OM

NINO

VALDOSTA STATE UNIVERSITY

"A community of scholars”

Volume 1 2010-11

Undergraduate Research Journal

OM

NINO

U ndergraduate Research Journal

Volume 1 2010-11

Valdosta State University 2011

Faculty Advisor

Nathan R. Elliott

Editors

Amanda Bissonnette Daniel Block R. Paul Brannon Chelsea Ellis Meredith McDonald Jessica Nesmith Khristian Roberts Matia Wright Yvonne Wright

Designers

Chad Stone Dorsena Drakeford Stephanie Turner

Copyright © 2011 by Valdosta State University

OMNINO

Undergraduate Research Journal

Volume 1, Number 1 2010-11

"A Proposition Which Is Both Contemptible and Rude”: Middle-Class Domesticity, Male Prerogative, and Male Resistance to the Elevation of the Age of Consent in the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885    3

by Bill Gay

by Kaci West

2009 Federal Spending for the 50 States by Katie Wagnon

Society’s Viewpoint and its Effect on Interracial Couples

105

113

123

143

168

by Kenneth Kelly

Adhering to the Same Ethics in the Age of Social Networking

by Sara Lynn McCall

Georgia’s Gratuitous General Electoral Laws: A Superfluous Senatorial Runoff in 2008 by Tyler Moore

The Submerged Tenth:American Eugenics & German Racial Hygiene in the Early 20th Century by W. Jake Newsome

Contributor’s Notes

Acknowledgements

The Editorial Board of Omnino wishes to thank all of the students who submitted articles to the journal. We also wish to thank those anonymous faculty members who generously gave their time to review student contributions. We would also like to thank Pat Miller’s staff for designing the layout and logo, including (insert names here?). Thanks to Pat Miller and Jane Kinney for conceiving of this project, and to James LaPlant and Louis Levy for their generous support, including making the issue available in print. We would like to thank Marilu Wentworth and her staff at Wiregrass Georgia Technical College for printing Omnino.

Editorial Note

The editorial board made a number of decisions that the general reader should be aware of when reading this inaugural issue of Omnino. We took our title from the Latin word for all together or wholly; we felt that this best symbolized the interdisciplinary nature of the journal and the community of Valdosta State University Scholars that we wanted to help create. However, bringing together a number of different disciplines created challenges of its own. Citation styles in this article will vary from article to article. MLA, APA, and the Chicago style are all represented, and variations on the Chicago style are also represented. We felt that it was better to let contributors cite their material according to their discipline specific needs, rather than forcing a false unity on the articles.

We strove to find articles that contributed something to their discipline, in the best tradition of university research. With that in mind, we sent all of our contributions to faculty members for peer review and attempted to find readers from more than one discipline whenever an article proved to have an interdisciplinary subject or approach. Often we received mixed and conflicting reports from our readers, and at other times we received requests for the contributors to further improve their article. We often had to make tough editorial decisions based on the reports of our faculty readers. As a result, we had to cut articles that we thought showed genuine promise. We want to thank those students who contributed, even if they were not ultimately selected for this issue.

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“A Proposition Which Is Both Contemptible and Rude”:

Middle-Class Domesticity, Male Prerogative, and Male Resistance to the Elevation of the Age of Consent in the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885

by William Gay

Abstract: Over the latter half of the nineteenth century, Victorian society took an interest in the common morality. Chief amongst these moral concerns was sex. In the 1870s and particularly the 1880s, reformists placed sufficient political pressure on Parliament to pass new laws elevating the age of consent for girls. These laws challenged the notions of manliness which manifested largely in sexual activity and in the home. Backlash from the middle- and upper-class only increased in the 1880s, effectively stopping legislation for a half-decade. The Pall Mall Gazette’s graphic expose on child rape, child prostitution and white slavery prodded the stymied Parliament to legislative action.

On August 9, the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885 became law in Britain. The Act attempted to regulate Victorian sexuality by raising the age of consent and creating harsher penalties within the law for sexual assault and rape. The passage of the law was the result of intractable social activism by women’s groups, social purity reformers, evangelicals, policemen, and journalists. Parliament’s passage of the Act stood as a triumphant symbol of their collective, if fragmented, effort and a testament to the growing power of middle-class values. For men, the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885 evoked mixed responses. While some sided with the social purist reformers, others argued vehemently against raising the age of consent. These men feared that in raising the age of consent, revising penalties for rape, and debating sexual topics in a public setting, men would lose their sexual and social advantage. The male detractors of the Criminal Law Amendment Act made the passage of the bill as much an issue of preserving masculine prerogative, as an issue of protecting young girls.

Historians have mostly viewed the public debates on sex which produced the Criminal Law Amendment Act by studying women, childhood,

prostitution and masculine homosexuality. The study of masculinity during the same period intersects with only some of these ideas. Any discourse on Victorian-era prostitution must begin with Judith Walkowitz’s monumental volume, Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class and the State in which she established Victorian-era prostitution, Victorian sexual conduct, and the societal relationship between the two as legitimate topics of historical study. Michael Pearson’s The Age of Consent and Its Enemies and The £5 Virgins were first to thoroughly examine the age of consent campaigns.

Pearson examined the political and evangelical reform movements contributing to W.T. Stead’s investigation and expository serial, “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon," and the subsequent passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885. Pearson overestimated the importance of Stead and his work in moving the Criminal Law Amendment forward, and failed to adequately consider the political opposition outside George Cavendish-Bentinck, Conservative MP from Whitehaven.¹

The emphasis on Stead’s highly public role led to evaluations of the historical context of Stead’s cause. Debrah Gorham’s “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon Revisited: Child Prostitution and the Idea of Childhood in Late Victorian England" connected the male opposition to the elevation of the age of consent as a primary cause of anger and consolidation amongst middle-class reformers such as W.T. Stead. In City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London, Judith Walkowitz examined the transition in urban sexual danger from the 1860s to the 1880s including the ways in which women entered the public debates on sex and prostitution. Among these discussions of public debates is the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885, which Walkowitz demonstrates tied directly into purity reform movements, prostitution, child-prostitution, and urban spectatorship.²

