1 00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:06,280 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Recently on the show, we talked about Ellen 2 00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:08,959 Speaker 1: Swallow Richards, and one of the things that came up 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:13,080 Speaker 1: in that episode was the eugenics movement. The eugenics movement 4 00:00:13,119 --> 00:00:15,960 Speaker 1: has come up several times on the show over the 5 00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:18,279 Speaker 1: last year or so, and every time we've tried to 6 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:21,800 Speaker 1: give kind of a straightforward but also very brief explanation 7 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:24,319 Speaker 1: of what that movement was all about. But that is 8 00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:27,160 Speaker 1: really not something you can just be through or nuanced 9 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:30,680 Speaker 1: about in a couple of sentences. We do have a 10 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:33,960 Speaker 1: whole episode about this, though, which came out on August nine, 11 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:37,960 Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, and it is Today's Saturday Classic. One of 12 00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:40,480 Speaker 1: the things we talk about in this episode is people 13 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:46,040 Speaker 1: being pressured or coerced into sterilization. After forced sterilization programs 14 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:50,080 Speaker 1: were generally ended in the US, there have been additional 15 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: allegations of this in the years since we recorded this episode, 16 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:56,840 Speaker 1: including in twenty twenty when migrant women who were held 17 00:00:56,880 --> 00:01:00,120 Speaker 1: by ice at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia 18 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:04,000 Speaker 1: reported that they had been given hysterectomies or other invasive 19 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:08,880 Speaker 1: procedures without their full knowledge or consent. We usually say 20 00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:12,000 Speaker 1: enjoy at the end of this intro, but this episode 21 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:16,280 Speaker 1: involves just a particularly infuriating and upsetting period of history, 22 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:22,440 Speaker 1: So instead we hope your day is going well. Welcome 23 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:32,560 Speaker 1: to Stuff you missed in History Class, A production of iHeartRadio. Hello, 24 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:36,280 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and 25 00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:40,919 Speaker 1: I'm Holly Frying. Several episodes of our show have touched 26 00:01:40,959 --> 00:01:43,360 Speaker 1: on the Progressive era in the United States and the 27 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:46,959 Speaker 1: span from the late nineteenth into the early twentieth centuries. 28 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:50,000 Speaker 1: The Progressive era was really focused on trying to make 29 00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:54,920 Speaker 1: society better and to counteract the downsides of industrialization and 30 00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:58,920 Speaker 1: urbanization and rapid growth. So just as examples, we've talked 31 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:02,360 Speaker 1: about people like Atoms, known as the mother of social work, 32 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:05,800 Speaker 1: and we've talked about movements for women's suffrage, temperance, and 33 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:10,079 Speaker 1: organized labor. And the temperance movement did lead to prohibition, 34 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:13,960 Speaker 1: which was a spectacular failure. But other than that, these 35 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:19,360 Speaker 1: episodes have generally talked about overall positive reforms and education 36 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:24,240 Speaker 1: and public health and workplace safety, human rights. But the 37 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:28,160 Speaker 1: Progressive era also had a focus on making humanity better 38 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:33,760 Speaker 1: through eugenics coined by English anthropologists Sir Francis Galton in 39 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:37,560 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty three. Eugenics began with positive eugenics, and this 40 00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:40,800 Speaker 1: was encouraging the people who were considered the healthiest and 41 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:44,080 Speaker 1: the most intelligent to have more children for the betterment 42 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:47,240 Speaker 1: of the species. But in a few countries, including the 43 00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:51,640 Speaker 1: United States, the focus turned toward negative eugenics, or stopping 44 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:56,440 Speaker 1: people who were considered not as good from reproducing, spurred 45 00:02:56,480 --> 00:03:00,120 Speaker 1: by the same fears and prejudices, and societal issue is 46 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:03,880 Speaker 1: that we're driving the progressive movement in general. The eugenics 47 00:03:03,919 --> 00:03:08,240 Speaker 1: movement in the United States focused on identifying, sequestering, and 48 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:12,960 Speaker 1: even sterilizing people who were deemed to be unfit. So 49 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:15,680 Speaker 1: today we're going to talk about a family who became 50 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:20,400 Speaker 1: a case study for the eugenics movement, purportedly providing evidence 51 00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:23,880 Speaker 1: for the idea that feeble mindedness was an inherited trait 52 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:25,880 Speaker 1: and that it would be best to keep people who 53 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: had that trait from reproducing. This family is known as 54 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:33,760 Speaker 1: the Calikas. And just as a note, a lot of 55 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 1: the language that was used to talk about disability at 56 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:39,440 Speaker 1: this time was insulting. And we're going to be reading 57 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:43,800 Speaker 1: from and referring to a bunch of material. It's just offensive. 58 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:48,200 Speaker 1: So anytime we say feeble minded or unfit or similar 59 00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:51,240 Speaker 1: words like that's in air quotes. These are not real 60 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:57,160 Speaker 1: things to describe people, right. Also, heads up, it's a 61 00:03:57,160 --> 00:04:01,480 Speaker 1: little loggy. It's a little longer than normal. So you're 62 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:03,320 Speaker 1: one of the runners who listens and new time your 63 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:05,480 Speaker 1: run to the episode. If you go the whole way, 64 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:09,880 Speaker 1: you've gone too far. Probably so, and that's probably the 65 00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:14,880 Speaker 1: last jesty thing you'll hear in this episode. Yeah, yeah. So. 66 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,600 Speaker 1: In nineteen twelve, the McMillan Company published a book by 67 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:21,960 Speaker 1: Henry Herbert Goddard, director of the Research Laboratory at the 68 00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:26,719 Speaker 1: Vineland Training School for Backward and feeble minded Children in Vineland, 69 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:30,400 Speaker 1: New Jersey. It was called the Calikak Family, a Study 70 00:04:30,480 --> 00:04:33,720 Speaker 1: in the Heredity of feeble Mindedness. It was just one 71 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:38,400 Speaker 1: in a whole genre of literature called eugenic family studies. 