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Preferred term

drapetomania  

Definition

  • Drapetomania, from the Greek drapetes (runaway slave) and mania (mad or crazy), literally means “the disease causing slaves to run away.” Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright, an eminent surgeon in the antebellum American South, coined the term to express the idea that runaway slaves exhibited symptoms of mental disorder. [Source: Encyclopedia of Multicultural Psychology; Drapetomania]

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https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/drapetomania

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