Any action that is done against the people’s will is considered wrong. In the past people were subjected and forced into doing things they were not willing to do. Africans were the most affected group as they were considered by almost all the white people as non-humans (Chavez-Dueñas, Adames & Organista, 2014). There were therefore forced to work in firms belonging to the white people for long hours with no food and little or no payments. Some were never given medication when they got ill, while others especially those who tried to resist were taken into prisons and subjected to harsh punishments. Many of the mental illness are as a result of stress and as we shall see in the discussion many of the African- Africans who were subjected to different kinds of hardship suffered from this condition. Psychology being the study of mind and behavior let us see how slavery brought about the rediscovery of some concepts in the development of psychology studies.
The slaves faced both physical and emotional or psychological challenges. They were physically violated through being beaten up while working so they could work faster. This left them with a lot of injuries inflicting a lot of pain, the fact that no human being may want to see their fellow human being suffering especially if they are related resulted or caused a lot of emotional discomforts (Chavez-Dueñas et al., 2014). Some married women were raped in front of their children and husband something that made some of them consider suicide as the best resolution. Also, since they could not defend themselves as they had any fighting skills that could match that of their masters they had no option but to continue serving them. These actions violated the human rights, and during that period because of increased stress levels and physical injuries on their head, many people were expressing symptoms of insanity.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Benjamin Rush; the father of the American Psychiatry, in his studies on the dark-skinned Africans (the Negros) found out that most of them suffered from a condition he called Negritude. This condition was considered and believed to be the placid form of leprosy (Slaughter & McWorter, 2013). The only medication that was recommended or that could reduce the severity of the condition was to become a white person. Many of the Africans after having been subjected to slavery in the West Indies became insane (Chavez-Dueñas et al., 2014). Indicating how slavery could be a major contributing factor of insanity. This is mainly because while these people in most cases these people were forcefully taken out of their own homes and taken into a foreign country where they were now turned into animals working twenty-four hours with no water and food. Such harsh conditions most likely make someone is emotionally stressed which brings about insanity.
In the year 1851, another physician by the name Dr. Samuel Cartwright, while offering palliative care services to the Negros discovered and identified that most of them were suffering from two conditions which was never seen or witnessed in the white people. Drapetomia is one of the conditions and this one made the slaves run away. Most probably due to the harsh treatments and subjection into suffering, the slaves developed this condition due to increased fear of either being whipped or subjected to other types of punishments (Dando et al., 2016). This made most of the slaves want to escape from their services, and in most cases, they ended up being shot. It was surprising that the primary intervention method for those slaves who displayed the possibility of having the condition was whipping. The doctor encouraged the planters and the overseers to whip those individuals who tried to run away from duty. Although whipping was painful, it was good therapy for regulating running away or the Drapetomia condition. He also made it clear that in order to cure this conditions slaves had to be treated as children that are with love, care and attention so as to avoid the possibility of having increased cases of this condition.
Another condition that he associated with slavery was Dysaethesia Aethiopica. This condition mainly affected the Negros and differed from the other mental conditions as its early signs and symptoms included the bodily signs and lesions. During his studies, he also discovered that whipping could cure this condition just like it did for Drapetomia (Dando, Walsh & Brierley, 2016). Even though one could argue that the lesions were as a result of the whipping, those fellows who suffered from this mental disease after being whipped showed great improvements in terms of change of behavior. These two conditions made the doctor join the antislavery movements so as to rescue the African – Americans from this suffering. He and other psychiatrists considered slavery to be the biggest cause of the increments of mental illness among the slaves. They took to the streets with one aim to stop slavery and prevent the psychosurgery abuses (Teo, 2013). The issue that the African – Americans suffered from a mental or brain dysfunction hence making them poor was opposed by the anti-slavery movements.
The increased cases of violence were associated with brain dysfunction, and that made it necessary that all children taken to the juvenile jail to be screened for any mental illness. The more the children were jailed and subjected to harsh treatments the more the cases of mental illness increased (Mohatt et al., 2014). This is because more African – American children were treated badly with no love and partiality and neglected or discriminated and laughed at just because of their black skin. As the pressure piled up, the emotional stress levels also increase and after some time one develops a psychological problem.
In the year 1985, cases of insanity increased among the Negros in Georgia. According to Dr. Powell, insanity cases increased yearly since 1960. He, however, considered freedom as the contributing factor of increased insanity and consumption levels. For instance, when one is free and is not committed to doing anything, their brains keep on wondering and such people think of weird things including where they came from and how they are suffering and that can increase the stress levels. As the stress levels increase, the rate of consumption increases, as one of the symptoms of stress is increased appetite (Mohatt et al., 2014). That therefore in some instances may make some individuals become unruly. According to Dr. Powell, the slaves should not be given the freedom as that may increase the levels of insanity. For instance, the 1840 census showed increased cases of insanity among the free blacks. However, this was opposed by several anti-slavery people like James McCune Smith, as that encouraged many Americans to enslave more African- Americans citing that slavery was beneficial to slaves (Teo, 2013).
During those times, the slaves were housed in public facilities like jail, poorhouse, and insane asylum. The conditions in these houses were pathetic, and Africans were forced to use these facilities. As humans, therefore when subjected to a poor or unhealthy conditions, the likelihood of developing some complications or becoming sick are high. These conditions stressed the Africans making many of them become insane. For instance, a fourteen-year-old slave who had developed symptoms of insanity was neglected when he was taken to the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum (Mohatt et al., 2014). His name was not recorded in the admission book, and he was housed in the yard. This was however considered as a big favor given that the hospital never admitted people with back skin. Such discriminations sent the wrong signal making them feel as though they were not humans and that could escalate cases of emotional stress.
