Outcasts From Evolution: Scientific Attitudes of Racial Inferiority, 1859-1900

This book shows how the concept of the racial inferiority of blacks became institutionalized in the most respectable American scientific circles in the post-Civil War period. Ironically, the war that freed the slaves also contributed to the spread of ideas of racial inferiority, for scientists used anthropometric examinations carried out during the war on black soldiers and subsequent reports by southern physicians on the emancipated population to develop their theories.