INSANITY AMONG THE COLOURED POPULATION FEEE STATES EDWARD JARVIS, OP DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS. [EXTRACTED FROM THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF THE MEDICAL SCIENCES FOR JANUARY, 1844.] PHILADELPHIA: T. K. & P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS, No. 1, LODGE ALLEY. 1844. INSANITY AMONG THE COLOURED POPULATION FREE STATES. The statistics of insanity are becoming more and more an object of interest to philanthropists, to political economists, and to men of science. Very many men in various parts;of our country, and indeed in every civilized nation, have entered in this investigation, and their labours have developed the un- welcome fact, that mental derangement is among the most common of all grave diseases that flesh is heir to. But all investigations, conducted by individuals or by associations, have been partial, incomplete, and far from satisfactory. They failed especially of obtaining accurately the basis of their calculation. They could not tell the numbers of any class or people, among whom they found a definite number of the insane. And therefore, as a ground of comparison of the prevalence of insanity in one country with that of another, or in one class or race of people with that in another, their reports did not answer their intended purpose. In some states the medical societies undertook this work of ascertaining the number of lunatics within their borders. In others, committees of the legislatures were appointed to obtain this information, or associations of philanthropists privately made inquiry. But all were almost necessarily imperfect. If the survey were intended to cover any considerable exteotof country or large body of people, it required the active co-operation of many individuals, who were scattered through every district, and familiar with the domestic conditions of every class, or who could have access to every family. Medical societies, which are supposed to have in each neighbourhood one of its members, who is intimate in every house, certainly have the best opportunities of obtaining this knowledge, but they cannot compel every member to make the desired report. Their investigations, therefore, rather reach to scattered points than cover over measured and definite surfaces of country. For a stronger reason, 4 Jarvis on Insanity among the Coloured Population. legislative committees and individuals have failed, because they had not any extended and connected corps of coadjutors, whose aid they could claim. Hence, with the exception of the returns of the insane poor in some of the states, we had no complete and accurate account of the number of these unfor- tunate sufferers in any country, or race, or class of people. The writers upon insanity, both in Europe and in America, have been confined to the data of- fered by these partial investigations, when they have spoken of the prevalence of the disorder. These authors have therefore differed very widely, not only in different countries, but among each other in the same country, and all for the want of an established and acknowledged basis of calculation. It was necessary, for perfect truth in this matter, to know exactly the number of people, in any district or class, in which should be found any definite numbers of lunatics. The instructions given to the marshals at the last decennial enumeration of the people of the United States offered all that was desired. These were directed to ascertain, each in his own district, the number of white and coloured people respectively, and also the number of white and coloured lunatics and idiots. They were also directed to learn and record how many of these were supported by their own estates or by their friends, and how many were supported by.the public* As these functionaries were ordered to inquire from house to house, and leave no dwelling—neither mansion nor cabin—neither tent nrjr ship unvisited and unexamined, it was reasonably supposed that here would be a complete and accurate account of the prevalence of insanity among seventeen millions of people. A wider field than this had never been surveyed for this purpose in any part of the earth, since the world began. It Avas supposed, also, that this would show the comparative frequency of this disorder, among the white and the coloured races. Never had the philanthropist a better promise of truth hitherto undiscovered. All who were interested in this matter, waited anxiously for the publication of the sixth census, which came forth in large folio volumes, " corrected at the Department of State." Many proceeded at once to analyze the tables, in order to show the proportion of lunacy in the various states, and among the two races, which constitute our population. The following tables include the number of white and coloured people, as * "The said enumeration shall further distinguish the number of those free white persons included in such enumeration, who are dea/and dumb, under the age of fourteen years; and those of the age of fourteen years and under twenty-five; and of the age of twenty-five and upwards: and shall further distinguish the number of those free white persons included in such enumeration who are blind; and also in like manner of those who are insane or idiots, distinguishing further such of the insane and idiots as are a public charge." "The eaid enumeration shall further distinguish the number of those free coloured and other coloured persons, included in the foregoing, who are deaf and dumb, without regard to age, and those who are blind, and also in like manner of those who are insane and idiots, distinguishing further suih of the insane and idiots as are a public charge."