Original: In the USA prior to the American Civil War psychiatrists such as Samuel A. Cartwright diagnosed some slaves with drapetomania , a mental illness in which the slave possessed an irrational desire for freedom and a tendency to try to escape .
Simplified: In the USA , before the American Civil War , the psychiatrist Samuel A. Cartwright described drapetomania , an alleged disease that gave the slave an '' irrational '' tendency to try to escape .