LEGACY OF…
Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright
• Cartwright was born at
Northampton on November 3,
1793.
• In 1812, he began his medical
training as an apprentice to Dr.
John Brewer.
• He attended the University of
Pennsylvania Medical School
• Cartwright was at one time a surgeon
under General Andrew Jackson.
• Dr. Cartwright married the former
Mary Wren in 1825, and they had one
child.
• He practiced medicine in Huntsville,
Alabama, then Natchez, Mississippi,
and finally New Orleans, where he
relocated in 1858.
• Dr. Samuel Cartwright was a
highly respected Southern
author who wrote about
medical issues.
• Even though he had studied
under the abolitionist Dr. Rush
in Philadelphia, Cartwright
contributed ideas and literature
to those southerners who
defended slavery.
• In 1851, he identified that two
mental disorders, Drapetomania and
Dysethesia Aethiopica was the
cause of laziness among slaves.
• He quoted…”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. "
Drapetomania
• The desire to flee from servitude.
• He stated that “it’s a mental disorder
akin to alienation.”
• 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. "
• If they nonetheless became
dissatisfied with their condition,
they should be whipped as a
prevention against running
away.
• In describing his theory and
cure for drapetomania,
Cartwright relied on passages
of scripture dealing with
slavery.
Dysaethesia Aethiopica
• A disease "affecting both mind and body.
• According to Cartwright, dysaethesia
aethiopica occurred “more 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." — indeed, according to Cartwright,
"nearly all [free negroes] are more or less
afflicted with it, that have not got some
white person to direct and to take care of
them."
• Cartwright felt that dysaethesia
aethiopica was "easily curable, if
treated on sound physiological
principles." Insensitivity of the skin
was one symptom of the disease, so
the skin should be stimulated.
• The best means to stimulate the skin
is, first, to have the patient well
washed with warm water and soap;
then, to anoint it all over in oil, and to
slap the oil in with a broad leather
strap; then to put the patient to some
hard kind of work in the sunshine.
• According to Cartwright, after
the prescribed "course of
treatment" the slave will "look
grateful and thankful to the
white man whose compulsory
power ... has restored his
sensation and dispelled the mist
that clouded his intellect."
• Due to the facts that during the
antebellum period, southerners
largely considered blacks to be
racially inferior to whites.
• They sought "scientific proof"
for their argument to counter
the "human rights" claims of the
abolitionists.
• His theory was highly accepted
because his arguments were in line
with those of such pro-slavery
defenders.
• Cartwright viewed blacks as people
largely incapable of performing
certain duties.
• Drs. Alvin Poussaint and Peter
Breggin were two outspoken
opponents of his theory.
>>>>MY VIEW<<<<
• OMG….this diagnosis is cruel and it’s
awful because the philosophy and
policies that guided the treatment of
our ancestors still influence our
treatment today….that’s just not
right!!!!
Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright
(November 3, 1793
–
May 2, 1863 )