Samuel A. Cartwright
Encyclopedia
Samuel Adolphus Cartwright (November 3, 1793 – May 2, 1863) was a physician who practiced in Mississippi
and Louisiana
in the antebellum United States. During the American Civil War
he joined the Confederate States of America
and was assigned the responsibility of improving sanitary conditions in the camps about Vicksburg, Mississippi
, and Port Hudson, Louisiana
. He was honored for his investigations into yellow fever
and Asiatic cholera. Cartwright was also considered to have been an antebellum authority on the health problems of African American
s, but that work has since been discredited.
, to Mr. and Mrs. John S. Cartwright. Prior to 1812, he began his medical training as an apprentice to Dr. John Brewer. Thereafter, he was apprenticed to Dr. Benjamin Rush
of Philadelphia
. He also attended the University of Pennsylvania Medical School.
Cartwright was at one time a surgeon under General
(later U.S. President) Andrew Jackson
.
He practiced medicine in Huntsville, Alabama
(Madison County
), then Natchez, Mississippi
(Adams County
), and finally New Orleans, where he relocated in 1858.
Dr. Cartwright married the former Mary Wren in 1825, and they had at least one child. He died in Jackson
, the Mississippi
state capital, two months before the surrender of Vicksburg to the forces of General Ulysses S. Grant
.
. He is now most well-known for describing a condition he called "drapetomania
", or the desire to flee from servitude. According to Cartwright, drapetomania is a mental disorder akin to alienation [madness]. He said that slaves 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.
Cartwright also described another disorder, "Dysaethesia aethiopica
", a disease "affecting both mind and body." Cartwright used his theory to explain the apparent lack of work ethic among slaves. Dysaethesia 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, dysaethesia 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 [free negroes] are more or less afflicted with it, that have not got some white person to direct and to take care of them."
In 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. Cartwright’s explanation concentrated on psychological issues of African Americans. In his Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race, Cartwright viewed blacks as people largely incapable of performing certain duties. His arguments were in line with those of such pro-slavery defenders as Thomas Roderick Dew
of the College of William and Mary
in Williamsburg, Virginia
, and James D.B. DeBow, a southern magazine
publisher. Cartwright contributed some fourteen articles to DeBow's Review between 1851 and 1862, primarily on sanitary conditions.
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
and Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
in the antebellum United States. During the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
he joined the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
and was assigned the responsibility of improving sanitary conditions in the camps about Vicksburg, Mississippi
Vicksburg, Mississippi
Vicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the only city in Warren County. It is located northwest of New Orleans on the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, and due west of Jackson, the state capital. In 1900, 14,834 people lived in Vicksburg; in 1910, 20,814; in 1920,...
, and Port Hudson, Louisiana
Port Hudson, Louisiana
Port Hudson is a small unincorporated community in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States. Located about northwest of Baton Rouge, it is most famous for an American Civil War battle known as the Siege of Port Hudson.-Geography:...
. He was honored for his investigations into yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
and Asiatic cholera. Cartwright was also considered to have been an antebellum authority on the health problems of African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s, but that work has since been discredited.
Biography
Cartwright was born in Fairfax County, VirginiaFairfax County, Virginia
Fairfax County is a county in Virginia, in the United States. Per the 2010 Census, the population of the county is 1,081,726, making it the most populous jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia, with 13.5% of Virginia's population...
, to Mr. and Mrs. John S. Cartwright. Prior to 1812, he began his medical training as an apprentice to Dr. John Brewer. Thereafter, he was apprenticed to Dr. Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush was a Founding Father of the United States. Rush lived in the state of Pennsylvania and was a physician, writer, educator, humanitarian and a Christian Universalist, as well as the founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania....
of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
. He also attended the University of Pennsylvania Medical School.
Cartwright was at one time a surgeon under General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
(later U.S. President) Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
.