In recent years, renewed interest in W.T. Stead’s works and investigatory journalism, including the “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon," has led to the publication of several compilations of Stead’s works. Antony Simpson forwarded his edition, simply entitled The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon, with an essay which placed W.T. Stead’s expose in a long line of morally proscriptive writing. The societal perception of prostitution as a problem was antiquated, Simpson believes, but Stead’s published announcement that children were at times active participants shocked society-at-large. To Simpson, Stead’s large circulation and risque journalism was instrumental in moving the age of consent legislation forward, but not the sole determinant.³

Historians have found the studies of Victorian masculinity much more challenging. Most historical commentaries on late-Victorian masculinity focus on imperialism. Manliness and Morality: Middle-class Masculinity in Britain and America 1800-1940, edited by J.A. Mangan and James Walvin, compared the creation of British and American middle-class masculinities. In Britain, masculinity was heavily modified by Christian principles and connected innately to the freedom the British Empire provided. In “Reimagining Masculinity in Victorian Criticism: Swinburne and Pater," Thai's E Morgan examined the late-nineteenth century as a literary driven epoch of competing interpretations of masculinity. The work of historian John Tosh has proved to be central to the analysis of Victorian masculinity. In a series of articles culminating in A Man's Place: Masculinity and the Middle-Class Home in Victorian England, Tosh argued that late-Victorian masculinity was intricately related to the home, the family, and the construction of manly fraternity.⁴

During the late eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution prompted Britons to envision the middle class, and middle-class values, to be the center of British society. Prominent amongst the new middle-class value system was a newly constructed definition of domestic roles. These roles were relatively simple: the father was the bread winner, protector, and ruler of the household; the wife remained at home and maintained the house; the boys were foolish but industrious; and the girls were innocent young ladies, the ideal of Victorian childhood.⁵ Beyond the home, Victorian society segregated genders into two “separate social spheres" which Philippa Levine explained “governed popular perception of how the sexes ought to act."⁶ Victorian domesticity demanded women be both chaste and modest. Middle-class men on the other hand, had no expectation of chastity.

Masculinity had transformed since the start of the nineteenth century. Physical strength and politeness defined the early nineteenth century idealized version of masculinity. By midcentury, authors, evangelical preachers, and teachers at boys’ schools developed a new hypothetical masculinity: muscular or manly Christianity. The doctrine of muscular Christianity defined the ideal man for the latter half of the Victorian era. As a result, the values found in muscular Christian literature, like Tom Brown’s Schooldays, underpinned school curriculums and served as a guide to right-living throughout life. Muscular Christianity expanded the definition of masculinity to include more than just physical strength. Eng-lishness, virility, kindness, emotional self-control, valor, fair play, pragmatism, chivalry, and social and religious activism became equally as important. Taken together, Victorian men were supposed to be at once pious, strong, pragmatic, brave, and emotionally restrained, but loyal to their male friends and a fierce defender of women’s honor.⁷

In muscular Christianity, Victorian men found themselves confronted by a man-made mandate to protect the chastity of middle-class and upper-class women, but were not specifically denied their own sexual desires.

Disposable income compounded the issue, allowing middle-class and upper-class men to acquire sexual services outside of the home. Victorian men turned to poor and working-class women to fulfill their sexual pleasure. Using the lower classes as a sexual outlet also preserved the chastity and modesty of reputable middle-class and upper-class women.

Victorian men envisioned women, particularly lower-class and working-class women as overtly sexual and mirroring their own sexual desires. William Acton, a doctor and leading evangelical, argued that women used sex, including prostitution, as a means to receive male attention. Women, according to Acton, possessed “an aggressive desire to show their affection" which is “unreasoning and dangerous, precisely analogous to that which prompts the surrenders and self-tortures of the religious devotee."⁸ The idea figured prominently in My Secret Life, a Victorian pornographic serial, which recollected several decades of sexual exploits of an anonymous Victorian gentleman. Walter, narrator of My Secret Life, commented “that every girl wanted fucking, and was longing secretly for it, high, or low, rich or poor, it was the same. As to servants, and women of the humbler class, that they all took cock on the quiet, and were proud of having a gentle-man to cover them. Such was the opinion of men in my class of life and of my age. My experience with my mother's servants corroborated it."⁹ Walter superimposed his desire for sexual interaction onto the women around him, and reinforced the belief with personal observations.

Walter’s comments also demonstrated the attitudes of class bias inherent in the middle-class and upper-class male mindset. Sexual liaisons between men of the upper- and middle-class and women of the working-class and lower-class were as much an issue of sexual power as established social custom. For the upper-class, who still held much of the political power in the country, and the middle-class, the growing enfranchisement of the nineteenth century, the power exercised over other classes was especially gratifying. Society allowed men to explore and fulfill their sexual desires, and the ability to use women of the lower orders sexually was fundamental to this allowance.

The debates of sex struck at the heart of male power because the issues affected not only themselves, but their status in society. Upper- and middle-class Victorian men lived in radically different social spheres, but effectively operated on the same idea: the chastity of the women in the middle- and upper-class women was sacred. If men were to preserve the status quo inherent in nineteenth century ideal of domesticity, men would have to turn their sexual desires toward other classes.¹⁰ Thus, as historian Michael Pearson expressed, middle- and upper-class “natural male lusts should be serviced by the poor."¹¹ The exertion of male power over the poor and the young became an inseparable part of the public debate on sex, especially the age of consent debate of the 1870s and 1880s.

The age of consent debates tied directly into rape, child-rape, and abduction. English Law had varying definitions for rape, child-rape, and various proscriptions for the punishment of such acts. The age of consent is the age at which the law deems a person capable of consenting to sexual intercourse. Before that age, regardless of consent, any sex is considered rape. In England, common law set the age of consent at twelve.

