Blue Ridge Country Magazine

Exploring the Mountains of the South

Blue Ridge Country Magazine is a subscription magazine but many of its articles and features are available online at its web site.

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The American Eugenics Movement

Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement

The philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This adage is appropriate to our current rush into the "gene age," which has striking parallels to the eugenics movement of the early decades of the 20th century. Eugenics was, quite literally, an effort to breed better human beings – by encouraging the reproduction of people with "good" genes and discouraging those with "bad" genes. Eugenicists effectively lobbied for social legislation to keep racial and ethnic groups separate, to restrict immigration from southern and eastern Europe, and to sterilize people considered "genetically unfit." Elements of the American eugenics movement were models for the Nazis, whose radical adaptation of eugenics culminated in the Holocaust.

We now invite you to experience the unfiltered story of American eugenics – primarily through materials from the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor, which was the center of American eugenics research from 1910-1940. In the Archive you will see numerous reports, articles, charts, and pedigrees that were considered scientific "facts" in their day. It is important to remind yourself that the vast majority of eugenics work has been completely discredited. In the final analysis, the eugenic description of human life reflected political and social prejudices, rather than scientific facts.

To visit the Image Archive: Click Here.

Buck v. Bell: Forced Sterilization in Virginia

With this decision, the US Supreme Court upheld forced serialization in Virgina, and effectively in other states as well, thus unleashing a crime against humanity carried on throughout the nation but most assiduously in California, with the greatest absolute number of forced sterilizations, and in Virginia, with the greatest per capita number of forced sterilizations.

U.S. Supreme Court
BUCK v. BELL, 274 U.S. 200 (1927)

274 U.S. 200

BUCK
v.
BELL, Superintendent of State Colony Epileptics and Feeble Minded.
No. 292.

Argued April 22, 1927.
Decided May 2, 1927.

[274 U.S. 200, 201] Mr. I. P. Whitehead, of Lynchburg, Va., for plaintiff in error.

[274 U.S. 200, 203] Mr. A. E. Strode, of Lynchburg, Va., for defendant in error.

[274 U.S. 200, 205]

Mr. Justice HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a writ of error to review a judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeals of the State of Virginia, affirming a judgment of the Circuit Court of Amherst County, by which the defendant in error, the superintendent of the State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble Minded, was ordered to perform the operation of salpingectomy upon Carrie Buck, the plaintiff in error, for the purpose of making her sterile. 143 Va. 310, 130 S. E. 516. The case comes here upon the contention that the statute authorizing the judgment is void under the Fourteenth Amendment as denying to the plaintiff in error due process of law and the equal protection of the laws.

Carrie Buck is a feeble-minded white woman who was committed to the State Colony above mentioned in due form. She is the daughter of a feeble- minded mother in the same institution, and the mother of an illegitimate feeble-minded child. She was eighteen years old at the time of the trial of her case in the Circuit Court in the latter part of 1924. An Act of Virginia approved March 20, 1924 (Laws 1924, c. 394) recites that the health of the patient and the welfare of society may be promoted in certain cases by the sterilization of mental defectives, under careful safeguard, etc.; that the sterilization may be effected in males by vasectomy and in females by salpingectomy, without serious pain or substantial danger to life; that the Commonwealth is supporting in various institutions many defective persons who if now discharged would become [274 U.S. 200, 206] a menace but if incapable of procreating might be discharged with safety and become self-supporting with benefit to themselves and to society; and that experience has shown that heredity plays an important part in the transmission of insanity, imbecility, etc. The statute then enacts that whenever the superintendent of certain institutions including the abovenamed State Colony shall be of opinion that it is for the best interest of the patients and of society that an inmate under his care should be sexually sterilized, he may have the operation performed upon any patient afflicted with hereditary forms of insanity, imbecility, etc., on complying with the very careful provisions by which the act protects the patients from possible abuse.

The superintendent first presents a petition to the special board of directors of his hospital or colony, stating the facts and the grounds for his opinion, verified by affidavit. Notice of the petition and of the time and place of the hearing in the institution is to be served upon the inmate, and also upon his guardian, and if there is no guardian the superintendent is to apply to the Circuit Court of the County to appoint one. If the inmate is a minor notice also is to be given to his parents, if any, with a copy of the petition. The board is to see to it that the inmate may attend the hearings if desired by him or his guardian. The evidence is all to be reduced to writing, and after the board has made its order for or against the operation, the superintendent, or the inmate, or his guardian, may appeal to the Circuit Court of the County. The Circuit Court may consider the record of the board and the evidence before it and such other admissible evidence as may be offered, and may affirm, revise, or reverse the order of the board and enter such order as it deems just. Finally any party may apply to the Supreme Court of Appeals, which, if it grants the appeal, is to hear the case upon the record of the trial [274 U.S. 200, 207] in the Circuit Court and may enter such order as it thinks the Circuit Court should have entered. There can be no doubt that so far as procedure is concerned the rights of the patient are most carefully considered, and as every step in this case was taken in scrupulous compliance with the statute and after months of observation, there is no doubt that in that respect the plaintiff in error has had due process at law.