72 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:42,600 Speaker 1: The first book in this genre was The Jukes, A 73 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:47,119 Speaker 1: Study in Crime, Pauperism, Disease and Heredity, and this book 74 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:51,359 Speaker 1: was by Richard Dugdale. Dougdale's study came about after he 75 00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:54,599 Speaker 1: visited the Ulster County Jail in New York and learned 76 00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:57,800 Speaker 1: that six people who were incarcerated there were related to 77 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:02,240 Speaker 1: each other. Looking into it further, Dugdale found more family 78 00:05:02,279 --> 00:05:05,520 Speaker 1: members who had arrests and convictions on their records, and 79 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:08,560 Speaker 1: he traced more of the lineage all the way back 80 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:12,080 Speaker 1: to a woman that he dubbed Margaret, the Mother of Criminals. 81 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:16,560 Speaker 1: He found forty two connected families, with five hundred forty 82 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:21,680 Speaker 1: of their seven hundred nine members blood relatives. According to 83 00:05:21,839 --> 00:05:27,320 Speaker 1: Dugdale's estimate, their combined criminal proceedings, social assistance, and healthcare 84 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:30,839 Speaker 1: had cost a total of about one point three million dollars. 85 00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:35,000 Speaker 1: A second book by Arthur H. Estabrook at the Eugenics 86 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:38,839 Speaker 1: Record Office came out in nineteen fifteen, and this traced 87 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:42,520 Speaker 1: another two thousand, one hundred eleven family members who he 88 00:05:42,600 --> 00:05:48,400 Speaker 1: described as rife with quote feeble mindedness, indolence, licentiousness, and dishonesty, 89 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:53,960 Speaker 1: and costing taxpayers about two million dollars. Goddard's study of 90 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:58,120 Speaker 1: the Calikaks followed Dugdale's original book on the Jukes, and 91 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:02,760 Speaker 1: like Jukes, Calicak was pseudonym was a portmanteau of the 92 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:07,200 Speaker 1: Greek words callos for beauty and cacos for bad According 93 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:10,840 Speaker 1: to Goddard's account, Deborah Calicac had been born in an 94 00:06:10,839 --> 00:06:13,960 Speaker 1: almshouse and had arrived at the Vinolin School at the 95 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:17,560 Speaker 1: age of eight. Her mother had been through a convoluted 96 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:20,960 Speaker 1: series of relationships and marriages and had given birth to 97 00:06:21,080 --> 00:06:24,760 Speaker 1: several children, both in and out of wedlock, and according 98 00:06:24,800 --> 00:06:27,920 Speaker 1: to Goddard, no man in her life was willing to 99 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:32,480 Speaker 1: support the young Deborah. Goddard maintained that from her admission 100 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:36,400 Speaker 1: at the school in October eighteen ninety seven until nineteen eleven, 101 00:06:36,680 --> 00:06:40,320 Speaker 1: when he was compiling his study, Deborah had never tested 102 00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:43,640 Speaker 1: above the age of nine on an intelligence scale. He 103 00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:47,239 Speaker 1: described her as quote a high grade feeble minded person, 104 00:06:47,839 --> 00:06:51,320 Speaker 1: the kind of wayward delinquent who quote fills our reformatories, 105 00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:56,400 Speaker 1: generally causing trouble and creating a burden on society. So 106 00:06:56,800 --> 00:06:59,640 Speaker 1: feeble minded was a catch all term used at the 107 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:02,960 Speaker 1: time to describe people who were, in one way or 108 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:07,960 Speaker 1: another behind their peers. It included everything from mental illnesses 109 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:12,800 Speaker 1: to disabilities and disorders that were noticeable but not necessarily severe. 110 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:16,560 Speaker 1: A person described as feeble minded might be able to 111 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:18,840 Speaker 1: take care of their own day to day needs while 112 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:22,960 Speaker 1: struggling with social interactions or academic skills or physical skills 113 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:28,320 Speaker 1: was considered to be a precise, medically and scientifically sound 114 00:07:28,440 --> 00:07:31,440 Speaker 1: description at the time, but it is definitely not one 115 00:07:31,560 --> 00:07:35,320 Speaker 1: we would use today to describe a disability, disorder, or condition. 116 00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:39,400 Speaker 1: Goddard also coined a new word to describe people who 117 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:43,520 Speaker 1: fit this definition. That word was moron, defined as one 118 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:46,840 Speaker 1: who is lacking in intelligence, one who is deficient in 119 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:51,880 Speaker 1: judgment or sense, and like feeble minded, moron was adopted 120 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:57,160 Speaker 1: as an actual clinical term. Goddard claimed he had traced 121 00:07:57,280 --> 00:08:00,400 Speaker 1: Deborah's ancestry all the way back to her great great 122 00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:05,720 Speaker 1: great grandfather, who he dubbed Martin Calikak Senior. Martin Senior 123 00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:09,240 Speaker 1: was described as having fathered a child with an unnamed 124 00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:14,520 Speaker 1: feeble minded barmaid, Deborah's great great great grandmother. This barmaid's 125 00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:19,480 Speaker 1: descendants were a family of quote an appalling amount of defectiveness. 126 00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:23,960 Speaker 1: But then Martin Senior turned his life around and married 127 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:28,680 Speaker 1: a quote respectable girl of good family. His descendants from 128 00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:33,240 Speaker 1: this marriage were, in Goddard's words, quote respectable citizens, men 129 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:37,600 Speaker 1: and women prominent in every phase of life. As printed 130 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:41,040 Speaker 1: in the book, the Calicac Lineage with its beautiful half 131 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:45,199 Speaker 1: and its bad half was accompanied by family trees emblazoned 132 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:49,160 Speaker 1: with ends and f's for normal and feeble minded, with 133 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:53,320 Speaker 1: ends in white and f's in black, along with notations 134 00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:57,920 Speaker 1: of which ones were sexually immoral, insane, syphilitic, or criminalistic. 135 00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:01,920 Speaker 1: All of these are words that God used, and the 136 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:05,640 Speaker 1: results are striking. One half of the tree, depicting the 137 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:09,400 Speaker 1: descendants of Martin Senior's children with the upstanding Quaker woman 138 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:13,680 Speaker 1: he married, is full of quote normal people flawlessly white, 139 00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:17,120 Speaker 1: and then the other half, depicting the descendants of Martin's 140 00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:21,280 Speaker 1: son with the unnamed barmaid, is dotted all over with 141 00:09:21,400 --> 00:09:25,800 Speaker 1: black f's, with notations of undesirable traits all over the place. 