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Benjamin Rush and the Negro BETTY L. PLUMMER 793 examination as well as monitoring our and prevalance rates for psychiatric facilities in achievements; racism is an erosive process four register areas. Amer J Public Health 56:2033- 2051, 1966 negatively affecting black and white. We 8. Brody EB, Derbyshire RL, Schliefer CB: How the can no longer pretend it does not exist in young adult Baltimore Negro male becomes a psychiatry; we must counter our earlier Maryland hospital statistic, in Psychiatric Epidemi- denial with a hyperawareness that we hope ology and Mental Health Planning. Edited by will be temporary during a period of transi- Monroe RR, Klee GD, Brody EB. Psychiatric Research Report No 22. Washington, DC, The tion. Our own openness and effort can en- American Psychiatric Association, 1967 courage other professional groups to also 9. Mackler B: A report on the “600” schools: dilem- bring the efforts to combat white racism mas, problems, and solutions, in The Urban R’s: out of the shadows to the center stage of Race Relations as the Problem in Urban Educa- tion. Edited by Dentler R, Mack Icr R, Warshauer everyday life where this struggle belongs- ME. New York, Praeger, 1967 if racism is to be eradicated. 10. Gordon S: Primary education in urban slums: a mental health orientation, in The Urban R’s: Race REFERENCES Relations as the Problem in Urban Education. Edited by Dentler R, Mackler R, Warshauer ME. New York, Praeger, 1967 I.Pettigrew TF: A Profile of the Negro american. 11. Chicago Board of Health: Preliminary Report on Princeton, NJ, Van Nostrand, 1964, p xxii Patterns of Medical and Health Care in Poverty 2. Dollard J: Caste and Class in a Southern Town, Areas of Chicago and Proposed Health Programs 3rd ed. New York, Doubleday, 1957 for the Medically Indigent. Chicago, 1966 3. Lind iE: The dream as a simple wish fulfillment 12. Cobbs WH, Grier PM: Black Rage. New York, in the Negro. Psychoanal Rev 1:300, 1913-1914 Basic Books, 1968 4. Rosen H, Frank JD: Negroes in psychotherapy. 13. Coles R: Children of Crisis. Boston, Little, Brown Amer i Psychiat 119:456-460, 1962 and Co, 1964 5. Crawford FR: Variations between Negroes and 14. Grossack MM: Psychology and Negro life whites in concepts of mental illness, its treatment some needed research, in Mental Health and and prevalance. in Changing Perspectives in Men- Segregation. Edited by Grossack MM. New York, tal Illness. Edited by Plog SC, Edgerton RB. New Springer, 1963 York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969 15. Jones BE, Lightfoot OB, Palmer D, Ct al: Problems 6. Gorwitz K: Changing patterns of psychiatric care of black psychiatric residents in white training in- in Maryland, in Psychiatric Epidemiology and stitutes. Amer J Psychiat 127:798-803, 1970 Mental Health Planning. Edited by Monroe RR, 16. Harrison P, Butts HF: White psychiatrists’ racism KIee GD, Brody EB. Psychiatric Research Report in patient referral to black psychiatrists. Presented No 22. Washington, DC, The American Psychi- at the l25th anniversary meeting of the American atric Association, 1967 Psychiatric Association, Miami Beach, Fla, May 7. Bahn AK, Gardner EA, AlItop L, et al: Admission 5-9, 1969 Benjamin Rush and the Negro BY BETTY L. PLUMMER The author describes Rushs interest in the B ENJAMIN RUSH (1745-1813) is best social problems of his day. particularly his known as a signer of the Declaration of concern with relations between blacks and Independence and a prominent Philadelphia whites. Rush was active in the abolition movement,’ his tracts and extensive corre- spondence especially emphasized the detri- Read at the 123rd annual meeting of the American mental effects of slavery on the mind. He Psychiatric Association, San Francisco, Calif., May 11 - 15, 1970. Based on an MA. thesis, “Benjamin Rush was also frequently inlved in such activ- and the Negro,” submitted to the department.of history, ities of Philadelphia ‘.s black community as Howard University, Washington, D. C., May 4, 1969. Miss Plummer is an instructor in the department of the securing of funds for the construction of history, Georgetown University, Washington, D. C. churches. 