Drapetomania and Dysaesthesia Aethiopica: The Mental Illnesses Ascribed to Slaves

The Whipping Cure: How Enslavers Turned Trauma into Pathology

Tom Brandt from Hillsboro, Oregon, USA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

You might be surprised to discover that the practice of enslavement wasn’t hit and miss with each plantation or owner left to their own devices to improve productivity. There were magazines and pamphlets keeping owners up to date on the best methods to control slaves. DeBow’s Review was the most widely circulated Southern periodical before the Civil War. It was published monthly from 1846 to 1884, with peak influence in the 1850s and early 1860s. It was distributed across New Orleans, Washington D.C., Charleston, and Columbia, reaching planters, physicians, and politicians. DeBow’s promoted pro-slavery ideology, including “best practices for wringing profits from slaves.”

The following are examples of stories published in DeBow’s Review:

Fugitive Slave Law — September 1852

Southern Slavery and its Assailants — November 1853

British Philanthropy and American Slavery — March 1853

Practical Effects of Emancipation — May 1855

Delusions of Fanaticism — July 1860

One of the most infamous articles, which was reprinted several times and spread throughout the South, was Dr. Samuel Adolphus Cartwright’s, “Drapetomania and Dysaesthesia Aethiopica.” The good doctor described his discovery of two mental illnesses particular to enslaved people. These diseases either caused enslaved people to run away or caused fatigue and laziness. Cartwright promises to prevent runaways and whip slaves into productivity. Rather than summarize what he said, I’m providing the entire article.

“DRAPETOMANIA, OR THE DISEASE CAUSING NEGROES TO RUN AWAY.
It is unknown to our medical authorities, although its diagnostic symptom, the absconding from service, is well known to our planters and overseers… In noticing a disease not heretofore classed among the long list of maladies that man is subject to, it was necessary to have a new term to express it. The cause in the most of cases, that induces the negro to run away from service, is as much a disease of the mind as any other species of mental alienation, and much more curable, as a general rule. With the advantages of proper medical advice, strictly followed, this troublesome practice that many negroes have of running away, can be almost entirely prevented, although the slaves be located on the borders of a free state, within a stone’s throw of the abolitionists.

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.

According to my experience, the “genu flexit” — the awe and reverence, must be exacted from them, or they will despise their masters, become rude and ungovernable, and run away. On Mason and Dixon’s line, two classes of persons were apt to lose their negroes: those who made themselves too familiar with them, treating them as equals, and making little or no distinction in regard to color; and, on the other hand, those who treated them cruelly, denied them the common necessaries of life, neglected to protect them against the abuses of others, or frightened them by a blustering manner of approach, when about to punish them for misdemeanors. Before the negroes run away, unless they are frightened or panic-struck, they become sulky and dissatisfied. The cause of this sulkiness and dissatisfaction should be inquired into and removed, or they are apt to run away or fall into the negro consumption. When sulky and dissatisfied without cause, the experience of those on the line and elsewhere, was decidedly in favor of whipping them out of it, as a preventive measure against absconding, or other bad conduct. It was called whipping the devil out of them.

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. When all this is done, if any one of 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 require that they should be punished until they fall into that submissive state which it was intended for them to occupy in all after-time, when their progenitor received the name of Canaan or “submissive knee-bender.” They have only to be kept in that state and treated like children, with care, kindness, attention and humanity, to prevent and cure them from running away.

DYSAETHESIA AETHIOPICA, OR HEBETUDE OF MIND AND OBTUSE SENSIBILITY OF BODY — A DISEASE PECULIAR TO NEGROES — CALLED BY OVERSEERS, “ RASCALITY.”

Dysaesthesia Aethiopica is a disease peculiar to negroes, affecting both mind and body in a manner as well expressed by dysaesthesia, the name I have given it, as could be by a single term. There is both mind and sensibility, but both seem to be difficult to reach by impressions from without. There is a partial insensibility of the skin, and so great a hebetude of the intellectual faculties, as to be like a person half asleep, that is with difficulty aroused and kept awake. It differs from every other species of mental disease, as it is accompanied with physical signs or lesions of the body discoverable to the medical observer, which are always present and sufficient to account for the symptoms. It is much more prevalent among free negroes living in clusters by themselves, than among slaves on our plantations, and attacks only such slaves as live like free negroes in regard to diet, drinks, exercise, etc. It is not my purpose to treat of the complaint as it prevails among free negroes, nearly all of whom are more or less afflicted with it, that have not got some white person to direct and to take care of them. To narrate its symptoms and effects among them would be to write a history of the ruins and dilapidation of Hayti, and every spot of earth they have ever had uncontrolled possession over for any length of time. I propose only to describe its symptoms among slaves.