142 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:30,000 Speaker 1: There are also photographs both of Deborah in her day 143 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,480 Speaker 1: to day life and of the bad Calikacs and their homes. 144 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:36,920 Speaker 1: The photos of Deborah are clearly posed, and they show 145 00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:39,400 Speaker 1: an attractive young woman in a variety of day to 146 00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:43,120 Speaker 1: day scenarios. The photos of the other Calikacs look like 147 00:09:43,160 --> 00:09:46,960 Speaker 1: they could have inspired the X Files episode Home. The 148 00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:51,040 Speaker 1: buildings are all very ramshackle, the people's postuous slouchy, and 149 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:56,880 Speaker 1: the facial expressions and features are oddly atypical, and Goddard's 150 00:09:56,960 --> 00:10:00,800 Speaker 1: words quote, how do we account for this kind of individual? 151 00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:05,600 Speaker 1: The answer is, in a word, heredity bad stock. We 152 00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:09,640 Speaker 1: must recognize that the human family shows varying stocks or 153 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:12,800 Speaker 1: strains that are marked and that breed as true as 154 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:18,000 Speaker 1: anything in plant or animal life. Citing Gregor Mendel's theories 155 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:22,000 Speaker 1: on hereditary traits, Goddard goes on to advocate that normal, 156 00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:25,960 Speaker 1: healthy society keep the feeble minded from breeding and spreading 157 00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:30,760 Speaker 1: their inherited deficiencies. He suggests a combination of segregation into 158 00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:36,040 Speaker 1: institutions or colonies and sterilization. We will talk about the 159 00:10:36,120 --> 00:10:41,640 Speaker 1: colossal influence of this book. After a quick sponsor break, 160 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:54,800 Speaker 1: the Calikak Family, A Study in the Heredity of Feeble Mindedness, 161 00:10:54,920 --> 00:10:59,280 Speaker 1: became enormously influential. It was an immediate bestseller and was 162 00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:02,680 Speaker 1: reprinted more than ten times between nineteen twelve and nineteen 163 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:06,440 Speaker 1: thirty nine. Although the book did have some critics, a 164 00:11:06,559 --> 00:11:10,760 Speaker 1: number of academic journals, including the American Journal of Psychology 165 00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:13,680 Speaker 1: and the Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law 166 00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:18,920 Speaker 1: and Criminology, gave it glowingly positive reviews. Both Calikak and 167 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:22,560 Speaker 1: Juke became slang terms for people thought of as unintelligent, 168 00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:27,679 Speaker 1: backward and inbread. The book's conclusions were also widely accepted 169 00:11:27,720 --> 00:11:30,880 Speaker 1: as scientific truth, and this was in spite of this 170 00:11:30,920 --> 00:11:34,880 Speaker 1: admission printed in its introduction quote, it is true that 171 00:11:34,920 --> 00:11:38,480 Speaker 1: we have made rather dogmatic statements and have drawn conclusions 172 00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:42,320 Speaker 1: that do not seem scientifically warranted from the data. We 173 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:45,120 Speaker 1: have done this because it seems necessary to make these 174 00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:48,840 Speaker 1: statements and conclusions for the benefit of the lay reader. 175 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:53,400 Speaker 1: Soon the Calikaks were being cited in mainstream biology and 176 00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:57,240 Speaker 1: psychology textbooks. If you've heard our podcast on the Scopes trial, 177 00:11:57,360 --> 00:11:59,960 Speaker 1: you might recall that we read from a civic biology 178 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:03,640 Speaker 1: presented in Problems, and that was the widely used biology 179 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:07,480 Speaker 1: textbook that was part of that case. Chapter seventeen of 180 00:12:07,520 --> 00:12:11,920 Speaker 1: the nineteen fourteen edition, titled Heredity Variation, Plant and Animal Breeding, 181 00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:16,040 Speaker 1: explains the term eugenics before discussing both the Calikas and 182 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:20,200 Speaker 1: the Jukes. It basically boils down the idea of eugenics 183 00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:24,920 Speaker 1: to the science of being well born. In its discussion 184 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:28,280 Speaker 1: of the Jukes, the book mentions Margaret, mother of Criminals, 185 00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:30,760 Speaker 1: the more than one million dollar tax cost to the 186 00:12:30,800 --> 00:12:33,480 Speaker 1: state of New York and the large number of quote 187 00:12:33,520 --> 00:12:38,320 Speaker 1: feeble minded, alcoholic, immoral, or criminal persons that were purportedly 188 00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:42,040 Speaker 1: in the family. It then moves on to the Calikax quote. 189 00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:44,760 Speaker 1: This family has been traced back to the War of 190 00:12:44,800 --> 00:12:48,640 Speaker 1: the Revolution, when a young soldier named Martin Calikax seduced 191 00:12:48,640 --> 00:12:51,960 Speaker 1: a feeble minded girl. She had a feeble minded son, 192 00:12:52,200 --> 00:12:54,880 Speaker 1: from whom there have been to the present time four 193 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:59,360 Speaker 1: hundred eighty descendants. Of these, thirty three were sexually immoral, 194 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:04,520 Speaker 1: for confirmed drunkards, three epileptics, and one hundred forty three 195 00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:07,959 Speaker 1: feeble minded. The man who started this terrible line of 196 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:11,800 Speaker 1: immorality and feeble mindedness later married a normal Quaker girl. 197 00:13:12,400 --> 00:13:14,840 Speaker 1: From this couple, a line of four hundred ninety six 198 00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:18,320 Speaker 1: descendants have come with no cases of feeble mindedness. The 199 00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:23,920 Speaker 1: evidence and the moral speak for themselves. A civic biology 200 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:26,640 Speaker 1: goes on to say that if people were animals, we 201 00:13:26,679 --> 00:13:30,200 Speaker 1: would probably just quote kill them off to prevent them 202 00:13:30,240 --> 00:13:34,480 Speaker 1: from spreading. It goes on to explain, quote humanity will 203 00:13:34,520 --> 00:13:37,280 Speaker 1: not allow this, but we do have the remedy of 204 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:41,000 Speaker 1: separating the sexes and asylums or other places, and in 205 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:46,240 Speaker 1: various ways preventing intermarriage. And the possibilities of perpetuating such 206 00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:51,200 Speaker 1: a low and degenerate race. Through the Calikak family and 207 00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:55,480 Speaker 1: other books and propaganda, the idea that defective people needed 208 00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:58,800 Speaker 1: to be kept from breeding became common knowledge, and in 209 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:01,920 Speaker 1: the early decades of the twentieth century, more than thirty 210 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:07,280 Speaker 1: states passed laws allowing and regulating the involuntary sterilization of 211 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:10,800 Speaker 1: people who were deemed to be feeble minded or otherwise unfit. 