—From the act to provide for taking the sixth census or enumeration of the inhabitants of the United Stales, sec. 1. Jarvis on Insanity among the Coloured Population. 5 found in the summaries at the end of the tables for each state. The pro- portions in the third and sixth columns of figures are obtained by dividing the figures of the first column by those in the second. TABLE I. Northern States. Plate or White Number Coloured Number Territory. Population. of-Iiisane. One in Population of Insane. One in Maine '500,438 537 950.5 1355 94 14 New Hampshire 284,036 486 584 538 19 28 Vermont 291,218 398 734 730 13 56 Massachusetts 729,030 1071 680 8669 200 43.5 Rhode Island 105,587 203 520 3243 13 249 Connecticut 301,856 498 606 8159 44 185 New York 2,378,890 2146 1108 50,031 194 257 New Jersey 351,588 369 950 21,718 73 297 Pennsylvania 1,676,115 1946 851.7 47.918 187 256 Ohio 1,502.122 1195 1257 17,345 165 105 Indiana 678,698 487 1393 7168 75 95 Illinois 472,254 213 2217 3929 79 49 Michigan 211,560 39 5423 707 26 27 Wisconsin 30,749 8 4383 196 3 65 Iowa 42,924 7 6132 188 4 47 Northern States 9,557.065 9603 995 171.894 1189 141.5 TABLE II. Southern Slates. State or White Number Coloured Number Territory. Population. of Insane. One in Population. of Insane. One in Delaware 5«,531 52 1126 19,524 28 697 Maryland 317,717 387 818 151,515 141 1074 Virginia 740,968 1053 717 498,829 381 1309 North Carolina 484,870 580 834 268,549 221 1215 South Carolina 259,084 37G 680 335.314 137 2447 Georgia 407,695 294 1386 283,697 134 2117 Alabama 335,185 232 1444 255,571 125 2044 Louisiana 158,457 55 2080 193,954 45 4310 Mississippi 179,074 116 154 196,577 82 2397 Tennessee 640,627 699 917 188,583 152 1240 Kentucky 590,253 795 742 189,575 180 1053 Missouri 323,888 202 1603 59,814 68 879 Arkansiis 77,174 45 1715 20,400 21 971 Florida 27,943 10 2794 26,534 12 2211 Dist. Columbia 30,657 4 1816 13,055 7 1866 Southern States 4,632.153 4900 915.3 2,701,491 1734 1557.9 TABLE III. Comparison of the Free and the Slave States. White Population. Number of Insane One in 995 945.3 978 Coloured Population. Number of Insane. One in S'ates States 9,557,065 4,632,153 9693 4900 171,894 2,701,491 1191 1734 144.5 1557.9 14.189,218 14,503 2,873,385 2925 982. 6 Jarvis on Insanity among the Coloured Population. TABLE IV. Summary of the whole United States. Population, 17,062,603 | Number of Insane, 17,428 | One in 979 This analysis attracted much attention, and great pains were taken to spread it before the whole country. It was printed in some of the medical journals, in several of the lunatic hospital reports, and in other channels of information. Here were facts strange and astounding, but which coming from high official authority, could not be resisted so long as we put our faith in the document, the printed volume of the sixth census. The most unex- pected development was that of the vast disproportion of insanity in the coloured population of the free and of the slave states. It was here shown that the negroes and mulattoes of the north produced one lunatic or idiot for every one hundred and forty-four persons, while the same class at the south produced only one lunatic or idiot for every fifteen hundred and fifty-eight. Lunacy was therefore about eleven times as frequent for the African in free- dom as in slavery. More strange than this, it was shown, that in Maine every fourteenth negro, in Michigan every twenty-seventh, in New Hamp- shire every twenty-eighth, and in Massachusetts every forty-third negro was insane. While New Jersey, which seemed to be the least destructive to the mental health of the coloured population, having only one lunatic in every two hundred and ninety-seven of those people, presented more than double the proportionate number of insane blacks of that which was found in her contiguous neighbour, Delaware, which, in this respect, was the least favoured of the states south of Mason and Dixson's line. This was so improbable, so contrary to common experience, there was in it such strong prima facie evidence of error, that nothing but a document, coming forth with all the authority of the national government, and " corrected in the department of state," could have gained for it the least credence among the inhabitants of the free states, where insanity was stated to abound so plen- tifully. This seemed to present a new feature among the causes of mental dis- order, and led many to investigate the