In the antebellum period, white Southerners generally considered blacks to be "racially" inferior to whites. They sought "scientific proof" for their argument to counter the human rights claims of the abolitionists. The Medical Association of Louisiana charged Cartwright with investigating "the diseases and physical peculiarities of the negro race". His report was delivered as a speech at its annual meeting on March 12, 1851, and published in its journal. The most sensationalistic portions of it, on drapetomania and dysaesthesia aethiopica, were reprinted in "DeBow's Review". He subsequently prepared an abbreviated version, with sources cited, for "Southern Medical Reports".