Basic Information

The American eugenics movement was formed during the late nineteenth century and continued as late as the 1940s. The American eugenics movement embraced negative eugenics, with the goal to eliminate undesirable genetic traits in the human race through selective breeding. During the American eugenics movement, laws were enacted that legalized forced sterilizations and prohibited individuals that had mental or physical defects and couples of mixed-race from marrying (Bouche & Rivard, 2014).

Background Information

In 1883, Francis Galton created the term, “eugenics”, which translates to “well-born” from the Greek word, eugenes (Lathan, 2018; Micklos & Carlson, 2000). The purpose of eugenics is to improve the quality of the human race by encouraging the reproduction of humans with desirable traits and discouraging those with weaker traits. Genetics reinforced the prejudices of the time by deeming those with desirable genetic traits as White, of higher economic status, and healthy. On the other hand, those with undesirable traits were identified as non-White, of lower economic status, or were physically or mentally disabled. In addition, criminals and those that were deemed sexually deviant were considered undesirable. However, there was a difference in White people; those with a Northern and Western European heritage were deemed desirable while those that were from Southern and Eastern Europe were deemed undesirable (Lathan, 2019).

In America, the eugenics movement began in the 1900s with the work of Charles Davenport, who was a well-known leader of the American eugenics effort. Also known as the father of the American eugenics movement, Davenport was a biologist who conducted early studies on heredity in animals and shifted his focus to humans. Davenport was also inspired by Galton’s work with eugenics and how to reduce undesirable traits in the human race. He became a member of the American Breeders Association (ABA), which had a scientific body that supported eugenic research with the goal to improve human breeding. In 1910, Davenport formed the Eugenics Record Office (ERO) at Cold Spring Harbor in Long Island, New York, where Harry Laughlin worked by his side as the superintendent of the ERO (Micklos & Carlson, 2000). The ERO collected information on family pedigrees that had physically, mentally, or morally desired traits. However, one of the ERO’s main focuses was the inheritance of undesirable traits, as during this time the goal of the movement was to eliminate them (Bouche & Rivard, 2014). The most notable funding for the ERO was from John Harvey Kellogg and the ABA. Kellogg, best known as the doctor that invented Kellogg’s Corn Flakes cereal, was also an American eugenicist. He focused mainly on race degeneracy, as he believed racial mixing and mental defects would damage the human race (Leung, n.d.). In 1911, John Harvey Kellogg organized the Race Betterment Foundation (RBF), which had a pedigree registry and hosted national conferences in 1914, 1915, and 1928 (“Eugenics”, 2019).

Negative Eugenics

There were two types of eugenics: positive and negative. Positive eugenics had the goal of improving the human race by encouraging those with desirable traits to breed. In contrast, negative eugenics focused on reducing degenerate offspring by preventing those that had undesirable traits from breeding. Positive eugenics was supported by British eugenicists, as it encompassed Galton’s viewpoint and negative eugenics was endorsed by American eugenicists. Negative eugenics was based on the Degeneracy Theory, sourced in the idea that unfit people are from poor environments and damaged heredity (Bouche & Rivard, 2014). However, American eugenicists focused mainly on the hereditary component rather than the environmental. American eugenicists believed that degenerate behaviors such as alcoholism, poverty and social dependency were all caused from genetic defects. Around 1910, American eugenicists also became concerned with “feeblemindedness”, which they used to describe people with low IQ’s, abnormal behavior, sexual promiscuity, criminal behavior, and social dependency (Bouche & Rivard, 2014).

One attempt to reduce the undesirable traits was through forced sterilization. Dr. Harry Clay Sharp and other physicians lobbied for laws to allow involuntary sterilization of those that were “hereditarily defective”. Consequently, the first sterilization law was passed in Indiana in 1907 (Bouche & Rivard, 2014). In 1914, Laughlin created the Model Eugenical Sterilization Law which proposed the sterilization of the “feebleminded” and those that had physical and mental defects. By this time, 12 states had passed sterilization laws and 18 more eventually followed (“Eugenic Sterilization Laws”, n.d.; Bouche & Rivard, 2014). As a result, between 1907 and 1939, more than 30,000 people were sterilized unknowingly or against their consent. Most of the sterilization operations were conducted in California, where more women were being sterilized than men, as many were deemed immoral and unfit for motherhood (“Forced Sterilization”, n.d.; Stern, 2005). Another effort to reduce the undesirable traits was through prohibition of mixed-race and “feeble-minded” marriages. In 1896, Connecticut prohibited people that were “feeble-minded” or had epilepsy from marrying. In 1913, 29 states prohibited mixed-race marriages, as offspring with parents with two different races were deemed as genetically inferior to those that were of a single race (Bouche & Rivard, 2014). This legislation continued during the 1920s and led to forced sterilizations being ruled as federally legal in 1927 through the Supreme Court case, Buck v. Bell. Carrie Buck was a woman of lower economic status that claimed to have been raped by a rich young man. As a result, she was deemed “feeble-minded” and sterilized against her will (Sleeter, 2017).

Many eugenicists accepted birth control as a method for reducing procreation of defective offspring. Leading the birth control movement, Margaret Sanger used the eugenics effort to support her agenda. Sanger was public about her desire to prevent breeding of the unfit (“Eugenics and Birth Control”, n.d.). Just as other eugenicists, Sanger also supported sterilization of those mentally unfit (Lathan, 2018). Sanger stated that birth control is a way to prevent the “defectives” from producing offspring (Sanger, 1920, p. 66).

