HEROES OF HISTORY

I wish I were consistent enough to blog weekly. I have enough material, but I'm just too lazy. Isn't that weird, how one can be too lazy to do something that's pleasurable? Anyhell, this week is HEROES OF HISTORY, and our hero is 19th century American physician Samuel A. Cartwright.



Born in Fairfax, Virginia in 1793, Samuel Cartwright was a prominent military surgeon in the Confederate states who was noted for his work on Asiatic Cholera and yellow fever. His real passion, however, was---wait for it---"The Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race." (also the title of his seminal work.) One has to ask, exactly what are these "peculiarities" and "diseases"? Well, Cartwright's work focused on two diseases in particular, twin scourges of the antebellum south: Drapetomania and the potentially fatal Dysaethesia Aethiopica.

(At this point, it's of crucial importance that you try to maintain an objective, scientific attitude, as well as a straight face. Scratch that, I double-dog dare you to keep a straight face.)

Drapetomania was the psychological condition that caused slaves to flee captivity.

I shit thee not. There's more.

Dysaethesia Aethiopica, also known as "Rascality", was a psychiatric condition proposed as a theory to describe laziness among slaves.
Definitions courtesy of my lovely, blonde assistant, Wikipedia.

For me, the significance of these diagnoses is the indication of just how deeply embedded racism was at the time; upon noticing that slaves sometimes ran away, or didn't feel like working, Cartwright went so far as to suggest that they were simply diseased and needed medical attention. It doesn't seem to occur to him that working in the fields is hard and perhaps depressing work, or that being treated like property is just as unsuitable for a black man as it is for a white woman. No, no, these "rascal" slaves simply suffered from a chronic inability to know their own place. Still, Cartwright offers hope in the form of treatment and therapy for these "diseases". To prevent Drapetomania in slaves, he simply recommends that slave owners refrain from "treating their slaves as equals". The exotic-sounding Dysaethesia Aethiopica, characterized by an insensitivity of the skin, (insensitive to whippings?) could be cured by "washing the skin with warm water and soap, anointing the skin with oil, beating the oil in with a broad leather strap, then putting the patient to hard work in the sunshine."

That's right, folks. If he still won't work when you beat him, wash him off, oil him up so his skin is baby soft, and beat the devil out of him.

It's important to note that these theories pre-date psychology as we know it by perhaps 20 or 30 years, so actually calling them psychological or psychiatric conditions isn't entirely correct.

I tried hard to crack wise in this post, but the subject matter is too hilarious on its own.

Thoughts?