effects of slavery and freedom upon soundness of mind. The facts were published in detail in the Medical Journal, of Boston; in the Southern Literary Messenger, of Richmond, Va., for June, 1843; in Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, of New York, for May, 1843; in Dr. Stribbling's Report of the Western Lunatic Asylum, of Vir- ginia, and in several of the newspapers of this country. The same has been republished in Europe. Throughout the civilized world, the statement has gone forth, that, according to the experience of the United States, including a slave population of near two and a half millions, and a free coloured population in the northern States of near two hundred thousand, slavery is more than ten-fold more favourable to mental health than freedom. The writer in the Southern Messenger, founds a long and apparently satisfactory Jarvis on Insanity among the Coloured Population. 7 argument upon these data—and the slaves are consoled with the assurance, that although another man's will governs them, yet their minds are not bound with insane delusions, nor crushed in idiocy, as are those of their brethren, who govern themselves. This certainly appeared to be a matter of just consideration, with the philanthropist, who wished the early eman- cipation of the slave. It is offered by the Southern Messenger as a new reason for conservatism of the peculiar institutions of the south, and this apparent exemption of the slave from one of the most terrible disorders that has visited humanity, and the ten-fold liability of the free black to the same, may become not only a fundamental principle in medical science, but also one of the elementary principles in political economy. Without attempting to refute any of the arguments or deductions that have been or may be drawn from the nosological statements in the tables of the census, or to overturn any theories that maybe offered for their explanation, it is sufficient to strike at the very root of the matter, and show their entire want of truth, and demonstrate that no reliance whatever can be placed on what purport to be facts, respecting the prevalence of insanity among the free negroes, set forth, in that fallacious and self-condemning document, the "sixth census" of the United States. This census contains, in one set of columns, the number of the whites and the number of blacks in each town, city, county and state of the Union; and in another set of columns are contained the numbers of the white and of the coloured lunatics and idiots, in each of these respective districts and localities. Seeing so great a disproportion of the coloured and the white insane, in the free and the slave states, we were led to go back from the results, the gross sums, which are at the foot of the added columns, and in tthe summaries at the end of the reports concerning each state, to the details, of which the reports were made up. We compared the whole coloured population of each town individually, with the number of the insane re- ported as belonging to it, and here we found the secret of the error. We found that the town of Worcester, in Massachusetts, is stated to con- tain one hundred and thirty-three coloured lunatics and idiots, supported at public charge. These we know are the white patients in the state hospital; situated in that town. This single mistake multiplies the coloured lunatics of this state three-fold, and if this were corrected, it would reduce the pro- portion of coloured insane from one in forty-three to one in one hundred and twenty-nine. Warned by this example, we examined the statements respecting every town, city, and county, in all the states and territories, and compared in each one of these, the total coloured population with the num- ber of the coloured insane. These are the results of this examination. 8 Jarvis on Insanity among the Coloured Population. MAINE. TOWNS. Limerick, Lymington, Scarboro, Poland, Dixfield, Calais, Total coloured Coloured TOWNS. Total coloured 1 Jolot inhabitants. insane inhabitants. insa 0 4 Industry, 0 3 1 2 Dresden, 3 6 0 6 Hope, 1 2 0 2 Hartland, 0 2 0 4 Newfield, 0 5 0 1 NEW HAMPSHIRE. Coventry, Haverhill, Holderness, Atkinson, Bath, Lisbon, Compton, Stratham, Northampton, New Hampton, Lyman, Littleton, Henniker, MASSACHUSETTS. Freetown, Plympton, Leominster, Wilmington, Sterling, Danvers, Georgetown, _ Carver, Northbridge, Ashby, Randolph, Worcester, 15 2 1 1 1 1 133 Waterford, CONNECTICUT. 7 Rush ford, Athens, Bamet, Lyndon, Castleton, Fairhaven, NEW YORK. Conewango, Olean, Ellington, Sherman, Barne, Shelby, Providence, \ Stockholm, Chester, Java, Lansing, Leon, 0 1 0 1 0 5 0 1 10 6 1 7 3 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 8 4 0 1 Westville, French Creek, Carroll, Holland, Crown Point, Sandy Creek, Hadley, Parishville, Groton, Dryden,^: Great Valley, Stafford, NEW JERSEY. 7 * Thirty-six of these are under 10 years of age. t Providence has also two deaf and dumb negroes. t Dryden has also two blind negroes. Jarvis on Insanity among the Coloured Population. 9 PENNSYLVANIA. TOWNS. T