The 1275 Rape Act established that a rape victim over age twelve had to come forward within forty days, or else forfeit the right to indict the attacker; the offence would instead be emolliated to a trespass charge. In 1285, Parliament reclassified rape as a felony in the Forfeiture of Dower Act. Rape became a crime for which the King could pursue punishment even if the victimized woman did not press charges. In 1575, the Benefit of Clergy Act eliminated the use of Benefit of Clergy, a legal clause which significantly alleviated the severity of an indictment for clergymen and literates, in any rape or forced entry indictment. Thus by the end of the sixteenth century, rape had transformed from a trespass to a felony, and the entire male population could theoretically suffer full and equal punishment for the crime.¹²

Rape-law went relatively unchanged until 1828, when the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the Offences against the Person Act. The Act simplified violent crime laws, including streamlining those for rape and sexual assaults. Under the Act any sexual interaction with a girl between ten and twelve a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment. Parliament supplanted the 1828 Act in 1861 with the Offences against the Person Act, 1861. The Act continued to streamline older criminal codes and reorganized abduction, child-stealing, rape and child-rape laws. The 1861 Act defined the time of imprisonment appropriate for unlawful carnal knowledge misdemeanors, made all sexual liaisons with children twelve and under felonies, and made those between twelve and thirteen misdemeanors. The Offences against the Person Act, 1875 raised the age of consent to fourteen. Any sexual liaison with a girl aged thirteen or below was a crime, and sexual liaison with a girl between age thirteen and fourteen constituted a misdemeanor. The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1875 elevated the age of consent to sixteen. With the passage of the Act, liaison with a girl under fourteen became a felony, and liaison with a girl between fourteen and sixteen became a misdemeanor. The Act also increased the legal penalties for those who abducted girls for sexual purposes, and emphasized the use of indecent assault for those cases which did not qualify as rape. Most importantly, the Act severely restricted the sexual peroga-tives of men.¹³

The age of consent debates provided the most substantive challenge to male sexual power in the late nineteenth century. The legislation proposed to raise the age of consent from twelve to fourteen or sixteen, and to increase the responsibility of the offender. In plain text, the proposals appeared relatively straightforward, but the act of raising the age of consent or holding offenders more accountable became far more than a legislative act. Raising the age of consent legally outlawed a large portion of the population from men’s sexual menu, lessening male power over women and the poor. Forcing men to accept responsibility for actions committed further threatened the legal advantage of masculinity.

The sexual debates began as a response to the perceived increasing immorality of the country as a whole. The debate placed women at the epicenter of the social ill. Throughout the early nineteenth century doctors expressed concern at the widespread occurrence of venereal disease in the working class and lower class, particularly among prostitutes. Middle class social activists narrowed the concern to prostitutes, ignoring the possible sexual interactions persons of either class may have had with the middle or upper class, in favor of a simplified answer. This unsophisticated view was only furthered when doctors like William Acton attempted to link the proliferation of the sex industry to the lack of middle and upper class interest in the subject. As more members of the middle and upper class became involved in the debate, the issue reached Parliament.

Parliament immediately saw the issue reaching far beyond the home country. Venereal disease, Parliament feared, could waylay the mainly lower-class armed forces. Thus in an effort to protect soldiers and sailors from the venereal diseases carried by prostitutes, Parliament passed the Contagious Disease Acts in 1864. Amended in 1866 and 1869, the C.D. Acts eventually encompassed eight military installations and empowered the police to conduct systematic searches of all women suspected to be prostitutes or carriers of venereal disease. The intimate nature of the exams, and the power placed in the hands of the all-male police force led to sexual assaults, rapes, and harassment of other lower-class women.

Judith Walkowitz demonstrated in Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class and the State, that women were not strictly victims during the 1860s. Many women, especially upper- and middle-class women, openly opposed the Acts. Primarily female middle-class organizations, like the Ladies National Association founded by Josephine Butler, began to openly petition the removal of the Acts. The pressure became so severe that Parliament suspended the laws in 1882 and repealed the laws outright in 1885. The Contagious Disease Acts provided a focus for groups concerned with extending the value of female chastity to the lower classes. Many of these same groups later became concerned with the age of consent.

Resistance to age of consent reform first became apparent when social reform legislation in the 1870s called for the age of consent to rise as part of another bill. In 1872, a group of Liberal MPs introduced the Bastardy Law Amendment Bill. The bill aimed to increase the length of time men would be fiscally responsible for children born out of wedlock. William Charley argued that the best way to decrease the risk of infanticide was to increase the age of consent from twelve to fourteen, and to extend the length of time fathers were mandated to support the mother and bastard child. The proposed bill met with strong opposition, not because of the age of consent, but because men would be forced to support mother and bastard child financially for a longer period of time. Charley remained undeterred and reintroduced the age of consent clause in the Seduction Law Amendment Bill in 1873. The Seduction Law Amendment Act, 1875 ultimately failed primarily due to objections from Conservative MPs led by George Cavendish-Bentinck claiming the bill too heavily modified the common law.¹⁴

Charley reintroduced the clause a third time in 1875 in the Offences against the Person Act , 1875. The Act again proposed to raise the age of consent to fourteen, but the proposition again met with fierce opposition based on the substantial changes the Act made to the common law. Richard Gurney, Conservative MP for Southampton, proposed a compromise in the legislation. Gurney’s compromise set the age of consent at thirteen. The Act would make all sexual liaisons with girls under the age of twelve, the common law age of consent, a felony. The new extension in the age of consent, between twelve and thirteen, became a misdemeanor. The compromise satisfied both parties, and the Offences against the Person Act passed in 1875. ¹⁵

The age of consent debate remained relatively quiet in relation to the public until the early 1880s. Between 1879 and 1881, Alfred Dyer and Josephine Butler, along with components of the Salvation Army, investigated prostitution on the continent. Their findings, published in On the State of Continental Prostitution, alleged the existence of an underground sexual economy. Young British girls were abducted into the continental trade or procured by fraud into the domestic trade. The result of the findings so thoroughly shocked the activist middle and upper class that the House of Lords took issue with the report, and resolved to produce measures to assure the safety of British girlhood.¹⁶

Parliament immediately moved to inhibit the domestic portions of the trade. In 1883, the Earl of Dalhousie proposed further amendments to the criminal law in the House of Lords. Designed to protect British girls by raising the age of consent to sixteen, the proposition passed twice through to the House of Commons, but failed to pass the in the lower house. For the age of consent debate, success came in 1885 when W.T. Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, investigated the domestic sex and slave trade. “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon" rocked the political world and changed the tenor of the House of Commons. Stead helped unite the

House of Commons, and push the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885 through both the House of Commons, despite the remaining opposition.¹⁷

After 1881, and especially after Stead’s series in 1885, Britons feared the seizure of young girls by false pretences or by force for use in prostitution. These debates tied directly to the subject of rape and child-rape, two of the least gender-equitable Crimes against the Person. For rape to occur, there had to be penetration and emission; penetration made rape, and emission was proof of the act. Yet for justice to be administered, the victim had to come forward and press charges quickly. ¹⁸

Jurists and judges had argued for the cautionary manner to protect men from unjust accusations of rape. Sir Matthew Hale was explicit in his concern saying, “[i]t is true rape is a most detestable crime . . . but it must be remembered, that it is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be proved, and harder to be defended by the party accused, tho never so innocent."¹⁹ Hale’s concerns were echoed by William Blackstone in the Commentaries of the Laws of England and E.W. Cox in The Principals of Punishment. The preservation of Hale’s comments into the late nineteenth century was a testament to the preservation of the cautionary and fearful male attitude present in the legal system.

