Date of Award
5-2014
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
Keywords
Ethnology--United States--19th century, Slavery--Southern States--Justification, Slavery--Southern States--History--19th century, Racism--United States--19th century, Social structure--United States--History--19th century
Abstract
In the mid-nineteenth century, a group of American scientists known collectively as the “American School” of ethnology challenged the validity of the biblical story of creation. They proposed that, contrary to the teaching of Genesis, there had been a number of separate divine acts of creation, leading to the appearance of more than one human species within the genus homo. They ranked the species, also known as varieties or races, in terms of relative superiority, with the Caucasian in the highest position of all.
I argue in my thesis that the rise of the American School was a defining moment in American history as well as in the history of American science. The debate on race and slavery dominated political as well as philosophical thought in the antebellum United States. Victorian society’s desire for conclusive scientific explanations for the weighty issues of contemporary life added meaning to the society’s first serious attempt to justify its actions based on scientific evidence and the first attempt by science to offer such support for social policy.
Recommended Citation
Smith, Robert A., "Types of mankind: polygenism and scientific racism in the nineteenth century United States scientific community." (2014). Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 105.
https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/etd/105
Comments
Born digital thesis, 146 p.