Progress, Social Darwinism, and Eugenics
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title There's Power in the Blood : Religion, White Supremacy, and the Politics of Darwinism in America Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8g8243gr Author Bolar, Richard Allen Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO There's Power in the Blood: Religion, White Supremacy, and the Politics of Darwinism in America A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science by Richard Allen Bolar Committee in charge: Professor Alan Houston, Chair Professor Harvey Goldman Professor Gerry Mackie Professor Tracy Strong Professor Charles Thorpe 2014 Copyright Richard Allen Bolar, 2014 All rights reserved The Dissertation of Richard Allen Bolar is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2014 iii Dedication For Jami iv Table of Contents Signature Page ...................................................................................................................................... iii Dedication ............................................................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................. v List of Figures and Tables ................................................................................................................. vii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... viii Vita ........................................................................................................................................................ xi Abstract of the Dissertation ............................................................................................................. xii Chapter 1 The Four Traditional Stories of Evolution in America.................................................. 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 1 Literature Review: Four Traditional Narratives .................................................................. 2 Evolution and Culture ............................................................................................................ 4 Evolution and Class ................................................................................................................ 6 Evolution and Education ....................................................................................................... 9 Evolution and Religion ......................................................................................................... 12 So, What Then Was It? ......................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 2 The New World of American Science, 1770-1830 ........................................................ 30 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 30 A Peculiarly American Science ............................................................................................ 32 America and the Classification of the Natural World ...................................................... 39 The Slavery Debate and the Need for a Scientific Proslavery Defense ........................ 60 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 67 Chapter 3 Scientists and Slaveholders: Proslavery Orthodoxy and Proslavery Science, 1830-60 . 69 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 69 Knowledge and the Value of Scientific Expertise ............................................................ 70 Before Darwin: Science in the American South ............................................................... 79 Science and the Proslavery Argument ................................................................................ 86 Religion as a Bulwark of Slavery ......................................................................................... 91 Science as a Bulwark of Slavery ........................................................................................... 96 The Turn of Blumenbach..................................................................................................... 99 Phrenology............................................................................................................................ 101 Polygeny: The American School of Anthropology ........................................................ 103 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 110 Chapter 4 A Brother and a Man: Darwin and the Politics of Race in America, 1860-1880 ......... 113 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 113 Politics, Culture, and Scientific Authority ........................................................................ 115 The Formation of the Southern Civil Religion ............................................................... 118 v Science, North and South .................................................................................................. 126 Religious Attitudes to Darwinism ..................................................................................... 140 The Politics of Science ........................................................................................................ 148 The Opposition to Darwinism .......................................................................................... 166 Darwin and Class ................................................................................................................. 181 Rival Versions of Natural History: Establishment and Radical .................................... 184 After Darwin: Reaction and Acceptance ......................................................................... 187 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 189 Appendix .............................................................................................................................. 191 Chapter 5 Progress, Social Darwinism, and Eugenics ............................................................... 194 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 194 Social Darwinism, Eugenics, and Scientific Racism ....................................................... 200 Social Darwinism and Darwin in America ...................................................................... 203 Eugenics and Darwin in America ..................................................................................... 215 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 230 Chapter 6 Anti-Evolutionism, White Supremacy, and the Power in the Blood ......................... 232 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 232 Mencken and the Backwardness of Southern Culture ................................................... 236 Religion and the Anti-Evolution Movement ................................................................... 243 The Social Gospel and the Anti-Evolution Movement ................................................. 258 Race and the Anti-Evolution Movement ......................................................................... 268 Race, Religion, and the Southern Civil Religion ............................................................. 271 Fundamentalism, Race, and the Anti-Evolution Movement ........................................ 278 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 297 Chapter 7 Science, the Nature of Race, and the Road to Loving ............................................... 302 Pure Races and Unnatural Unions .................................................................................... 302 Evolution, Science, and the Undermining of "Race" ..................................................... 310 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 324 Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 328 vi List of Figures and Tables Table 4-1: Political beliefs of NAS Naturalists, 1863-1900 ....................................................... 139 Table 4-2: Political beliefs of NAS Naturalists, 1863-1900 without unclears ........................ 139 Figure 4-3: "Am I Not a Man and a Brother" ...........................................................................