In the year 1975, there was a development of a colored insane asylum named the Eastern Asylum. This was specifically meant to house the Negro insane individuals only. The conditions were not up to standard but after several renovations the facility remains as a psychiatric facility (Magubane, Z. (2016). The number of insane individuals in this facility increased each day as compared to that which housed the white insane individuals. In 1925, a deaf and dumb man by the name Junius Wilson was falsely accused of rape cases and charged by the court of law later to only discover that the Negro was unable to hear or speak. The charges were dropped, and the fellow freed but later in order to make up for the wrongs done to him, he was moved to Cherry hospital (Grosjean, 2014).
Also, Virginia established an asylum for the black people (Petersburg facility) and in 1885; the first patient was admitted in this asylum. The number increased to hundreds as the years passed. Since the facility was far from their homes, it made it difficult for their relatives to visit and something that should have been put into consideration. This also contributed to the increase in numbers of insanity as family members missed their loved ones for long or rather lacked the opportunity to visit them due to the financial constraints (Teo, 2013).
The Alabama Insane Facility which was exclusively set up for the African-American Negros built new facilities to accommodate the increasing numbers of insane African patients. In fact, according to the survey study done by Dr. Powell, there were approximately three hundred and sixty patients in that center alone, and shockingly all of them were of an African American Origin. Also, what Dr. Powell noticed in that facility was that there was a separate facility that accommodated only men and these people were of the African- American. They helped in working on the farms owned by the Hospital and because of their energy they were at least well taken care of (Grosjean, 2014).
In the year 1911, the state of Maryland also opened the hospital for the insane people. The first patients included one hundred and twelve insane African- American inmates from jails. The patients were the ones, who build the facility especially those who were able to work. After the facility was opened surprisingly, the Negros were never accommodated instead they were allocated and slept in tents. The facilities for the Negros were separated, and many patients of the African origin had no chance of enjoying the good facilities as the white patients did. In the year 1906, the cottage specifically meant for the African- American was built (Slaughter & McWorter, 2013).
In the year, 1919, because of the increasing number of insane people, Rusk State Penitentially in Texan was converted or turned into a hospital for the insane people (Negro insane). It is in this facility that a nineteen-year-old boy by the name Ben led other inmates in demonstrating for their rights and demanding that cases of beating to be stopped, they wanted better counseling and wanted to be treated fairly just like the whites are treated. During this demonstration, they were able to take over the hospital for around six hours. However, media put the news in a different dimension, and the people were made to believe that the young man was totally insane and that is how he behaves especially when he has not taken his medication.
Slaves suffered from the post-traumatic stress syndrome; this affected them a lot, and it went further affecting even their kin (Mohatt, Thompson, Thai & Tebes, 2014). All slaves were vulnerable to psychological stress given that they were subjected to harsh conditions which made them face inhuman activities. Some white people who never liked the acts committed by their fellow countrymen wished they could help stop slavery and it was through such people that the call for anti- slavery begun and through that we show a transition which in fact result in the stopping and ending of slavery (Magubane, 2016). The main reason why they opposed slavery is that they realized that it was causing an increase in the cases of insanity in that many Negros became mad as well some white people especially those fighting for the Africans (Teo, 2013).
Although the idea of the racial segregation was a big problem for the African-Americans, it helped in the shaping the development of psychology. For instance, if we consider the American Child and the African – American child during that time, it is obvious that the white child will have more intelligence than the African America. This is basically because there was racial discrimination and the African Child was not allowed to mix with the white children and even when it came to the schools they went, they differed in terms of facilities. Sometimes the African Children could be forcefully sent to the farms to work and therefore not attending school (Grosjean, 2014).
From the discussions above, it is evident that slavery played a major role as far as the history of psychology is concerned. It was through slavery that most research about human behavior began, this was meant to understand why the African- American people behaved differently and why there were increased cases of mental illness among these groups. It was through these increased cases of insanity that most psychiatric centers were built so as to accommodate the increased numbers African -American patients suffering from insanity. Through the physical injuries like brain injuries could be a contributing factor for the increased cases of insanity. This is because a slight injury on any part of the brain makes one change how he behaves and given the fact that most people were beaten mercilessly on any part of the body, some head injuries could have occurred. This and other factors discussed above most likely caused an increment of cases of insanity. Therefore, we can conclude that were it not for the African slaves most of the psychiatric facilities could not have established a clear indication of how important slavery was in the history of psychology. It is therefore very important that we acknowledge the importance of slavery even though it did more harm to the Negros during that period they were under slavery.
References
Chavez-Dueñas, N. Y., Adames, H. Y., & Organista, K. C. (2014). Skin-color prejudice and within-group racial discrimination historical and current impact on Latino/a populations. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences , 36 (1), 3-26.
Dando, C. J., Walsh, D., & Brierley, R. (2016). Perceptions of psychological coercion and human trafficking in the West Midlands of England: beginning to know the unknown. PloS one , 11 (5), e0153263.
Grosjean, P. (2014). A history of violence: The culture of honor and homicide in the US south. Journal of the European Economic Association , 12 (5), 1285-1316.
Mohatt, N. V., Thompson, A. B., Thai, N. D., & Tebes, J. K. (2014). Historical trauma as public narrative: A conceptual review of how history impacts present-day health. Social Science & Medicine , 106 , 128-136.
Magubane, Z. (2016). American sociology’s racial ontology: Remembering slavery, deconstructing modernity, and charting the future of global historical sociology. Cultural Sociology , 1 (10): 301-316.
Slaughter, D. T., & McWorter, G. A. (2013). Social origins and early features of the scientific study of Black American families and children. Beginnings: The Art and Science of Planning Psychotherapy , 5.
Teo, T. (2013). Backlash against American psychology: An indigenous reconstruction of the history of German critical psychology. History of Psychology , 16 (1), 1.
