This marks the beginning of my series Trust the Science in which I will briefly outline scientific experimentation on unsuspecting people in the United States of America by the medical community. But I will begin with medical diagnoses.
illness: Drapetomania
years active: 1851- ?
scientist: Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright; born in Virginia; apprenticed; attended U. Penn. Medical School; practiced in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi; critic of germ theory
victims: enslaved Africans and enslaved descendants of Africans— all considered descendants of Canaan as written in the Bible
symptoms: sulky and dissatisfied; escape/attempted escape from slavery
[preventative] treatment: “whipping the devil out of them”
Should today’s descendants of Africans trust science?
Should medicine rely on the Bible?
Can a drunken person put a curse on an entire group of people?
Does U Penn Medical School produce ethical practitioners?
Is germ theory still relevant?
If you ran away from medical servitude, what illness would you have?
Why do people trust the science? Simply because they were told/led to do so.