212 00:14:11,559 --> 00:14:15,680 Speaker 1: Often sterilization involved a vas ectomy or tubal ligation, but 213 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:20,080 Speaker 1: could also be as involved as a total hysterectomy. Many 214 00:14:20,120 --> 00:14:23,480 Speaker 1: of these laws were patterned after a model law drafted 215 00:14:23,520 --> 00:14:27,080 Speaker 1: by Harry H. Laughlin of the Eugenics Record Office at 216 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:30,760 Speaker 1: cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, who was one of Goddard's colleagues 217 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:34,960 Speaker 1: within the eugenics movement. Goddard himself consulted with states on 218 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:39,760 Speaker 1: their eugenics laws as well. Basically, states kept passing laws 219 00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:42,600 Speaker 1: that were not being upheld in court, and so these 220 00:14:42,640 --> 00:14:45,160 Speaker 1: guys got together to draft a law that would be 221 00:14:45,520 --> 00:14:49,800 Speaker 1: upheld as constitutional. In nineteen twenty seven, one of these 222 00:14:49,880 --> 00:14:52,400 Speaker 1: laws made its way to the Supreme Court in Buck 223 00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:56,040 Speaker 1: versus Bell Carry Buck had been committed to the Virginia 224 00:14:56,080 --> 00:15:01,200 Speaker 1: Colony for epileptics and feeble minded, and she was sterilized there. Carrie, 225 00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:04,840 Speaker 1: her mother, and her daughter were all described as feeble minded, 226 00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:08,240 Speaker 1: and Carrie and her mother were both described as immoral 227 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:11,560 Speaker 1: and promiscuous because they had had children out of wedlock. 228 00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:15,840 Speaker 1: The Calikak family was entered into evidence in this case. 229 00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:21,120 Speaker 1: Harry H. Laughlin provided expert testimony. Doctor Esterbrook, the one 230 00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:24,240 Speaker 1: who revised the study of the Jukes family, did as well. 231 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:28,240 Speaker 1: The Supreme Court found for Jenia's eugenics law to be 232 00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:32,320 Speaker 1: constitutional and upheld it, with the opinion authored by Oliver 233 00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:37,280 Speaker 1: Wendell Holmes, Junior, including the sentence quote three generations of 234 00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:43,280 Speaker 1: imbeciles are enough. Involuntary sterilizations were also being performed on 235 00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:46,960 Speaker 1: people convicted of crimes, but this generally ended after the 236 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:51,080 Speaker 1: Supreme Court ruled in Skinner versus Oklahoma in nineteen forty two. 237 00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:55,040 Speaker 1: States had been sterilizing people convicted of some felonies but 238 00:15:55,160 --> 00:15:57,480 Speaker 1: not others, and the Court ruled that this was a 239 00:15:57,560 --> 00:16:02,760 Speaker 1: violation of the Fourteenth Amendments Equal Protection clause. But Buck 240 00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:06,360 Speaker 1: versus Bell has never been overturned, meaning that the Supreme 241 00:16:06,400 --> 00:16:10,480 Speaker 1: Court never officially reversed its decision on sterilization of people 242 00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:15,200 Speaker 1: who were not convicted of a crime. Involuntary sterilizations of 243 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:19,720 Speaker 1: supposedly unfit people continued in the United States until the 244 00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:24,160 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, at which point at least sixty thousand people 245 00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:29,360 Speaker 1: had been involuntarily sterilized, predominantly women. While there have been 246 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:33,000 Speaker 1: calls for reparations, North Carolina is the only state so 247 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:37,000 Speaker 1: far to pass legislation to do so. The idea of 248 00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:40,800 Speaker 1: keeping bloodlines free from the taint of feeble mindedness also 249 00:16:40,840 --> 00:16:43,880 Speaker 1: went hand in hand with the idea of keeping white 250 00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:48,040 Speaker 1: bloodlines racially pure. Many of the same people who helped 251 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:52,240 Speaker 1: states write eugenics laws relating to the unfit also worked 252 00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:55,560 Speaker 1: on legislation to protect white racial purity at the state 253 00:16:55,600 --> 00:17:00,040 Speaker 1: and national level. For example, Harry H. Laughlin was a 254 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:03,720 Speaker 1: huge proponent of the Immigration Restriction Act of nineteen twenty four, 255 00:17:03,800 --> 00:17:07,000 Speaker 1: which set quotas on immigration based on how many people 256 00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:10,560 Speaker 1: already in the United States hailed from a particular place, 257 00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:14,160 Speaker 1: so it allowed the most immigration from nations that were 258 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:17,919 Speaker 1: already the most similar to white Americans, which was Northwest 259 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:22,280 Speaker 1: Europe that allowed almost no immigration from Africa and barred 260 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:27,680 Speaker 1: immigration from Asia entirely. The Immigration Act was also influenced 261 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:31,000 Speaker 1: by Henry H. Goddard's work at Ellis Island, where he 262 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:35,000 Speaker 1: had set up an intelligence testing center to evaluate incoming 263 00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:38,920 Speaker 1: immigrants and turn away the ones deemed insufficient in the nineteenteens. 264 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:44,240 Speaker 1: In his work intelligence classification of immigrants of different nationalities, 265 00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:47,880 Speaker 1: he claimed that forty percent of immigrants were feeble minded, 266 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:52,720 Speaker 1: including eighty three percent of Jews, seventy nine percent of Italians, 267 00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:57,119 Speaker 1: eighty percent of Hungarians, and eighty seven percent of Russians. 268 00:17:57,880 --> 00:18:02,480 Speaker 1: These evaluations began with one tester identifying probable cases by 269 00:18:02,560 --> 00:18:05,800 Speaker 1: sight and then referring the people she spotted to her 270 00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:09,719 Speaker 1: colleague for an assessment. Goddard employed women for this purpose 271 00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:14,080 Speaker 1: because he thought their intuition was better for it. As 272 00:18:14,119 --> 00:18:18,879 Speaker 1: another example, Harry H. Laughlin also helped draft Virginia's Racial 273 00:18:18,960 --> 00:18:23,120 Speaker 1: Integrity Act of nineteen twenty four, which defined race according 274 00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:26,520 Speaker 1: to the one drop rule, meaning that anyone who had 275 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:31,200 Speaker 1: one drop of African or Native American blood was considered 276 00:18:31,280 --> 00:18:35,639 Speaker 1: black or Native American by law. The only exception was 277 00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:38,920 Speaker 1: for people who were one sixteenth or less Native American, 278 00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:43,200 Speaker 1: and this exception was to allow prominent Virginians purportedly descended 279 