapetomania is a stark historical instance of racist medical reasoning.
New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal: A medical periodical published in New Orleans from 1838 to 1861. Cartwright introduced drapetomania in its 1851 issue.
Pathologization: The process of treating a behavior, identity, or social condition as a medical disorder. Drapetomania made resistance appear pathological rather than a response to enslavement.
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850: A U.S. federal law requiring the capture and return of people who escaped slavery. The law intensified the danger faced by people whose escape Cartwright pathologized.
Pseudoscience: Claims presented as scientific despite lacking reliable evidence or scientific methods. The diagnosis borrowed medical language without credible evidence or a valid clinical basis.
Proslavery argument: A body of political, religious, and economic claims used to defend slavery. Drapetomania gave a medical veneer to arguments that slavery benefited enslaved people.
Scientific racism: The use of scientific claims and methods to support racial hierarchy and discrimination. The diagnosis relied on racial hierarchy presented as medical knowledge.