Drapetomania

Drapetomania was a mental illness that, in 1851, American physician Samuel A. Cartwright hypothesized to cause Black slaves to flee captivity.

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.

Cartwright described the disorder in a paper delivered before the Medical Association of Louisiana, where he said it was "unknown to our medical authorities, although its diagnostic symptom, the absconding from service, is well known to our planters and overseers."

He stated that the malady was a consequence of masters who made themselves too familiar with slaves, treating them as equals. His feeling was that with "proper medical advice, strictly followed, this troublesome practice that many Negroes have of running away can be almost entirely prevented."

When Cartwright's article was reprinted it was widely mocked.