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:48,200 Speaker 1: from Pocahontas to still be considered legally white. This act 280 00:18:48,280 --> 00:18:51,280 Speaker 1: also prohibited into racial marriage, and there is more on 281 00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:54,360 Speaker 1: it in our two part podcast on Loving Versus Virginia 282 00:18:54,400 --> 00:18:59,280 Speaker 1: from twenty thirteen. In addition to the sterilizations of the 283 00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:03,440 Speaker 1: unfit that were codified in state's eugenics laws, there were 284 00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:07,919 Speaker 1: also involuntary and coerced sterilizations of poor people and racial 285 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:13,600 Speaker 1: and ethnic minorities, including Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and African Americans, 286 00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:17,480 Speaker 1: stretching all the way into the nineteen seventies. Because these 287 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:21,280 Speaker 1: were not conducted under any particular law or official program, 288 00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:25,359 Speaker 1: the exact numbers are harder to estimate. In many cases, 289 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:29,359 Speaker 1: these sterilizations were performed in conjunction with other procedures and 290 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:33,439 Speaker 1: without the patient's knowledge. This practice was so prevalent in 291 00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:37,600 Speaker 1: the South that it was nicknamed a Mississippi appendectomy that 292 00:19:37,800 --> 00:19:41,520 Speaker 1: was either coined or popularized by Fanny Lew Hamer, who 293 00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:46,760 Speaker 1: is on the list for a future podcast episode. As 294 00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:51,040 Speaker 1: with Buck versus Bell and the forced sterilizations of people 295 00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:55,840 Speaker 1: considered unfit, cases regarding the forced or coerced sterilizations of 296 00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:59,600 Speaker 1: minorities have also made their way through the courts. Two 297 00:19:59,680 --> 00:20:03,359 Speaker 1: black teenagers, Mary Alice and many Relfh were sterilized without 298 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:07,400 Speaker 1: their parents' consent in nineteen seventy three. Their mother, who 299 00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:10,159 Speaker 1: was not literate, had believed she was signing a consent 300 00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:13,720 Speaker 1: form for birth control shots, and when the case made headlines, 301 00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:18,040 Speaker 1: many more black and Native American women began coming forward 302 00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:22,960 Speaker 1: with similar allegations. In his opinion on Ralph versus Weinberger, 303 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:26,359 Speaker 1: Judge Gerhard Guessel of the U. S. District Court for 304 00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:29,920 Speaker 1: the District of Columbia wrote that federal programs had funded 305 00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:33,159 Speaker 1: the sterilization of one hundred thousand to one hundred fifty 306 00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:37,679 Speaker 1: thousand low income women during the previous few years. He 307 00:20:37,760 --> 00:20:41,320 Speaker 1: went on quote, although Congress has been insistent that all 308 00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:45,520 Speaker 1: family planning programs function on a purely voluntary basis, there 309 00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:49,120 Speaker 1: is uncontroverted evidence in the record that miners and other 310 00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:52,840 Speaker 1: incompetence have been sterilized with federal funds, and that an 311 00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:56,680 Speaker 1: indefinite number of poor people have been improperly coerced into 312 00:20:56,720 --> 00:21:01,640 Speaker 1: accepting a sterilization operation under the threat various federally supported 313 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:06,840 Speaker 1: welfare benefits would be withdrawn unless they submitted to irreversible sterilization. 314 00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:11,000 Speaker 1: In another case, Madrigal versus Quilligan was a class action 315 00:21:11,080 --> 00:21:14,800 Speaker 1: lawsuit with ten plaintiffs who alleged that Los Angeles County 316 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:18,840 Speaker 1: USC Medical Center had either coerced or misled them into 317 00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:23,520 Speaker 1: being sterilized during a cesarean section, with the option being 318 00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:27,320 Speaker 1: presented to them after hours of difficult labor. Nearly one 319 00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:30,280 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty Spanish speaking women had come forward with 320 00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:35,320 Speaker 1: similar allegations. In nineteen seventy eight, Judge Jesse W. Curtis 321 00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:38,320 Speaker 1: ruled in favor of the hospital, calling it quote a 322 00:21:38,440 --> 00:21:43,080 Speaker 1: breakdown in communications between the patients and the doctors, and 323 00:21:43,160 --> 00:21:45,880 Speaker 1: although the plaintiffs didn't win in this case, it did 324 00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:50,120 Speaker 1: ultimately lead to laws requiring Spanish speaking staff to explain 325 00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:55,920 Speaker 1: procedures and obtain consent from Spanish speaking patients. Coerced sterilizations 326 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:59,960 Speaker 1: have also continued well beyond the nineteen seventies. Buck versus 327 00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:02,560 Speaker 1: Bell was cited as precedent in the two thousand and 328 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:06,160 Speaker 1: one case Vaughan versus Utz, heard in the Eighth Circuit Court, 329 00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:09,360 Speaker 1: in which a social service worker at a hospital coerced 330 00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:12,080 Speaker 1: a woman who had been diagnosed with a mild intellectual 331 00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:16,000 Speaker 1: disability into getting a tubal ligation by telling her that 332 00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:20,200 Speaker 1: it would help her regain custody of her children. A 333 00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:24,480 Speaker 1: twenty thirteen report by the Center for Investigative Reporting detailed 334 00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:28,040 Speaker 1: the sterilizations of at least one hundred forty eight incarcerated 335 00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:31,879 Speaker 1: women in California prisons, which had been performed without the 336 00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:37,000 Speaker 1: required state approvals, even though California banned forced sterilizations in 337 00:22:37,119 --> 00:22:41,560 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine. Numerous women described being coerced and pressured 338 00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:46,720 Speaker 1: into the procedure while incarcerated, and in July twenty seventeen, 339 00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:51,600 Speaker 1: news Channel five in Tennessee reported that General Sessions Judge 340 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:56,080 Speaker 1: Sam Benningfield allowed incarcerated people who either got of aasectomy 341 00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,560 Speaker 1: or a contraceptive implant to get a thirty day credit 342 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:03,880 Speaker 1: towards jail time. Judge Benningfield rescinded this order on July 343 00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:08,480 Speaker 1: twenty sixth after it made headlines. While the story of 344 00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:12,040 Speaker 1: the Calikaks was just one part of the eugenics movement, 345 00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:15,720 