The attitude had produced more barriers by the late nineteenth century, including need to prove the intention of the accused to commit rape, not just the act. Cox is explicit, arguing that the act of rape is imaginary.²⁰ In the nineteenth century, E.W. Cox’s Principles of Punishment echoed a similar idea, emphasizing character of the female victim as the primary determinate of rape’s occurrence. In Cox’s estimate, many women cried rape in order to preserve their character, deciding after intercourse against the decision. Cox viewed women who did not share the middle-class value of modesty an improper rape victim.²¹ If a woman, Cox explained, “chooses to excite fierce passions by permitting liberties to a certain extent, though herself not intending to advance beyond them, she has no right to ask the law to punish such an offence."²² Even in the 1870s, men continued to worry about unjust claims of rape, and women and girls suffered from their fear.

Some also questioned the existence of child-rape, leading to cases like Reg. v. Guthrie. In 1870 ten year old Mary Davidson accused John Guthrie, but the statutory case had been dismissed based on a lack of evidence, particularly that of emission and penetration, and on the assertion that Davidson had given consent to Guthrie. Subsequently, the lower court convicted Guthrie of simple assault. The conviction, however, breached the letter of the law. Davidson was under the legal age of consent, and thus her consent should not have mattered. Arguing that there was sufficient evidence to convict and that consent was irrelevant, the

Davidsons appealed and brought the case before William Bovill, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and several constituents.²³ Citing several cases where lesser indictments triumphed over more serious charges, Bovill expressed his views of the indictments and the case, saying that “the statutory offense [of rape] may be committed, although there is consent; but if there is consent there cannot be assault. In this indictment the substantive common law offence of an assault was charged, and there is no ground for not convicting for that which is thus distinctly charged, although a more serious crime follows it."²⁴ The majority of other sitting judges concurred, and the court returned Guthrie to prison to serve-out his short sentence for assault.

Reg v. Guthrie illustrates the skepticism which surrounded child-rape. Although Davidson was clearly under-age, the judges erred on what they saw as the side of caution. In doing so, Bovill and his associate judges revealed the problems of trying child-rapes. Courts held a predisposition to believe male testimony over female, adult testimony to that of a child. Most judges believed that penetration and emission were necessary to constitute rape, but one component, penetration, was physically suspect in child-rape. As a consequence, the existence of child-rape, as an act and not a theory, was highly doubted.

As skeptical as some of Victorian society was of child-rape, Victorians were in no way skeptical about abduction; instead Victorian society perceived abduction as a growing threat after the start of the 1880s. The concern arose primarily from prostitution, which Victorian evangelicals and social activists perceived as a malicious trade which actively sought new recruits. The report by Butler and Dyer, and the public exposition by W.T. Stead, both realized and exacerbated social anxiety over child safety. The concern had risen at midcentury, as a result of religious and social purists. The anxiety manifested in the Offences against the Persons Acts, 1861 provided for the defense of women. Under the statute the abduction of women for immoral purposes became a felony, and taking a girl under the age of sixteen from her father became a misdemeanor. ²⁵

Raising the age of consent past thirteen tied directly into the notion of masculine fear. Despite the graphic accounts of prostitution and rape published from midcentury onwards, there were many men in the political and social spheres who argued vehemently against the elevation of the age of consent. The arguments and reasoning varied. Some judges, as Reg. v. Guthrie showed, questioned the possibility of child-rape. Other men argued that statutes which mandated the age of consent interfered with the Common Law. Some feared that revising the criminal law would put them wholly at the mercy of women, and subject to malicious lawsuits. Others argued that any public debates on sexuality destroyed social decency; some even went as far to wager that the debates would prompt the young to immoral lives. These diverse and sometime haphazard arguments yielded one simple desire: men wished to protect themselves from accusations of rape regardless of their own sexual conduct, and by protecting themselves, to preserve male sexual power and the status quo inherent in the law. In the 1880s, these arguments were distilled in two basic arguments: the preservation of social decency and the fear of rape allegations.

After 1881, men in power had become increasingly aware of the pressure to change the criminal law. Court decisions and public opinion closed in around male prerogative over the last decade. Popular pressure, spurred on by social activists and not any politician, led the House of Lords to investigate and authenticate Butler and Dyer’s findings. The attitude of judges began to favor men less. In Reg. v. Prince (1875), Henry Prince had attempted to remove fourteen year old Annie Phillips from the care of her father for immoral purposes. Prince estimated Annie to be eighteen, and Prince received her consent before departing from her home. But because Annie lived with her father, Prince was liable under the Offences against the Person Act, 1861 § 55, which stated that any person who removed a girl under sixteen from the care of her father was guilty of misdemeanor. Prince argued that his intent was to remove a girl of legal age for immoral purpose. Because he did not want to remove a minor from the care of her father, Prince believed he did not commit a crime, and could not be held liable under the law.²⁶

While attempting to discern if criminal intent applied to Henry Prince, the judges began to question the age of consent. Blackburn, one of the presiding judges, added that previous judges ruled erroneously. “It seems impossible to suppose," he said, “that the intention of the legislature in these sections could have been to make the crime dependent upon the knowledge of the prisoner of the girls’ actual age. It would produce monstrous results." Blackburn went on to say that the punishment for abduction went far enough but urged, for caution, “to fix [the age of discretion] at sixteen." In Reg. v. Prince, for the first time, judges affirmed the notion that men could be misled (or mislead themselves) and still be held accountable. Furthermore, the judges considered the notion of a more protective age of consent, which would help protect both sexes. ²⁷