The attack is not upon the procedure but upon the substantive law. It seems to be contended that in no circumstances could such an order be justified. It certainly is contended that the order cannot be justified upon the existing grounds. The judgment finds the facts that have been recited and that Carrie Buck 'is the probable potential parent of socially inadequate offspring, likewise afflicted, that she may be sexually sterilized without detriment to her general health and that her welfare and that of society will be promoted by her sterilization,' and thereupon makes the order. In view of the general declarations of the Legislature and the specific findings of the Court obviously we cannot say as matter of law that the grounds do not exist, and if they exist they justify the result. We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes. Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 , 25 S. Ct. 358, 3 Ann. Cas. 765. Three generations of imbeciles are enough. [274 U.S. 200, 208] But, it is said, however it might be if this reasoning were applied generally, it fails when it is confined to the small number who are in the institutions named and is not applied to the multitudes outside. It is the usual last resort of constitutional arguments to point out shortcomings of this sort. But the answer is that the law does all that is needed when it does all that it can, indicates a policy, applies it to all within the lines, and seeks to bring within the lines all similary situated so far and so fast as its means allow. Of course so far as the operations enable those who otherwise must be kept confined to be returned to the world, and thus open the asylum to others, the equality aimed at will be more nearly reached.

Judgment affirmed.

Mr. Justice BUTLER dissents.


Virginia's forced sterilizations laws were repealed in 1974, and in 2001 the Virginia General Assembly apologized for the state's involvement in the American eugenics movement, of which forced sterilization was a part.

In Carrie Buck’s hometown of Charlottesville, a short drive from the cemetery where she was buried, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources erected a marker fronting a main thoroughfare just around the corner from the school Buck’s daughter, Vivian, attended. The text of the Virginia Historic marker commemorating Buck v. Bell carries this inscription:

BUCK V. BELL

In 1924, Virginia, like a majority of states then, enacted eugenic
sterilization laws. Virginia’s law allowed state institutions to operate
on individuals to prevent the conception of what were believed
to be “genetically inferior” children. Charlottesville native Carrie
Buck (1906-1983), involuntarily committed to a state facility near
Lynchburg, was chosen as the first person to be sterilized under
the new law. The U.S. Supreme Court, in Buck v. Bell, on 2 May
1927, affirmed the Virginia law. After Buck more than 8,000 other
Virginians were sterilized before the most relevant parts of the act
were repealed in 1974. Later evidence eventually showed that
Buck and many others had no “hereditary defects.” She is buried
south of here.

Illegal Settlers on Indian Lands in Tennessee

The Intruders were those white folk who illegally settled on Indian lands. The term squatters could also be applied to them. From the time of the first intruder who broke the King’s law, to last treaty of removal, the intruder was a bane to the authorities (and the Indians). At times, the authorities dealt fairly with the intruders, at other times, the authorities were extremely harsh. Those white folk who hunted on Indian lands, who passed through those lands with out possessing the required passport, or who traded with the Indians without possessing the required license, were also considered intruders. As the frontier moved to the south and west, the intruders were there to take the Indians’ land.

For much more on this subject: Click Here.

For two related MHS Blog entries published previously: Click Here and Click Here.

Cartographic Resources on the Web

Oddens' Bookmarks
The Fascinating World of Maps and Mapmaking
Utrecht University
Faculty of Geosciences

Oddens' bookmarks was started in 1995 by Roelof Oddens, the curator of the map Library of the Faculty of GeoSciences. As an extra service for visitors of the map library he started collecting links about maps and mapping on the internet, at that point in time an emerging source of information.

What started out as 1995 as 13 pages (categories) with about a dozen links each had grown in 1999 to over 6500 links, still divided over about 15 pages, some containing over 700 links. The links were ordered by country, so searching on subject was virtually impossible.

In september 1999 the separate pages were converted and placed in a database, which made it possible to search on subject, country, category or a combination of these. Using a database also made adding links much easier than it had been before. As a result of this the number of links in the database has grown from 6500 in 1999 to over 22000 in april 2004.

To visit: Click Here.

Appalachian Summit Web Site

Appalachian Summit is that region where the Southern Appalachian Mountains reach their greatest height. The area includes all of western North Carolina and parts of eastern Tennessee.

This is an exceedingly rich web site, parts of which will undoubtedly be featured in future MHS Blog entries. The site is divided into three main parts:

History

Appalachian Summit: a documentary history, 1540-1900: With the exception of short introductions, all of the text is drawn from primary sources. Rather than write a history of the area, I have attempted to let that history unfold in the words of those who experienced it.

Exploration

Annotated travel journals and diaries tracing the routes of early exploration and settlement across the modern landscape from the Atlantic coast to the Appalachian Summit.

Resources

Maps, Books, Web Sites, Places and People.

To visit Appalachian Summit: Click Here.

Appalachian Arts Craft Center

Appalachian Arts began as the Community Craft Center in 1970 in the back room of an old grocery store. We were founded by Grace Foster and Sara Shepard Starr, who had been hired by the federally funded Anderson County Community Action Commission to "to enrich the souls and pocketbooks of low-income people in Anderson County" as stated in our original charter. In addition to the support received from this branch of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, we received early assistance from Good Neighbors of Norris, The Tennessee Arts Commission and John Rice Irwin of the Museum of Appalachia. Non-profit 501(c)3 status was obtained, weaving, quilting, and pottery classes were begun, and a shop was opened. Looms, potters' wheels, a kiln, quilting frames, and other equipment were obtained. A jury process was developed to ensure high standards of quality.

Today, local people still gather to share creative ideas and talents, keeping the traditional crafts alive as well as pursuing more contemporary work. The Center has grown to become a highly recognized educational facility and, in 1987, built a new building across the street from the original country store. We have a shop upstairs and studio space downstairs, and we’ve changed our name. We are now called Appalachian Arts Craft Center, and the language of our mission statement has also changed with the times. We now “promote the Appalachian Artist through education and sales.”. Our language may have changed, but the vision of our founders has remained intact.

To visit: Click Here.