Speaker 1: the studies of the Calikaks, the Jukes, and other families 346 00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:19,760 Speaker 1: were widely cited heavily used pieces of evidence of the 347 00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:22,720 Speaker 1: eugenicists idea that it was better to keep so called 348 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:27,159 Speaker 1: defectives from breeding, and by extension, that sterilization could be 349 00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:30,840 Speaker 1: used to help guarantee white racial purity, and the same 350 00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:33,640 Speaker 1: people writing books about the Calikaks and the Jukes were 351 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:37,960 Speaker 1: actively working with lawmakers to create policies to do exactly that. 352 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:42,360 Speaker 1: The book's influence spread beyond the United States as well. 353 00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:46,640 Speaker 1: A German language translation of The Calikak Family was printed 354 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:49,720 Speaker 1: in Germany in nineteen fourteen, and it was reprinted in 355 00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:54,240 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty three. Germany's own eugenics law law for the 356 00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:58,919 Speaker 1: Prevention of hereditarily Diseased Offspring, was passed in nineteen thirty 357 00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:01,600 Speaker 1: three as well, and was also based on Harry H. 358 00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:04,920 Speaker 1: Lachlin's model law that was being used as a template 359 00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:07,760 Speaker 1: in the United States. And it wasn't just a matter 360 00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:11,959 Speaker 1: of Nazi Germany picking up and repurposing Lachlan's work. Lachlan 361 00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:16,000 Speaker 1: actively corresponded with eugenicists in Germany, writing in one of 362 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:19,280 Speaker 1: his letters how pleased he was that Hitler understood that 363 00:24:19,359 --> 00:24:23,480 Speaker 1: quote the central mission of all politics is race hygiene. 364 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:27,560 Speaker 1: In Nazi Germany, more than one hundred and fifty thousand 365 00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:32,160 Speaker 1: Germans with disabilities were involuntarily sterilized under this eugenics law 366 00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:36,280 Speaker 1: between nineteen thirty four and nineteen thirty nine. In nineteen 367 00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:40,359 Speaker 1: thirty nine, the focus shifted from sterilization to extermination, an 368 00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:43,600 Speaker 1: eighty thousand disabled Germans were murdered in a little less 369 00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:46,639 Speaker 1: than two years. It was only in the face of 370 00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:49,879 Speaker 1: this atrocity that the eugenics movement in the United States 371 00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:53,159 Speaker 1: started to fall out of favor, although the sterilizations that 372 00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:58,240 Speaker 1: the movement had advocated have continued for decades. On top 373 00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:01,520 Speaker 1: of being used to support policy that led to involuntary 374 00:25:01,560 --> 00:25:05,960 Speaker 1: sterilizations and in Nazi Germany murders, much of the story 375 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:08,920 Speaker 1: of the Calikaks wasn't even true, and we're going to 376 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:18,800 Speaker 1: talk more about that. After a sponsor break, Henry H. 377 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:23,320 Speaker 1: Goddard began publicly refuting his previous opinions about the quote 378 00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:27,320 Speaker 1: feeble minded and eugenics, beginning in the late nineteen twenties 379 00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:30,359 Speaker 1: and into the nineteen thirties. He made a number of 380 00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:34,119 Speaker 1: public statements that his intelligence testing had been incorrect and 381 00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,280 Speaker 1: that he had been wrong to believe that feeble minded 382 00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:40,840 Speaker 1: people could not be educated, and that feeble minded people 383 00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:43,720 Speaker 1: should be allowed to have children if they chose, and 384 00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:47,679 Speaker 1: should not be segregated from the rest of society. But 385 00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:50,600 Speaker 1: this reversal came too late to stop the eugenics movement, 386 00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:52,879 Speaker 1: or even to change the life of the star of 387 00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:58,320 Speaker 1: his most famous work, Deborah Calikak was really Emma Wolverton, 388 00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:00,919 Speaker 1: and she really did arrive at the Violent School in 389 00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:03,560 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety seven at the age of eight, and it's 390 00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:05,840 Speaker 1: not clear if there was a specific reason for her 391 00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:09,240 Speaker 1: to be institutionalized. Although the book does seem to have 392 00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:12,840 Speaker 1: embellished her mother's life in relationships, it's very likely that 393 00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:15,919 Speaker 1: it boiled down to poverty. Even the wording in the 394 00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:19,080 Speaker 1: book is really cage here quote on the plea that 395 00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:21,480 Speaker 1: the child did not get along at school and might 396 00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:25,600 Speaker 1: possibly be feeble minded. She gained admission to the training school, 397 00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:30,119 Speaker 1: but by the time Goddard published The Calikak Family, the 398 00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:33,760 Speaker 1: Violent School and Goddard himself were using Emma as an 399 00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:37,760 Speaker 1: example of a success story for the school. In addition 400 00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:40,800 Speaker 1: to being in the book, her picture and that pseudonym 401 00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:44,439 Speaker 1: appear in the school's reports and fundraising materials as a 402 00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:48,240 Speaker 1: shining example of their work. When she was transferred to 403 00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:51,200 Speaker 1: a facility for adults across the street at the age 404 00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:54,639 Speaker 1: of twenty five. Her quote acquisition was viewed as a 405 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:58,600 Speaker 1: success for them. A social worker described it this way. 406 00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:02,080 Speaker 1: Quote Deborah at this time was a handsome young woman 407 00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:06,119 Speaker 1: twenty five years old, with many accomplishments, though her academic 408 00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:10,840 Speaker 1: progress had remained stationary, just beyond second grade. For our part, 409 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,480 Speaker 1: we knew we had acquired distinction in acquiring Deborah Calikak, 410 00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:17,199 Speaker 1: for by this time the story of her pedigree was 411 00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:20,879 Speaker 1: becoming well known, and such a capable, well trained, and 412 00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:25,080 Speaker 1: good looking girl must be an asset in terms of 413 00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:30,480 Speaker 1: well trained. Emma Wolverton was excellent at embroidery, woodworking, basketry, 414 00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:34,439 Speaker 1: and gardening. She made and repaired costumes for the school plays, 415 00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:38,040 Speaker 1: was in charge of the Violin School's kindergarten, and worked 416 00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:41,200 Speaker 1: as a nurse's aide in the school's hospital. She also 417 00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:44,399 Speaker 1: played the coronet beautifully. Was an avid reader and a 418 00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:48,920 Speaker 1: devoted correspondent, and bred Persian cats and her adulthood. Visitors 419 00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:51,760 Speaker 1: to her institution often mistook her for a staff member. 