In 1882, Reg. v. Ratcliffe, confirmed the power of age of consent legislation over male prerogative in court. The case tested the power of the raised age of consent, and a possible loop-hole in the law. The previous year, Josiah Ratcliffe raped twelve year old Ellen Ratcliffe. The lower courts had indicted Josiah Ratcliffe for felony rape and misdemeanor unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl aged twelve to thirteen.²⁸ Ratcliffe appealed under The Offenses Against the Person Act, 1875, which stated “[w]ho-ever so shall unlawfully and carnally know or abuse a girl above the age of twelve years and below the age of thirteen year, either with or without her consent, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor." ²⁹ Josiah Ratcliffe appealed for the removal of the rape charge, arguing instead that the law stated he was guilty only of a misdemeanor. The judges broke down Josiah’s appeal into three fundamental questions. First, whether the clause Josiah Ratcliffe appealed on explicitly stated that unlawful carnal knowledge of a minor was a misdemeanor; second, whether misdemeanor and felony were mutually exclusive or whether they could compound; third, whether there was a difference between rape, or violently carnally knowing a woman and carnally knowing a girl without her consent. Unlike prior cases, the judges upheld the previous conviction, arguing that rape was separate from misdemeanor carnal knowledge. By reinforcing the prior conviction, the Queen’s Bench illustrated that male prerogative, in the eyes of the law, was diminishing. Whatever judgment Parliament passed into law, there would be rigid enforcement. ³⁰

In 1883, Parliament began debate on the criminal law. John Ramsey, Earl of Dalhousie, urged the House of Lords to elevate the age of consent to sixteen, but many Lords felt the physical appearance of girls of this age were too near the physical appearance of an adult woman. Setting the age at sixteen left little room for error, and made the threat of duplicitous cries of rape or plans of entrapment against honest men a tangible threat. Edward Leeson, Earl of Milltown, insisted any change in the age of consent should move the age upward to eighteen. ³¹ The Earl worried that “[g]irls of bad character under sixteen, but looking much older, might inveigle men to accompany them to houses of ill fame, who by doing so, although having no intention to do an illegal act, would thereby be guilty of a misdemeanor."³² These unfortunate men would then “have no means of escape unless they consented to pay blackmail to the girls or their employers."³³

Worries about the fate of masculine power were echoed later in the session by the Earl of Pembroke. In 1883, the Earl of Pembroke argued the anti-vice zeal contained within the act would either force prostitution underground, or force prostitution into the streets. In making a choice between what the Earl of Pembroke saw as two distinct options, there was only one clear answer. “There can be no doubt," he told the House of Lords, “as to which should be chosen; for the one exposed the innocent to temptation, and the other did not." ³⁴ This argument against the act on the grounds of public decency was not confined solely to Parliament. Intense pressure from these two view points allowed weakened versions of the amendments to pass in the House of Lords, but the House of Commons filibustered the proposed measures.³⁵

Almost immediately, readdressing the proposal became a politically challenging task. Many Lords who were opposed to the amendment of the age of consent and the criminal laws had used the time provided by filibuster in the House of Commons to prepare for the Criminal Law Amendment Act to return to the House of Lords. When the Act arrived, those opposed to the bill attempted to defeat the measure before extensive debate. In the House of Lords, the Earl of Langford asked, on the first reading of the returned legislation, to dismiss the bill until the following term or until the House of Lords could assess the need to deliberate any further.³⁶

Other lords still could not divorce the interest of the act with their own masculine interest. Despite the legislative intent of the act, the Earl of Milltown could not see past the complications which could arise in the male social sphere, especially in the home.³⁷

Now [the age of consent] was proposed to jump to 16; but it was clear that the Government were not fully satisfied of the reasonableness of the proposal, because they had hedged it with two safeguards— one that the Act should not apply where the offender was shown not to have known the age of the girl, and the other requiring the consent of the Public Prosecutor before proceedings could be taken. Their Lordships would be surprised at the number of marriages which took place at 15 and 16, although in many cases the age was not ascertained, as the word "minor" was simply inserted in the certificate.

But, according to the registers, there were, in 1878, 21 girls married at 15, and 291 at 16; in 1879, the numbers were, respectively, 32 and 253; in 1880, 28 and 272; in

1881, 20 and 288; and, in 1822, 29 and 299, and in each year one girl was actually married at 14. And yet it was now proposed to make it a misdemeanour to have connection with those mobile girls with their own consent, and even on their own solicitation. ³⁸

To the Earl of Milltown, the act represented a threat toward patriarchal domesticity. Both these requests operated on the acknowledgement that men wanted to draw dangerously close to the line drawn by age of consent legislation. As the ruling in Reg. v. Prince demonstrated, men who sought relationships with girls below the age of consent risked indictment. The Earl of Milltown continued to view the legislation as an inequity toward men. By raising the age of consent to sixteen, men were disallowed an entire sector of the female population from which to choose sexual and domestic partners. While startling, what seemed more appalling was the idea that men or their sons could be in imminent danger of the law. Young girls and women could solicit men, but men could not indulge their sexual desires without carefully screening their partners to avoid confrontation with the law.³⁹

Some Lords, and MPs, clearly found any notion that a man was responsible for having to know the age of sexual partner unsettling. As John Tosh explained, the late-Victorian men “conducted extra-marital relationships in the confidence that, morality aside, their family interests were thereby not placed at risk."⁴⁰ Tosh argues that men dreaded legal entanglements which labeled any extramarital relationships, be they the relationships of the man or his wife, because any labeling harmed the notion of masculine domestic and sexual mastery. Thus for men, any social liability for extramarital relationships built into the law struck at the center of masculine dominance, the home. As Lords and MPs argued against the passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, they argued against identification. The sexual license and social safety of men superseded the immediate intent of the act.⁴¹

In 1884, the Criminal Law Amendment passed in the House of Lords, but was again filibustered by debate on other bills in the senate. In 1885, except for minor outcry, an almost identical measure passed through the House of Lords to the House of Commons. The House of Commons, however, threatened to drop the legislation as the session drew to an end. For evangelicals and social activists, the importance of improved criminal legislation was immense. On July 4, 1885, the Pall Mall Gazette issued a note from its editor, W.T. Stead, warning the readers of the paper of the subject matter which the paper would contain over the following days.

