Although he was previously best known for his staunch opposition to the wild idea that microscopic ghosts called “germs” caused disease,1 in 1851, Cartwright would become most renowned for presenting a paper before the Medical Association of Louisiana proposing an explosive new mental illness called “drapetomania,” or “the disease causing slaves to run away.” In it, he wrote: The cause in the most of cases, that induces the negro to run away from service, is as much a disease of the mind as any other species of mental alienation, and much more curable, as a general rule. With the advantages of
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