420 00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:55,160 Speaker 1: She distinguished herself to the point that she was allowed 421 00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,199 Speaker 1: to work for the Family of Violence. Superintendent along with 422 00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:00,959 Speaker 1: others in the community. And to be clear, although working 423 00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:04,560 Speaker 1: for the superintendent's family was framed as a privilege and 424 00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:10,400 Speaker 1: a reward, all of this work was actually compulsory. It's 425 00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:14,679 Speaker 1: difficult to diagnose historical figures who aren't alive to be examined, 426 00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:18,000 Speaker 1: and this is even more difficult in Emma Wolverton's case, 427 00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:21,920 Speaker 1: since her school records are often contradictory and the institutions 428 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:25,160 Speaker 1: caring for her had a vested self interest in people, 429 00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:29,800 Speaker 1: simultaneously believing that she needed to be institutionalized while also 430 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:33,000 Speaker 1: demonstrating a success story in terms of what the institution 431 00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:37,720 Speaker 1: could accomplish. But by cross referencing school records with witness accounts, 432 00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:41,800 Speaker 1: modern research suggests that she probably had a learning disability. 433 00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:45,800 Speaker 1: Whether she had a disability or what that disability was 434 00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:48,440 Speaker 1: has no bearing on her worth as a human being. 435 00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:51,920 Speaker 1: But it's clear that the institutions housing her were using 436 00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:54,760 Speaker 1: her for their own ends, and that her portrayal in 437 00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:57,560 Speaker 1: the book that made her famous was far from the truth. 438 00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:02,120 Speaker 1: The photos of Emma will in the Calikak Family clearly 439 00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:04,800 Speaker 1: served to show her as both a success and a warning. 440 00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:08,840 Speaker 1: She's neatly dressed either shown in association with something productive 441 00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:12,680 Speaker 1: like sewing or serving a meal, or with something considered intelligent, 442 00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:15,920 Speaker 1: like reading a book. These are in contrast with the 443 00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:19,520 Speaker 1: photos of the Calikacs in their homes, which are clearly 444 00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:23,680 Speaker 1: meant to suggest something nefarious. The pictures of the other 445 00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:27,920 Speaker 1: Calikacs have definitely been retouched, and there's some debate about 446 00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:31,880 Speaker 1: whether that retouching served to deliberately exaggerate them or just 447 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:35,880 Speaker 1: to prepare them for publication. Regardless, the book is making 448 00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:39,280 Speaker 1: a very clear implication and a very clear value judgment 449 00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:42,320 Speaker 1: on all the Calikacs based on their physical appearance and 450 00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:47,240 Speaker 1: their surroundings. It's that without the constant care, supervision, and 451 00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:51,040 Speaker 1: custody in an institution, Emma Wolverton would have been just 452 00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:54,760 Speaker 1: another degenerate living in a hovel, and without keeping her 453 00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:59,920 Speaker 1: segregated from society, she would have just made more of them. However, 454 00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:04,840 Speaker 1: that dichotomy between Emma Wolverton and the rest of the family, 455 00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:08,640 Speaker 1: or between the families quote good and bad branches, just 456 00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:13,280 Speaker 1: doesn't add up. The bad line of Martin Calikax Senior's 457 00:30:13,320 --> 00:30:18,320 Speaker 1: descendants purportedly begins with Martin Junior. I was really John Wolverton. 458 00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:23,080 Speaker 1: John Wolverton was the son of Gabriel Wolverton and Katherine Murray, 459 00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:26,760 Speaker 1: but the Calikax study presents his father as a different 460 00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:30,800 Speaker 1: John Wolverton, just thus the Martin Senior and Martin Junior. 461 00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:33,880 Speaker 1: But according to a genealogy of the family that was 462 00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:37,080 Speaker 1: published in the nineteen eighties, the second John Wolverton was 463 00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:41,720 Speaker 1: not his father. They were second cousins, so the book's 464 00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:45,920 Speaker 1: entire premise is not correct. In addition to the two 465 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:49,800 Speaker 1: John Wolverton's not being father and son, both parts of 466 00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:52,880 Speaker 1: the family really had their share of troubles, as every 467 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:57,440 Speaker 1: family does. But Goddard and field worker Elizabeth S. Kite 468 00:30:57,520 --> 00:31:00,280 Speaker 1: had set out to compile their study with the goal 469 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:04,680 Speaker 1: of finding a hereditary thread for feeble mindedness. So consciously 470 00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,840 Speaker 1: or unconsciously, when piecing together the history of the family members, 471 00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:12,360 Speaker 1: some of whom had long since died, they ignored evidence 472 00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:14,680 Speaker 1: of people in the good line who they might have 473 00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:17,400 Speaker 1: described as feeble minded, and they flagged people in the 474 00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:21,440 Speaker 1: bad line based on just the thinnest of evidence. Claud 475 00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:25,160 Speaker 1: of this was based on stuff like family gossip. They 476 00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:29,680 Speaker 1: would very scientific, right, They would interview elderly family members 477 00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:31,960 Speaker 1: about people on the other side of the family and 478 