20007. Amer. J. Psychic:. /27.6, December /970 [93] 794 RUSH AND THE NEGRO physician who, due to his early interest in the were rendered torpid by it ( 1 , p.2). care and treatment of the mentally ill, has In this same pamphlet Rush attempted to been called the father of American psychi- arouse additional antislavery sentiment in atry. Rush’s interests, however, were not his readers by describing the traumatic expe- confined to medicine and the securing of riences of the African en route to the New American independence. He was a true World. He suggested that his readers attempt humanitarian, in the broadest sense of the to visualize the numerous Africans who per- word, who advocated reform in the penal ished because of extreme melancholy (reac- institutions and the educational system of tive depression) or grief, as well as the many his day, especially in regard to the equal others who committed suicide rather than education of women. Moreover, he was an accept the slavery that awaited them. ardent supporter of the crusade against The primary purpose of his second anti- Negro slavery. slavery pamphlet (2) was to defend and The earliest evidence of his antislavery reemphasize several of the antislavery argu- convictions is found in the two antislavery ments that he had voiced in the first. More- pamphlets he wrote in 1773 (at age 28) in over, he presented additional proof of the which he voiced strong opposition to the sys- ill effects of slavery on the Negro’s mental tem of slavery (1, 2). Rush’s correspondence health. Certain proslavery advocates had relating to abolition is voluminous, even maintained that the African’s apathy toward though there is reason to believe that many his family and friends was additional proof of his letters have been lost. His participation of his mental inferiority. Rush strongly in abolitionist activities is also noteworthy. argued that this observation was fallacious. In 1787 he participated in the reorganization Travelers’ accounts clearly showed that the of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting African did experience separation anxiety the Abolition of Slavery. In 1795 he served on being removed from his family and as National President of the American Con- friends as the cargoes were being sold for vention for Promoting the Abolition of shipment to the New World. Slavery and Improving the African Race. Medical Articles on Blacks Rush’s concern with the Negro was not confined to abolitionist writings and activ- Besides his works devoted specifically to ities. He was also involved with Philadel- abolition, Rush wrote articles and medical phia’s free black community. From 1791 to treatises dealing with blacks, as well as 1793 he was active in the movement to estab- medical texts in which he referred to blacks lish African churches in the city of Philadel- when describing a particular malady. In one phia. Moreover, Rush’s correspondence article relating specifically to the Negro (3), provides evidence that he assisted free blacks he was concerned with both the mental and in a variety of other situations. physical effects of slavery. Many of the arguments that Rush used in Among the ailments cited was hypochon- his first antislavery pamphlet(l) were cer- driasis or mal d’estomac, as it is called in the tainly familiar to readers of abolitionist French islands. This disease, which was one literature. However, his interest in medicine, of the most common ailments among the particularly psychiatry, enabled him to slaves, was described by Rush as being quite emphasize the detrimental effects of slavery painful; moreover, it was undoubtedly psy- on the mind or mental health of the Negro. chosomatic. It usually occurred quite early For example, in refuting the common pro- during the period in which the African was slavery argument that the mental capacity becoming acclimated (acculturated) to the of the African was inferior to that of the vicious and brutalizing system of slavery. European, Rush emphasized the necessity (Today this would be termed culture shock.) of differentiating between an enslaved Afri- Hypochondriasis, which was usually fatal, can and a free African. He maintained that had been erroneously attributed to the one could not accurately evaluate the mental slaves’ administering a slow poison to each capacity of a slave. Slavery, he argued, was other. In reality, Rush maintained, “the so foreign to the human mind that the moral disease was wholly occasioned by grief and faculties, as well as those of understanding, consequently justly attributed to slavery” [94] Amer. J. Psychic:. 127.6, December /970 BETTY L. PLUMMER 795 (3, p. 82). Actually, they are examples of hibiting his ability to perform mental com- acting out. putations (5, p. 450). Another manifestation of the ill effects By using blacks as well as whites as ex- of slavery on the black mind was to be amples of individuals affected by certain found in the Negro’s songs and dances. medical conditions, Rush provided addi- Contrary to what many slave masters be- tional clinical evidence of the lack of inher- lieved, these songs and dances were not out- ent racial differences. ward expressions of contentment and joy. In a brief paper written in 1799 (6), Rush Rush was of the opinion that these songs was concerned with uncovering the cause or and dances were “physical symptoms” of causes of the Negro’s blackness. His con- the slave’s melancholy and madness, and clusion was that the black complexion of therefore were certain proofs of his misery the Negro stemmed from a leprous-type (3, p. 82). Actually, they are examples of act- disease.
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