There was immediate outcry over the substance of the “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon." On July 9, 1885, W.T. Stead published an assessment of his expose. The assessment compared the breadth and number of laudatory letters against a relatively small number of letters which predominantly argued against the publication and public distribution of the admittedly graphic “Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon." One reader, T.J. Levitt, declared that “no good purpose can be served the publication of the mass of disgusting detail which pollute your pages, and render your journal unfit to be received in any respectable or decently conducted family."⁴²

As John Tosh and Debrah Gorham have shown, the maintenance of a middle-class household served as a measure of the head of household’s masculinity. The closer a man’s home conformed to the idea of middle-class domesticity, the more successful the man. The pervasiveness of the public debate challenged the notion of masculinity in the household. So if a man wanted to be viewed as manly, he would have to maintain the innocence of his wife and children. Exposure to the scandalous debates would ruin the innocence of a child and impinge the honor of a lady. Men who ran a household therefore had to protect the home from indecencies like the public debate of sex and prostitution.⁴³

Public outcry against the debates continued well after conclusion of “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon" and into highly-publicized House of Commons debate on the Criminal Law Amendment Act. On July 22, 1885 the St. James' Gazette published a letter written by children’s author Lewis Carroll. Carroll, a mild supporter of the legislation, commented that “a few years ago, if any impure scandal arose, its investigation and punishment were left to those whose painful duty it was to know the sickening details: women and boys were turned out of court: no particulars were given in any respectable journal."⁴⁴ Aghast at the public debates, Carroll wondered “whether this mode of rousing public opinion is, or is not, doing more harm than good. . . . I plead, with whosoever has the power to interfere, to stay, before it is too late, the flood of abomination with which we are threatened."⁴⁵ Carroll demonstrates a way to remedy the situation without public debate. The debates, according to Carroll, should be handled in private by men whose domestic role was to protect their families from indecency. Change was good, but that change should take place within the context of the old, highly gender-preferential system.

Stead’s “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon" shocked the House of Commons into action. The Act, as it passed from the House of Lords, was received with applause. Yet the House of Commons bogged down. While some MPs argued that the Act would disrupt immorality, others worried that the legislation would disrupt masculinity. On July 31, 1885, Lyulph Stanley, Liberal MP for Oldham, argued that the act went too far in its punishment for abduction and fraudulent procurement. “It would be too much," Stanley said, “for a woman to induce a man to knowingly go with her, and then turn round and give him two year’s imprisonment for it on the charge that she had been influenced by false representations made to her."⁴⁶ George Cavendish-Bentinck seconded Stanley’s objections. Cavendish-Bentinck worried that without limitation, the clause which increased penalties for rape under false pretenses would be a “great danger."⁴⁷ While other MPs dissented, arguing that any restriction on the legislation would limit the ability to control vice, some MPs remained concerned about the future of men in the week following Stanley’s comment.

The opposition found a solution in the amendment proposed by Cavendish-Bentinck on August 7, which explicitly mandated that any accusation of rape under pretense of fraud required corroborating witness testimony. Once Cavendish-Bentinck’s amendment was ratified, the act lost substantial power, and men regained substantial protection. The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885 threatened to make the privacy of any extramarital relationship much more dangerous to men. The legislation which Cavendish-Bentinck proposed to amend significantly empowered courts to prosecute rape under false pretenses. Men feared that immoral women would abuse the law, making men’s criminal and social innocence difficult to maintain against charges of rape under pretense of fraud with hearsay evidence. Cavendish-Bentinck’s amendment reinforced the male position by mandating that a woman automatically provide a witness to make press charges of rape pretense of fraud.⁴⁸

On August 9, 1885, the Criminal Law Amendment Act passed into law after a highly publicized debate in the House of Commons. Even with Cavendish- Bentinck’s amendment, the passage of the Act severely limited the legal and sexual power men possessed. Men, who other historians have denoted as an anti-legislation monolith, were fractured in their argumentation against the age of consent. Most drew on the fear they would lose their power and advantage, whether that loss be through pub-lically humiliating accusations of rape or through the inclusion of others in debate. The Act and debates, however, did far more than limit prerogative and underscore the fractures in public and political discourse. As Catherine Robson demonstrated, the public debate on sex, “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon," and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885 disrupted the innocent image of young girls. Victorian society thereafter removed young girls as the symbolic child of the era. Young boys were raised in their place.⁴⁹

OM

NINO

Endnotes:

1.    Judith Walkowitz, Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class, and the State (Cambridge, Cambridge UP); Michael Pearson, The Age of Consent and Its Enemies: Victorian Prostitution and Its Enemies (David and Charles: Newton Abbott, 1972), 158-64; Michael Pearson, The £5 Virgins (Saturday Review: New York, 1972),158-64 .1940, (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987); The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885, 48&49 Vict., c. 69.

The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885 rather infamously contained the Labouchere Amendment which made any male homosexual act illegal. The clause was used to arrest, indict, and convict Oscar Wilde in the 1890s.

2.    Debrah Gorham, “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon Revisited: Child Prostitution and the Idea of Childhood in Late Victorian England," Victorian Studies 21 (1978): 358-59; Judith Walkowitz, City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London (Cambridge:

Cambridge UP, 1992), 4-5.

3.    W.T. Stead, The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon, ed. Antony Simpson (Lambertville, NJ: Truebill, 2007), 1-22.

4.    J.A. Mangan and James Walvin, eds., Manliness and Morality: Middle-class Masculinity in Britain and America 1800-1940 (New York: St. Martin’s, 1987); Thai's E. Morgan, “Reimagining Masculinity in Victorian Criticism: Swinburne and Pater," Victorian Studies 36 (1993): 315-17; John Tosh, “Gentlemanly Politeness and Manly Simplicity in Victorian England," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 12 (2002): 458-9; John Tosh, “Keighly to St-Denis: Separation and Intimacy in Victorian Bourgeoisie Marriages," History Workshop 40 (1995): 193-96; John Tosh, A Man's Place: Masculinity and the Middle-Class Home in Victorian England (New Haven: Yale UP, 1999), 2-8.