00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:35,360 Speaker 1: folks would be like, oh, yeah, he was totally a drunk, 479 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:39,080 Speaker 1: so that person would be marked down as feeble minded, 480 00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:41,600 Speaker 1: even though if you looked at things like tax records 481 00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:45,240 Speaker 1: and property records, it seemed as though this person was 482 00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:50,520 Speaker 1: like a landowner, not fothering anyone, perfectly living their life 483 00:31:50,600 --> 00:31:55,160 Speaker 1: just fine. So in reality, going back to the eighteenth century, 484 00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:59,520 Speaker 1: the Wolverton's were overall not particularly affluent, but mostly self 485 00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:03,520 Speaker 1: sufficient farmers living in rural New Jersey. In the late 486 00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:07,360 Speaker 1: nineteenth century, industrialization and urbanization led several of them to 487 00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:11,040 Speaker 1: move from the country to Trenton and other cities. As 488 00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:13,360 Speaker 1: with so many other people who moved from the country 489 00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:16,120 Speaker 1: to the city during this time, they found themselves in 490 00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:20,480 Speaker 1: an unfamiliar environment, with a totally different social structure and economy, 491 00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:24,040 Speaker 1: and without a lot of resources or education. So when 492 00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:27,720 Speaker 1: they lost jobs, as Emma's mother, for example, did, they 493 00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:31,080 Speaker 1: no longer had an extended family network nearby to turn 494 00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:34,440 Speaker 1: to for support, instead often winding up in jail or 495 00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:37,480 Speaker 1: in a poorhouse. So this was definitely not something that 496 00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:42,880 Speaker 1: could be explained by some kind of hereditary taint. Similarly, 497 00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:47,040 Speaker 1: some of Arthur h Esterbrook's papers containing the Jukes family's 498 00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:50,280 Speaker 1: real names were found in the early twenty first century, 499 00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:53,120 Speaker 1: and it turned out that many of them were respected 500 00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:57,400 Speaker 1: citizens of Ulster County, New York. Their existence had conveniently 501 00:32:57,440 --> 00:33:01,880 Speaker 1: been ignored in Esterbrook's study. Emma Wolverton died at the 502 00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:05,520 Speaker 1: age of eighty nine in nineteen seventy eight. She knew 503 00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:08,040 Speaker 1: that she had been written about as Deborah Calcak, and 504 00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:10,480 Speaker 1: that she had been used as a widely read and 505 00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:14,479 Speaker 1: even famous example of a quote high grade feeble minded person. 506 00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:18,520 Speaker 1: It's not really clear whether she knew that that depiction 507 00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:21,240 Speaker 1: had been at the heart of the eugenics movement or 508 00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:24,920 Speaker 1: what that had ultimately meant. She was offered the chance 509 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:27,480 Speaker 1: to leave the institution toward the end of her life, 510 00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:30,320 Speaker 1: but she didn't feel that she could because at that 511 00:33:30,360 --> 00:33:33,240 Speaker 1: point she developed severe arthritis and she really needed a 512 00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:36,160 Speaker 1: lot of medical care. She spent the last year of 513 00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:38,080 Speaker 1: her life in a hospital, and at the time of 514 00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:41,520 Speaker 1: her death she had been institutionalized for eighty one years. 515 00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:50,000 Speaker 1: I normally say something to wrap up here, but mostly 516 00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:59,560 Speaker 1: this whole episode makes me incredibly angry. Yeah, Like it's 517 00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:03,840 Speaker 1: the it's the magical combination, right of like a poorly 518 00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:07,280 Speaker 1: executed biased science and I'm using the air quotes there 519 00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:18,799 Speaker 1: used to one work this whole like superiority angle as 520 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:22,440 Speaker 1: well as really damaged the lives of people without their consent, 521 00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:27,200 Speaker 1: and most of those people were women. Yeah, and like 522 00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:31,200 Speaker 1: even the more the positive eugenics angle that we referenced 523 00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:34,480 Speaker 1: very briefly at the beginning of the show, Like even 524 00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:37,359 Speaker 1: that is founded on the idea that some people are 525 00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:39,640 Speaker 1: better than others, and that the better people should have 526 00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:46,879 Speaker 1: the most babies, which, like that might sound okkay at 527 00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:49,440 Speaker 1: a surface level, but pretty quickly falls apart when you 528 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:52,640 Speaker 1: think about, like who's deciding who is worthy of having 529 00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:58,040 Speaker 1: right more babies. My mom worked with people with a 530 00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:01,960 Speaker 1: range of disabilities for a lot of her career, and 531 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:06,640 Speaker 1: it's like there are definitely complicated moral and ethical questions 532 00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:11,680 Speaker 1: when people are capable of having a child but genuinely 533 00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:15,080 Speaker 1: not necessarily capable of taking care of a child. Right, 534 00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:21,080 Speaker 1: These conversations do not include things like telling a woman 535 00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:23,440 Speaker 1: if she has her tubes tied, she can get her 536 00:35:23,520 --> 00:35:34,279 Speaker 1: kids back, right that nothing like that. Yeah, thanks so 537 00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:37,440 Speaker 1: much for joining us on this Saturday. Since this episode 538 00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:39,280 Speaker 1: is out of the archive, if you heard an email 539 00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:42,040 Speaker 1: address or a Facebook RL or something similar over the 540 00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:45,200 Speaker 1: course of the show that could be obsolete now. Our 541 00:35:45,239 --> 00:35:50,880 Speaker 1: current email address is History podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. 542 00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:54,080 Speaker 1: Our old health stuff works email address no longer works, 543 00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:56,640 Speaker 1: and you can find us all over social media at 544 00:35:56,800 --> 00:35:59,839 Speaker 1: missed in History. And you can subscribe to our show 545 00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:04,200 Speaker 1: on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, and wherever 546 00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:10,200 Speaker 1: else you listen to podcasts. 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