One repercussion of the American eugenics movement was what events that later unfolded in Nazi Germany. During World War II, under the direction of Adolf Hitler, thousands of people were sterilized that did not fit his ideal of the Aryan race which eventually evolved to the genocide of millions of Jewish people (“Eugenics, 2017; Farber, 2008). In his book, Mein Kampf, Hitler referred to American eugenics and cited how successful the sterilization laws were in California (“Eugenics”, 2019; Farber, 2008). In addition, at this time Davenport also supported Germany’s racial hygiene and eugenics. He was on two editorial boards for the Zeitschrift für menschliche Vererbungs- und Konstitutionslehre, which were German racial hygiene journals (Farber, 2008). Therefore, the negative eugenics ideology formed in the U.S. influenced Hitler’s forced sterilizations in Nazi Germany.

 Birth control itself, often denounced as a violation of natural law, is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives or of those who will become defectives.

~Margaret Sanger (Sanger, 1920, p. 66)

Analysis and Conclusion

There were far too many issues with the American eugenics movement, as their ideals were to sterilize and reduce rights of those that did not fit their racist, classist, and ableist agenda. From the beginning, the purpose of eugenics was to improve the human race. However, this took a turn within the American eugenics movement by embodying negative eugenics. Those that were not considered White (Northern and Western European heritage), upper-class and able-bodied were discriminated by American eugenics as they were deemed to carry the undesirable characteristics that the movement wanted to eliminate. In addition, eugenicist ideology focused more so on the hereditary component and ignored the environmental influence on traits. Rather than focusing strictly on negative eugenics which entailed sterilization and prohibition of undesirable people marrying, American eugenicists could have been focusing on social reform to improve the environment. For example, they could have focused on improving the well-being of lower economic status in order to help improve society as whole. Instead, they focused on ostracizing groups of people rather than helping them.

With this racism, classism and ableism against much of the population, the American eugenics movement was also a source of inspiration for Hitler’s sterilizations in Nazi Germany and arguably the genocide of the Jewish people. Although the original goal of eugenics was to improve the human race through breeding of desirable traits, the American eugenics movement turned this into alienation of those with undesirable traits through the promotion of prejudice ideals. The government also went against people’s natural rights of reproduction through forced sterilizations. Many eugenics laws also encompassed sexist ideology, as more women than men were being sterilized on the basis of not fitting their gender stereotype (i.e., having high morals and being pure as evidence they are fit for motherhood). It is important to recognize that in American history, eugenics was a movement that worked to reduce the undesired population to push racist, classist, ableist, and sexist ideals, rather than a movement that explicitly worked toward the improvement of the human race.

One positive outcome of the American eugenics movement was the motivation the birth control movement gained from it, which eventually helped women gain access to contraceptives. Although the premises of Sanger’s intersection of birth control and eugenics were racist, classist, and ableist, she used these ideals as an incentive for eugenicists to support birth control. Therefore, Sanger was able to use the American eugenics movement as a way to support her agenda, where eventually birth control was legalized in 1960 and led to millions of women having access to contraceptives (“The Birth Control Pill”, n.d.).

When analyzing the early American eugenics movement, it is clear that there were far more negative than positive outcomes from it. The American eugenics movement revealed there were ulterior motives to improving the human race; it was a way to eliminate those that did not fit the White, non-immigrant, upper-class profile. The early American eugenics movement during the First Wave of feminism significantly impacted many women and men, as many were targeted for sterilizations and marriage laws based on their traits. This included Black people, immigrants, people of lower economic status, those that had physical or mental disabilities, and even women that were viewed as sexually promiscuous such as prostitutes. In addition, women were also more targeted than men based on gender stereotypes. Therefore, the movement opened the door to discriminating against people that did not fit their ideal race and consequently violated many people’s autonomous rights to their own bodies and reproduction.

References

Bouche, T. & Rivard, L (2014). America’s Hidden History: The Eugenics Movement. Retrieved December 8, 2019 from https://www.nature.com/scitable/forums/genetics-generation/america-s-hidden-history-the-eugenics-movement-123919444/

(2019). Eugenics. Retrieved December 8, 2019, from HISTORY, https://www.history.com/topics/germany/eugenics

(n.d.). Eugenics and Birth Control. Retrieved December 8, 2019 from PBS, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-eugenics-and-birth-control/

(n.d.). Eugenic Sterilization Laws. Retrieved December 9, 2019 from Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement, http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/essay8text.html

Farber S. A. (2008). U.S. scientists’ role in the eugenics movement (1907-1939): A contemporary biologist’s perspective. Zebrafish, 5(4), 243-245. https://doi.org/10.1089/zeb.2008.0576

(n.d.). Forced Sterilization. Retrieved December 8, 2019 from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://www.ushmm.org/learn/students/learning-materials-and-resources/mentally-and-physically-handicapped-victims-of-the-nazi-era/forced-sterilization

Glackens, L. M. (1913). Eugenics makes the world go ’round / L.M. Glackens. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. Retrieved from Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2011649601/

Lathan, J. (2018) Eugenics Movement in the United States. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/eugenics-movement-in-the-united-states

Leung, C. (n.d.). Kellogg, John Harvey. Retrieved December 8, 2019, from http://eugenicsarchive.ca/discover/connections/512fa0d334c5399e2c000005

Micklos, D., & Carlson, E. (2000). Engineering American society: The lesson of eugenics. Nature Reviews Genetics, 1(2), 153-158. https://doi.org/10.1038/35038589

Sanger, M. Woman and the New Race. New York, NY: Brentano’s.

Sleeter, T. (2017). Eugenics in America. Retrieved December 8, 2019 from https://stmuhistorymedia.org/eugenics-in-america/

Stern, A. M. (2005). Sterilized in the name of public health race, immigration, and reproductive control in modern California. American Journal of Public Health, 95(7), 1128-1138. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2004.041608