5.    Dror Wohrman, Imagining the Middle Class: The Political Representation of Class in Britain, c. 1780-1840 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995), 9; Catherine Robson, Men in Wonderland: The Lost Girlhood of the Victorian Gentlemen (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2001), 46-51; John Tosh, “Gentlemanly Politeness," 458-62.

6.    Philippa Levine, Prostitution, Race, and Politics: Policing Venereal Disease in the British Empire (Routledge: New York, 2003): 258; Lenore Davidoff, “Class and Gender in Victorian England: The Diaries of Arthur J. Munby and Hannah Cullwick," Feminist Studies 5 (1979): 87-88

7.    J.A. Mangan, “Social Darwinism and upper-class education in late Victorian and Edwardian England," in Manliness and Morality: Middle-class Masculinity in Britain and America 1800-1940, J.A. Mahan and James Walvin, eds. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987), 136-140; John Tosh, A Man's Place, 1-10; John Tosh, “Gentlemanly Politeness," 458-62.

8.    William Acton, Prostitution, Considered in Its Moral, Social and Sanitary Aspects (London: John Churchill, 1857), 20.

9.    Anonymous, My Secret Life, vol. 2 (Private Publisher: Amsterdam, 1888): 1.

10.    Davidoff, “Class and Gender," 87-88.

11.    Pearson, The Age of Consent, 12; Michael Pearson, The £5 Virgins,

12.

12.    2 Black. Comm. §212; Rape Act, 1275, 13 Edw. I, Westm. 2, c.34; Forfeiture of Dower Act, 1285, 3 Edw. I, Westm. 1, c.13; Benefit of Clergy Act, 1575, 18 Eliz. I, c. 7.

13.    Offences Against the Person Act, 1828, 9 Geo. 4, c. 31; Offences Against the Person Act, 1861, 24 & 25 Vict., c.100; The Offences against the Person Act, 1875, 38 & 39 Vict., c. 94; The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885, 48&49 Vict., c. 69.

14.    Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, 3rd Ser., vol. 210 [1872], col. 1032; Ibid., vol. 211 [1872], cols. 1972-74; Ibid., vol. 215 [1873], cols.

468-83.

15.    The Offences Against the Person Act, 1875, 38 & 39 Vict. c. 94 §2

4.

16.    Gorham, “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon Revisited," 35859; Pearson, The Age of Consent, 84-87; Pearson, The £Virgins, 84-87.

17.    The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885, 48 & 49 Vict., c.69

18.    Hale 1 P.C. §628; Hawk. 1 P.C. 122.

19.    Hawk. 1 P.C. 122.

20.    Black. 4 Comm. §215; E.W. Cox, The Principles of Punishment as Applied in the Administration of the Criminal Law by Judges and Magistrates (London: Horace Cox, 1877), 82-83.

21.    Ibid., 83.

22.    Ibid., 84.

23.    Reg. v. Guthrie, Law Rep. 1 Cr. Co. 241 (1870).

24.    Ibid.

25.    Offenses Against the Person Act, 1861, 24 &25 Vict., c. 100, §49, 54-56; Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885, 48 & 49 Vict., c. 69.

26.    Reg. v. Prince, Law Rep. 2 Cr. Co. 154 (1875)

27.    Ibid.

28.    Reg. V. Ratcliffe, 10 Q.B.D. 74 (1882). The familial relationship, if any existed, between Josiah Ratcliffe and Ellen Ratcliffe was never stated.

29.    Offenses against the Person Act, 1875, Vict. 38 & 39, c.94 §4.

30.    Reg. V. Ratcliffe, 10 Q.B.D. 74 (1882).

31.    Hansard, 3rd ser., vol. 280 [1883], cols. 1382-1401.

32.    Ibid., col. 1390.

33.    Ibid.

34.    Ibid., vol. 280 [1883], col.1396.

35. Pearson, The Age of Consent, 54-67; Pearson, The £5 Virgins, 5467.

36.    Hansard, 3rd Ser., vol. 281 [1883], cols. 398-403.

37.    Ibid., vol. 289 [1884], col. 1208-12.

38.    Ibid., vol. 288 [1884], col. 1157.

39.    Ibid., vol. 289 [1884], col. 1219; Gorham, “Maiden Tribute Revisited," 366.

40.    Tosh, A Man’s Place, 3.

41.    Ibid., 3-5, 31.

42.    W.T. Stead, The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon, 160.

43.    Gorham, “Maiden Tribute Revisited," 364; Tosh, A Man's Place, 1-7.

44.    “Appendix: Lewis Carroll’s Letter to the St. James; Gazette, July 22, 1885," in Men in Wonderland: the Lost Girlhood of Victorian Gentlemen (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2001): 195.

45.    Ibid., 195-6.

46.    Hansard. 3rd ser., vol. 300 [1885], cols. 699-701.

47.    Ibid., cols. 701-03.

48.    Ibid., cols. 1464-65.

49.    Robson, Men in Wonderland, 197.

Bibliography Primary Source Documents:

Acton, William. Prostitution, Considered in Its Moral, Social

and Sanitary Aspects, in London and Other Large Cities and Garrson Towns, with Proposals for the Control and Prevention of At tendant Evils.

London: John Churchill, 1857.

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Cox, E.W. Principles of Punishment as Applied in the Administration of the Criminal Law by Judges and Magistrates. London: Horace Cox, 1877.

Great Britain. Court of Crown Cases. Reserved. The Law Reports: Cases determined by the Court for Crown Cases Reserved. Ed. James R. Bulwer. 2 vols. W. Clowes and Sons: London, 1872-75.

—. High Court of Justice. Queen Bench Division. The Law Reports: Queen's Bench Division and on appeal there from in the Court of Appeal, and decisions in the Court of Appeal Criminal Division. Ed. James R. Bulwer and A.P. Stone. 25 vols. W. Clowes and Sons: Lon don, 1881-1889.

—. House of Lords. Select Committee. Reports from the House of Lords: On the Law Relating to the Protection of Young Girls from the Artifices of Vice to Induce them to Lead a Life of Corruption.

