Exposing The Dark American History Of Eugenics

When the Nazis designed their eugenics program to sterilize and abort those they deemed inferior or undesirable, they looked to one nation as their example: the United States of America.

For decades, the United States was a world leader in applying eugenics to its own population. Politicians passed laws to prevent entire races from entering the country, universities taught their students the benefits of selective human breeding, and activists were hailed as heroes for calling for the sterilization of the poor, sick, and mentally ill.

Today on A Day In History, we’ll look at the rise of the eugenics movement in the US, what it believed, who promoted it, and the consequences that so many innocent people suffered before it was wiped away.

The Ideology of Eugenics

Eugenics, meaning ‘good genes’, was a movement that hoped to improve the genetic health of humanity by promoting the breeding of good or desirable people while limiting or preventing that of undesirables.

It is a scientific fact that genes can influence physical health and that certain conditions can be passed between parent and child. However, genetics was still in its infancy when eugenics emerged, and many false beliefs became embedded in the movement. Behavioral genetics, a field coined by Francis Galton in the 1880s, believed that a range of behaviors including criminality and alcoholism were also genetic, and this became accepted wisdom among eugenicists. A number of other negative traits, such as mental health issues, were also attributed to bad genes.

Galton was actually a cousin of Charles Darwin and the eugenicists were quick to apply Darwin’s evolutionary theory and survival of the fittest idea to humanity. Eugenicists believed that society should ‘weed out’ the sick, ill, poor, and those deemed ‘inferior’ and try to ensure only those with good genes reproduced.

Inevitably, eugenics became deeply associated with racism. From the outset, Galton and early eugenicists assumed the innate superiority of Northern Europeans. Those of Nordic, Germanic, or Anlgo-Saxon heritage were believed to be genetically superior in terms of intelligence, morality, and physical prowess, with other races spread out on a scale far below them. It followed that breeding between the superior races and the inferior ones was to be avoided, that superior races should be encouraged to breed among themselves as much as possible, and that the inferior races have their numbers limited as much as possible.

Not all eugenics was race-based. Black eugenicists rejected the racist conclusion of some eugenicists but still targeted the physically, mentally, and morally unfit within the Black community. This included Thomas Wyatt Turner, the first Black American to receive a PHd, and W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the greatest intellectuals of his day, who famously argued that, quote, “only fit blacks should procreate to eradicate the race's heritage of moral iniquity.”

#history #eugenics #nazi #nazieugenics #americaneugenics #plannedparenthood

Sources:

Carl Degler, In Search of Human Nature: The Decline and Revival of Darwinism in American Social Thought, (1993)

Margaret Sanger, The Pivot of Civilization, (1950)

Margaret Sanger, Women and the New Race, (1920)

Nancy Ordover, American Eugenics, (2003)

Stefan Kuhl, The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism, (1994)

Wendy Kline, ‘Eugenics in the United States’, Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics, (2010)

Copyright © 2023 A Day In History. All rights reserved.

[hyenafur]

lol. You think the Eugenics movement was wiped out. It’s still going strong, they just rebranded.

[hermanehrentraut]

I found it interesting how the eugenics programs continued after WW2 even in the US but was relabeled genetic research and is still continued today.

[myahoward]

It’s kind of funny how much of their theory is incorrect when you consider that a diverse gene pool makes a more genetically fit person. Interbreeding between races has shown to create healthier and more attractive offspring because often times they get the best traits of either parent and it reduces risks of genetic mutations and disorders.

[h.bsfaithfulservant]

Thanks for this informative and sobering video 🙏

[PradhanmantriBruhh]

Truly enlightening😮

Thanks for the knowledge

[sw.]

Here on Germany it is dicussed to give mentally impaired the right for children. These children will be mentally impaired too. The family needs assistance for the baby. The parents are not able to take care. There is no black and white. But handicapend children should be avoided if possible

[joannflanagan]

No question Margaret Sangers was evil!

[jon]

The scary thing is people havnt changed stuff like this happening again today just takes panic.

[InglouriousBradsterd]

"Court the return of the keep the population down."

[walkertongdee]

They failed to explain why eugenics doesn't scientifically work, why selective genetics isn't scientifically feasible.

[BretzWashington-cf]

United States did their testing on Native America indigenous

[susanbuchser-lochocki]

We don't know what the future holds for our planet so we have no business trying to decide for ourselves what's the best human being

[emoji]

Just want some people to realise that they are still people like this around

[mohammedsaysrashid]

Incredible episode about US Eugenics fantasy and former movement of sterilization and segregation ...it was another form of racism ...racism of the world has a thousand faces ... thanks for sharing

[oreopickles]

We are the only animal species that do not practise any form of eugenics. Our compassion as a species(superior to other animals) is at the same time the reason our gene pool is a mess from an evolutionary point of view.

[genepitts]

The first video that pronounces DuBois. AMAZING!!!

[AirshipFury]

NGL out of all your narrators, this guy is the only one with a voice I can't stand.

[kristinmeyer]

Arrogant human beings are NOT spiritually based. No life is yours to take. I am so tired of people who make exceptions. If you believe in God, those lives were birthed FOR A REASON. That is the philosophy of those who believe in God or in simple human humility. I happen to have had a Down's Syndrome sibling, and he was the sweetest person.

[brokens]

So people that live off the state SHOULD bless the world with a dozen kids that'll follow in their footsteps

[GMAN]

Adolf hitler himself wrote fan mail to the man who wrote the book: The passing of the great race. Madison Grant and some other popular eugenicists from the late 20s and early 30s. In the letter to Grant he called the book his Bible.