Drapetomania
Samuel Cartwright, an American psychologist theorized in 1851 that enslaved Black people looking to leave plantations was not because the urge to be free from domination was natural to their humanity but because the Black people who desired to be free were suffering from a mental sickness called drapetomania.
Drapetomania is from two Greek words which basically translates into “running away madness”. Interestingly, right in that century, Cartwright’s theory was mocked by abolitionists. But it was also grounds for many more slaveowners to crack the whip.
