Chapter 10 - Growth of the Racial Worldview in Nineteenth-Century America

   Chapter 10 explores the contributions of science to the idea of race in America.  One scientist who helped solidify the folk beliefs about race was Dr. Charles White, who wrote "An Account of the Regular Gradation in Man", in which he concluded that Negroes were not human and each race was a separate species. 
Polygeny Vs. Monogeny: the Debate Over Race and Species-
    The debate was based on religious beliefs and whether God created one species of human that later degenerated, or several separate species from the outset.  People had already decided that Negroes were inferior, and were using religion to bolster that belief.  Scientists also began to support this belief.  In addition to Dr. White, Dr. Samuel Morton wrote about race differences; he used measurements of skulls to back up ideas of racial differences, then connected morals and intelligence to the physical traits.  Dr. Josiah Nott and Dr. George Glidden wrote "Types of Mankind", which was very influential to both the general public and several generations of students.
The Unnatural Mixture
    Ideas about interracial relationships and the resulting offspring began to turn negative by the 19th century, and laws were enacted to outlaw the relationships, which were considered to be unnatural and sinful.  The children, by use of hypo-descent, were accorded the status of the lower status parent. 
Scientific Race Ideology in the Judicial System
    Dred Scott Decision - Chief Justice Taney ruled that Negroes were not citizens and never could be, and that they had no rights. 
    Plessy vs. Ferguson - addressed segregation
    This section addressed the irony of slavery in a country that prided itself on being a democracy.  Most people were glad to believe that Negro slaves were inferior to the white race, because it provided an excuse for the enslavement, and allowed the whites to continue to make money and gain power through enslavement.  After the acceptance by the scientific world of evolution, the arguments about racial inferiority were made in scientific rather than religious terms.
White Supremacy
    Race began to be a more important factor than class or nationality when classifying a person.  Whites had begun to conquer or colonize large parts of the world, which seemed to back the view that whites were superior to other races. 
    Robert Knox - "race is everything"
    Dr. John Van Evrie - "White Supremacy and Nergo Subordination' - believed that whites were responsible for all successful societies in the past and present
 Immigrants and the Extension of the Race Heirarchy
    Whites began to racialize other groups, such as the Chinese and Japanese, or any group that was a threat to "white purity".  Many believed only whites could create and preserve democracy, and enacted laws denying certain rights to groups who were not white; they also began to restrict immigration.  By this time, the concept of white superiority was so much a part of the country's worldview that the few who didn't believe in it would rarely dare say as much.
    The effect of science on the racial worldview was important for two reasons: it validated racial differences, and it provided evidence which helped shape future laws and beliefs.  People were very willing to accept the scientific findings on racial differences because the findings supproted what they already believed, and because the scientists were supposedly working without bias and using scientific data.   People also wanted to believe that the differences were real to legitimize or excuse their poor treatment of minorities, and to allow them to continue to exploit these minorities.