Eugenics In America-Gabe Menchaca

        The basis of the Eugenics movement began after the Civil War where an uncertain economy and a sudden implosion of foreign immigrants from southern and eastern Europe threatened American values.

European Migrants entering the United States.

Along with the sudden migration of Europeans, huge differences between the classes came into view and the idea of Social Darwinism made itself present in America. Social Darwinism explains survival of the fittest in terms of the capability of an individual to survive within a competitive environment. This helped explain social inequalities by saying the wealthier individuals were better and had a better standing in society and therefore would produce more. However this was not happening and the birth rate of the social elite was declining while the birthrate of the impoverished was increasing dramatically. As the government failed in lending aid to the poor they utilized the idea of scientific management, known as progressivism to deal with the poor.  Progressive reformers relied on science to control both nature and human society.  This view of science as a method of reform and the newly rediscovered science of genetics gave rise to social engineering in Eugenics.

       Americans were the first people and scientists to bring the idea of narrowing the gene-pool into the general populaces view despite the popular opinion that Hitler and his regime were. A few of the founders of the theory of Eugenics were H.G. Wells, the young Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw and Alexander Graham Bell.

George Bernard Shaw

These influential figures greatly affected the publics views on Eugenics. These men and fellow Social Darwinists saw medical care as giving the "weak" an increased ability to survive, instead of allowing nature to take its course and eliminate defective people. German Social Darwinist Alfred Ploetz introduced the term "racial hygiene" and criticized those who helped the weak survive. Ploetz popularized the argument that racial hygiene benefited all people. Ploetz was the beginning of what was going to become the Nazi regime.

Alfred Ploetz

Darwin-Hitler

   Eugenics believed that faulty genetics in the human gene-pool led to "unwanted" human beings. Eugenicists believed that charity and welfare were only temporary solutions to the problem and that they, the Eugenicists, would eliminate the disease. These ideas may seem fanatical and rightly so but in America they were only used for small reforms that aimed to progress American people, while in countries abroad leaders used this idea as an excuse to exterminate and sterilize millions. During the very beginning of the Third Reich many American Eugenicists supported Hitlers ideals and even encouraged Americans to adopt them. As history will tell Hitler used this as an excuse for atrocities against the Jews but also against his own people. At the end of his reign he had sterilized a total of 410,600 German people.

   Sterilization laws in the Untied states were first enacted by Indiana in 1907 where soon after 12 more states followed in suit.

Indiana's plaque on Eugenics law

The first major model for the Eugenics sterilization law was conceived by Henry Laughlin. The Law proposed to authorize sterilization of the "socially inadequate" – people supported in institutions or "maintained wholly or in part by public expense. The law encompassed the "feebleminded, insane, criminalistic, epileptic, inebriate, diseased, blind, deaf; deformed; and dependent" – including "orphans, ne'er-do-wells, tramps, the homeless and paupers." By 1924 3,000 people had been involuntarily sterilized the majority were sterilized in California. Virginia was one of the first states to adopt laughlins model and put it in use.

Carrie Buck and her mother

    Along with Eugenics Came the many protests and trials against it. Many people argued that what they were doing was inhumane but that did not stop the state governments from trying. There were many court cases the most notable was Buck vs. Bell. Where the young Carrie Buck was accused and "deficient" enough to warrant being sterilized. The prosecutors used evidence such as her mother was an an institute for the epileptic and feeble minded. Carrie was the first Virginian to be sterilized and was soon followed by over 8,300 hundred fellow Virginians.

    The end of Eugenics came when Americans realized that many of the supposed biologically inferior groups reached their second and third generation in America, such as the Jews, and Eastern Europeans, many did extremely well, empirically documenting that such groups were not biologically-defective. It soon became clear that the accusations against these groups stood on an unstable foundation and were tenuous at best. As Eugenics came crashing down even the idea of natural selection came under attack. It was realized more and more that the many supposed sources of natural selection, especially war, plagues, and disease, did not kill off primarily the weaker, but a major factor that influences who died was chance. And those who may have an innate disposition to resist a certain disease quite often had an innate weakness to succumb to others.

Annotated Bibliography:

Shepherd, Jerry P., Dr. "Eugenics, Sterilization, & Social Control in the U.S."Eugenics. University of Texas In El Paso, 10 Apr. 2011. Web. 09 Feb. 2015. This site came from a lecture that goes over every possible aspect of Eugenics from how it affects the brain to its impact on communities and politics.

 
"The History of Eugenics in." History of Eugenics. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2015.This sources bounce around in discussing Eugenics in all aspects such as marriage laws and its ties to Hitler and the Nazi regime.

 
Lothrop, Stoddard, PhD. "CHAPTER 105." CHAPTER 105. American Life League., n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2015. This site gives responses to the Eugenics movement given by Christians and Pro-life groups. This site is very biased against the movement but also gives multiple quotes from higher ups of the Eugenics movement.

 
Kaelbaer, Lutz. "Eugenics: Compulsory Sterilization in 50 American States."Eugenics: Compulsory Sterilization in 50 American States. University of Vermont, 2012. Web. 08 Feb. 2015. This site gives me a general overview of the Eugenics movement but also allows me to click on each state and see how the movement affected them and what laws they enacted and even the documents of who was sterilized.

 
Lombardo, Paul A. A Century of Eugenics in America: From the Indiana Experiment to the Human Genome Era. Bloomington, IN: Indiana U, 2010. The University Of Chicago Press, Dec. 2011. Web. 20 Feb. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/662511>. Paul Lombardo is a well known author on the sterilization laws that emerged out of the early 20th‐century eugenics movement, his book goes into great detail on the laws and gives an in depth analysis on them and their uses by the Eugenics movement.

 
Davenport, Charles Benedict. Eugenic Marriage Laws In America. 2747 ed. Vol. 2. London: British Medical Journal, 1913. Print. This book gives an in depth analysis on the passing of laws in America and also gives a view of America from the outside in. It also gives detailed interviews explaining both American and British opinions on the Eugenics movement.

 
Field, James Alfred. The Progress of Eugenics. 1st ed. Vol. 26. Cambridge: Harvard U, 1911. Print. The Quarterly Journal Of Economics. This book gives the roots of the Eugenics Movement in America and highlights the effects it had on communities both good and bad.

Brinkley, Alan. "Roosevelt and Conservation." American History. 12th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2007. Whole Book. Print.