More evidence that trying to justify slavery made white people batshit insane.
“Drapetomania” was the supposed mental illness that caused slaves to want to run away and be free. It was described by a Dr. Samuel Cartwright in 1851. He also diagnosed a separate illness, Dysaesthesia aethiopica, which caused slaves to be lazy and not want to work like, well, slaves.
This was taken seriously in the South though universally mocked elsewhere.