Samuel Adolphus Cartwright (November 3, 1793 – May 2, 1863) was an American physician who practiced in

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

and

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

in the

antebellum Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern United States ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum ...

United States. Cartwright is best known as the inventor of the 'mental illness' of

drapetomania Drapetomania was a supposed mental illness that, in 1851, American physician Samuel A. Cartwright hypothesized as the cause of enslaved Africans fleeing captivity. This hypothesis centered around the belief that slavery was such an improvement u ...

, the desire of a slave for freedom, and an outspoken critic of germ theory.

Biography

Cartwright married Mary Wren of Natchez, Mississippi, in 1825."Samuel A. Cartwright and Family Papers"
Mss. 2471, 2499, Inventory, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, Special Collections, Hill Memorial Library, Louisiana State University Libraries, Baton Rouge,

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

, page 4. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, he was a physician in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

and served in camps near Vicksburg and Port Hudson. He was assigned with improving the sanitary conditions for the soldiers.

Slavery

The Medical Association of Louisiana charged Cartwright with investigating "the diseases and physical peculiarities of the negro race". His report was delivered as a speech at its annual meeting on March 12, 1851, and published in its journal. The most sensationalistic portions of it, on

and

dysaesthesia aethiopica In psychiatry, dysaesthesia aethiopica ("Black (Ethiopian) bad feeling) was an alleged mental illness described by American physician Samuel A. Cartwright in 1851, which proposed a theory for the cause of laziness among slaves. Today, ''dysaesthe ...

, were reprinted in ''

DeBow's Review ''DeBow's Review'' was a widely-circulated magazine "DEBOW'S REVIEW" (publication titles/dates/locations/notes), APS II, Reels 382 & 383, webpage of "agricultural, commercial, and industrial progress and resource" in the American South during ...

''. He subsequently prepared an abbreviated version, with sources cited, for ''Southern Medical Reports''. "If they nonetheless became dissatisfied with their condition, they should be whipped to prevent them from running away." In describing his theory and cure for drapetomania, Cartwright relied on passages of Christian scripture dealing with slavery. Cartwright also invented another 'disorder', ''

'', a disease "affecting both mind and body." Cartwright used his theory to explain the perceived lack of work ethic among slaves. 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." Other symptoms included "lesions of the body discoverable to the medical observer, which are always present and sufficient to account for the symptoms." According to Cartwright, dysaesthesia aethiopica was "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." — indeed, according to Cartwright, "nearly all ree negroesare more or less afflicted with it, that have not got some white person to direct and to take care of them."

Cultural depictions

*Cartwright was referenced in the 2004 film '' C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America''. In the film, after the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

wins the

, Cartwright's work forms the basis for the fictional ''Cartwright Institute for Freedom Illnesses'', a medical school incorporating his theory on

and other "negro peculiarities". *Cartwright is also portrayed in the 1971 Mondo exploitation film ''

Goodbye Uncle Tom ''Goodbye Uncle Tom'' ( it, Addio Zio Tom) is a 1971 Italian Mondo docudrama co-directed and co-written by Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi with music by Riz Ortolani. The film is based on true events in which the filmmakers explore ante ...

'' alongside many other figures from the time. Notably, Cartwright is stated to be

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

in the film, which he was not in reality.

Publications

* * * * *

References

Citations

Sources

*
Samuel Adolphus Cartwright
, ''A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography'', Vol. 1 (1988), p. 157 *''Dictionary of American Medical Biography", Vol. 1 (1984) * * * * * Mary Louise Marshall, "Samuel A. Cartwright and States' Rights Medicine," New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, XC (1940–1941).

External links

Drapetomania
the original article as printed in ''The New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal''. (

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) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cartwright, Samuel A. 1793 births 1863 deaths Writers from New Orleans People from Fairfax County, Virginia Confederate States Army surgeons 19th-century American writers People from Huntsville, Alabama American proslavery activists People from Natchez, Mississippi Proponents of scientific racism People of Louisiana in the American Civil War Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni Activists from Alabama American slave owners