Drapetomania was a supposed mental illness that, in 1851, American physician Samuel A. Cartwright hypothesized as the cause of enslaved Africans fleeing captivity.[1]: 41 [2] This hypothesis centered around the belief that slavery was such an improvement upon the lives of slaves that only those suffering from some form of mental illness would wish to escape.[3][4]
The term derives from the Greek δραπέτης (drapetēs, "a runaway [slave]") and μανία (mania, "madness, frenzy").[8]
As late as 1914, the third edition of Thomas Lathrop Stedman's Practical Medical Dictionary included an entry for drapetomania, defined as "Vagabondage, dromomania; an uncontrollable or insane impulsion to wander."[9]
Also, on the term Vagabond relating to slavery.
The Vagabonds Act 1547 (1 Edw. 6. c. 3), also known as the Vagrancy Act, was a statute passed in England by King Edward VI and his Lord Protector, Edward Seymour.[1] It provided that vagabonds could be enslaved for two years and continued weekly parish collections for the poor.[2] The enslaved vagabonds were to be fed bread and water or small drink and were allowed to be worked by beating, chaining, or other methods the master may choose. Vagabond slaves were allowed to be bought and sold just as other slaves. Also, should no private man want the vagabond slave, the slave was to be sent to their town of birth and be forced to work as a slave for that community.[3] Vagabond children could be claimed as "apprentices" and be held as such until the age of 24 if a boy, or the age of 20 if a girl. Should they attempt to escape this apprenticeship, they were subject to enslavement for the remainder of the apprenticeship.[4]
Salute to my drapetomaniac 4th Great Grandfather who said fukk this and escaped slavery in Georgetown, Maryland (now DC) and proceeded to Canada, where he rose to become Bishop of the Canadian Province of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He set is generations up nicely. We are his faith turned to flesh.