He practiced medicine in Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city located primarily in Madison County in the central part of the far northern region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Huntsville is the county seat of Madison County. The city extends west into neighboring Limestone County. Huntsville's population was 180,105 as of the 2010 Census....
(Madison County
Madison County, Alabama
Madison County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is a major part of the Huntsville Metropolitan Area.It is also included in the merged Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. The county is named in honor of James Madison, fourth President of the United States of America, and the...
), then Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez is the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. With a total population of 18,464 , it is the largest community and the only incorporated municipality within Adams County...
(Adams County
Adams County, Mississippi
As of the census of 2000, there were 34,340 people, 13,677 households, and 9,409 families residing in the county. The population density was 75 people per square mile . There were 15,175 housing units at an average density of 33 per square mile...
), and finally New Orleans, where he relocated in 1858.
Dr. Cartwright married the former Mary Wren in 1825, and they had at least one child. He died in Jackson
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
, the Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
state capital, two months before the surrender of Vicksburg to the forces of General Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
.
Slavery
Even though he had studied under the abolitionist Dr. Rush in Philadelphia, Cartwright contributed ideas and literature to those southerners who defended slaverySlavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
. He is now most well-known for describing a condition he called "drapetomania
Drapetomania
Drapetomania was a supposed mental illness described by American physician Samuel A. Cartwright in 1851 that caused black slaves to flee captivity. Today, drapetomania is considered an example of pseudoscience, and part of the edifice of scientific racism...
", or the desire to flee from servitude. According to Cartwright, drapetomania is a mental disorder akin to alienation [madness]. He said that slaves 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
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
dealing with slavery.
Cartwright also described another disorder, "Dysaethesia aethiopica
Dysaethesia Aethiopica
In psychiatry, dysaethesia aethiopica 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...
", a disease "affecting both mind and body." Cartwright used his theory to explain the apparent lack of work ethic among slaves. Dysaethesia 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, dysaethesia 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 [free negroes] are more or less afflicted with it, that have not got some white person to direct and to take care of them."
In 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. Cartwright’s explanation concentrated on psychological issues of African Americans. In his Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race, Cartwright viewed blacks as people largely incapable of performing certain duties. His arguments were in line with those of such pro-slavery defenders as Thomas Roderick Dew
Thomas Roderick Dew
Thomas Roderick Dew was an American educator and writer. He was the thirteenth president of The College of William & Mary .Dew was born in King and Queen County, Virginia, son of Captain Thomas Dew and Lucy Gatewood Dew...
of the College of William and Mary
College of William and Mary
The College of William & Mary in Virginia is a public research university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States...
in Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg is an independent city located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, USA. As of the 2010 Census, the city had an estimated population of 14,068. It is bordered by James City County and York County, and is an independent city...
, and James D.B. DeBow, a southern magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
publisher. Cartwright contributed some fourteen articles to DeBow's Review between 1851 and 1862, primarily on sanitary conditions.
Cultural depictions of Samuel A. Cartwright
- Cartwright was referenced in the 2004 film C.S.A.: The Confederate States of AmericaC.S.A.: The Confederate States of AmericaC.S.A.: The Confederate States of America is a 2004 mockumentary directed by Kevin Willmott. It is a fictional "tongue-in-cheek" account of an alternate history, in which the Confederates won the American Civil War, establishing the new Confederate States of America...
. In the film, after the Confederate States of AmericaConfederate States of AmericaThe Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
wins the American Civil WarAmerican Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Cartwright's work forms the basis for the fictional Cartwright Institute for Freedom Illnesses, a medical school incorporating his theory on DrapetomaniaDrapetomaniaDrapetomania was a supposed mental illness described by American physician Samuel A. Cartwright in 1851 that caused black slaves to flee captivity. Today, drapetomania is considered an example of pseudoscience, and part of the edifice of scientific racism...
and other "negro peculiarities".
External links
- Drapetomania, the original article as printed in The New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal. (Google Books)