In the report, the white doctor from the University of Louisiana names two diseases that he claims are unique to Black people. He calls one "drapetomania," a disease that "causes" enslaved people to run away and another, "dysaesthesia aethiopica," a disease that "causes" "disobedience" in free and enslaved Black people.

Cartwright was also a proponent of the myth of "cachexia Africana," a "Black malady" that allegedly led to dirt-eating. He uses these claims to build a "diagnosis" of the "animal-like" characteristics of Black people and to argue against abolition.