From the careless movements of the individuals affected with the complaint, they are apt to do much mischief, which appears as if intentional, but is mostly owing to the stupidness of mind and insensibility of the nerves induced by the disease. Thus, they break, waste and destroy everything they handle, — abuse horses and cattle, — tear, burn or rend their own clothing, and, paying no attention to the rights of property, steal others, to replace what they have destroyed. They wander about at night, and keep in a half nodding sleep during the day. They slight their work, — cut up corn, cane, cotton or tobacco when hoeing it, as if for pure mischief. They raise disturbances with their overseers and fellow-servants without cause or motive, and seem to be insensible to pain when subjected to punishment. The fact of the existence of such a complaint, making man like an automaton or senseless machine, having the above or similar symptoms, can be clearly established by the most direct and positive testimony. That it should have escaped the attention of the medical profession, can only be accounted for because its attention has not been sufficiently directed to the maladies of the negro race. Otherwise a complaint of so common an occurrence on badly-governed plantations, and so universal among free negroes, or those who are not governed at all, — a disease radicated in physical lesions and having its peculiar and well marked symptoms and its curative indications, would not have escaped the notice of the profession. The northern physicians and people have noticed the symptoms, but not the disease from which they spring. They ignorantly attribute the symptoms to the debasing influence of slavery on the mind without considering that those who have never been in slavery, or their fathers before them, are the most afflicted, and the latest from the slave-holding South the least. The disease is the natural offspring of negro liberty — the liberty to be idle, to wallow in filth, and to indulge in improper food and drinks.”

De Bow’s Review
Southern and Western States
Volume XI, New Orleans, 1851
AMS Press, Inc. New York, 1967

Cartwright’s discoveries weren’t medicine — they were propaganda. His “diagnosis” served to justify brutality and suppress rebellion. He pathologized normal human responses to trauma, exhaustion, and resistance, turning survival instincts into “disease.”

These ideas didn’t vanish — they laid the groundwork for racist medical myths that persist today, like the false belief that Black people feel less pain. They shaped institutional biases in healthcare, law enforcement, and education.

Exposing this history helps dismantle the sanitized narratives that obscure the cruelty of slavery. It empowers survivor-centered advocacy by showing how systems of control were disguised as care.

Cartwright’s own writings describe the following as cures:

For Drapetomania (the “disease” of running away):

• Whipping “the devil out of them”

• Amputating toes to prevent escape

• Enforcing submission through isolation, deprivation, and surveillance

For Dysaesthesia Aethiopica (the “disease” of fatigue or resistance):

• Washing with warm water and soap

• Rubbing oil into the skin

• Whipping with a leather strap to “stimulate” the body

• Forcing labor in the sun as a “restorative” measure

Comedian Chris Rock had a routine where Robitusson was used as a cure for everything. It seems whipping took the place of Robitusson during enslavement. Cartwright didn’t conduct any clinical studies or provide patient histories. Some slave narratives described their “treatments” to cure what ailed them:

• Whippings for exhaustion or grief: Survivors recount being beaten for collapsing in the fields or appearing “lazy” — symptoms that Cartwright pathologized.

• Punishment for sulkiness or resistance: Enslaved people who mourned family separations or refused orders were often whipped or isolated, matching Cartwright’s description of “preventive measures” for Drapetomania.

• Forced labor as discipline: Overseers routinely used hard labor as punishment, claiming it would “restore” obedience.

We must remember that enslaved people were not passive recipients of violence — they were survivors of a system that sought to erase their agency, their grief, and their resistance. By reclaiming these stories and confronting the pseudoscience that justified their suffering, we honor their truth and challenge the institutions that still echo Cartwright’s logic.

The diagnosis was a lie. The pain was real. And the resistance was righteous. While mainstream medical institutions recognized neither Daapetomania nor Dysaesthesia Aethiopica. As late as 1914, the third edition of Stedman’s Practical Medical Dictionary still included an entry for Drapetomania, defining it as “vagabondage” or “an uncontrollable impulse to wander.” I wonder if the cure involved whipping?

If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably up to hearing how Cartwright’s theories are still in use today. Here are some quotes:

“He’s paranoid and oppositional — keeps talking about being watched and targeted.” — Clinical note excerpt, describing a Black patient later diagnosed with schizophrenia, despite symptoms aligning with PTSD or racial trauma

“Black men are more likely to be diagnosed with psychotic disorders, even when presenting identical symptoms to white patients who are diagnosed with mood disorders.” — Jonathan Metzl, The Protest Psychosis

“Before they act out, they get sulky and dissatisfied. That’s when you need to intervene.” — Paraphrased from behavioral management training in juvenile detention centers, echoing Cartwright’s warning signs for drapetomania

“They’re just not motivated. They don’t seem to care about their future.” — Educator commentary on Black students in underfunded schools, often used to justify punitive discipline over support

“He’s non-compliant with treatment and shows poor insight.” — Common psychiatric phrasing applied disproportionately to Black patients who question diagnoses or refuse medication

“They’re always late, always tired — just don’t take pride in their work.” — Workplace bias against Black employees, often used to justify termination or denial of promotion

These quotes reflect how modern systems still interpret Black resistance, grief, and exhaustion as dysfunction. Whether in psychiatry, education, or employment, the underlying logic remains: if a Black person refuses to submit, they must be corrected — not understood.

Cartwright’s pseudoscience may have been removed from textbooks, but its assumptions persist in institutional language. By surfacing these echoes, survivor-centered journalism can expose the continuity between historical control and present-day bias.