1881.    HL Rep. [448] ix.

—. House of Lords. Select Committee. Reports from the House of Lords: On the Law Relating to the Protection of Young Girls from the Artifices of Vice to Induce them to Lead a Life of Corruption.

1882.    HL Rep. [344] xiii.

Mead, Frederick, and A.H. Bodkin. The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885, with Introduction, Notes, and Index. Shaw and Sons:

London, 1885.

Stead, W.T. “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon: The Report of the Secret Commission." Pall Mall Gazette July 4-10 1885. Ed. Antony Simpson. Lambertville, NJ: True Bill, 2007.

United Kingdom. Hansard's Parliamentary Debates. 3rd ser. 356 vols.

Hansard: London, 1830-91.

—. Statutes of the Realm. Ed. A. Luder. 11 vols. HMSO: London, 1810

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Secondary Articles:

Capp, Bernard. “The Double Standard Revisited: Plebian Women and the Male Sexual Reputation in Early Modern Britain." Past and

Present 162 (Spring 1999): 351-90.

Davidoff, Lenore . “Class and Gender in Victorian England: The Diaries of Arthur J. Munby and Hannah Cullwick." Feminist Studies 5, no. 1 (Spr. 1979): 86-141.

Gorham, Debrah. “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon Revisited: Child Prostitution and the Idea of Childhood in Late Victorian England." Victorian Studies 21 (Spring 1978): 353-79.

Morgan, Thai's E. “Reimagining Masculinity in Victorian Criticism: Swin burne and Pater." Victorian Studies 36, no.3 (Spr. 1993): 315332.

Roberts, M.J.D. “Feminism and the State in Late Victorian England." The Historical Journal 28 (March 1995): 85-110.

Sigworth, E.M., and T.J. Wike. “A Study of Victorian Prostitution and

Venereal Disease." Suffer and Be Still: Women in the Victorian Age. Ed. Martha Vicinus. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1972.

Tosh, John. “Gentlemanly Politeness and Manly Simplicity in Victorian England." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 12, 6th series (2002): 455-72.

—. “Keighly to St-Denis: Separation and Intimacy in Victorian Bour geoisie Marriages." History Workshop 40 (Autumn, 1995): 193-206.

—. “What Should Historians Do with Masculinity? Reflection on Nine teenth-Century Britain." History Workshop 38 (1994): 179-202.

Walkowitz, Judith R., and Daniel J. Walkowitz. ““We Are Not Beasts of the Field": Prostitution and the Poor in Plymouth and Southamp ton under the Contagious Diseases Acts." Feminist Studies 1, no. 3/4 (1973): 73-106.

Wohl, Lorry. “"The Boys are Pickpockets, the Girl is a Prostitute": Gender and Juvenile Criminality in Early Victorian England from “Oliver Twist to London Labour."" New Literary History 27 (Sept. 1996): 2227-49.

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Chesney, Kellow. The Victorian Underworld. London: Temple Smith Ltd., 1970.

Jackson, Louise A. Child Sexual Abuse and the Law in Victorian England. New York: Routledge, 2000.

Mahood, Linda. The Magdalenes: Prostitution in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Routledge, 1990.

Mangan, J.A. and James Walvin, eds. Manliness and Morality: Middle-class Masculinity in Britain and America 1800-1940. New York: St Martin’s, 1987.

McHugh, Paul. Prostitution and Victorian Social Reform. New York: St.

Martin’s Press, 1980.

Pearson, Michael. The Age of Consent: Victorian Prostitution and Its Enemies. Newton Abbott, UK: David and Charles, 1972.

—. The £5 Virgins. Saturday Review Press: New York, 1972.

Robson, Catherine. Men in Wonderland: The Lost Girlhood of the Late-Victorian Gentlemen. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2001.

Tosh, John. A Man's Place: Masculinity and the Middle-Class Home in Victorian England. New Haven: Yale UP, 1999.

Walkowitz, Judith R. Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class and the State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

—. City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.

Wahrman, Dror. Imagining the Middle Class: The Political

Representation of Class in Britain, c. 1780-1840. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995.

Weiner, Martin J. Men of Blood: Vice, Manliness, and Criminal Justice in Victorian England. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004.

24

Predicting Democratization Across the Globe

by Bruce George

Abstract: Countries that possess democratic characteristics are those countries that tend to have freedom and have more resources available. However, countries that are not democratic are those countries that do not have the freedoms that democratic countries possess. Democratization allows freedoms, rights, civil liberties and the ability to live a quality of life in a normal society. People in a democratic society will have those freedoms and liberties versus those countries that do not. This study will attempt to answer the question, “What are the factors that predict levels of democratization across the globe?”

This paper consists of four sections: a literature review, a data and methods section, a findings section, and a conclusion. The literature review provides the analysis about what the scholars say about democratization. In addition, the data and methods section states my hypotheses along with the variables that are going to be in the study. There is a summary of my data and my unit of analysis as well. Furthermore, the findings section explains the results of the dependent and independent variables that were used in the study along with different tables, charts, and graphs. Finally, the conclusion provides a summary about the factors that make a country democratized.

Literature Review

Rose and Shin (2001, 332) provide an overview of the scope of democratization. According to Freedom House, the median country in the world today has some but not all of the attributes of a first-wave democracy. In its global review of 191 countries, eighty-one are described as free, that is, enjoying basic civil liberties and political rights; fifty-seven as partly free; and fifty-three as not free.

By looking at the information Freedom House released, it is interesting to see the statistics of the countries that are free. In the 21st century, it would be assumed that all countries would have the basic rights and freedoms that any other country has, but that is not the case. According to Freedom House, fifty-three countries are not free and fifty-seven countries are partly free. A reason that a country is partly free could be based on different factors. Perhaps not all the freedoms and rights are granted to all citizens who live in that particular country, or it can be an inequality issue.

Inequality can determine a country’s level of democratization because if a country illustrates inequality, problems arise. In addition, corruption becomes a factor as well. Many citizens who live in countries that are non-democratic experience that issue. Iran is a prime example because Iran is not a democracy but a Theocratic nation and citizenswho live there suffer from inequality daily. Furthermore, individuals assume that all Muslims have the same equal rights in their own country, but that is not the case for Iran. “Sunnis enjoy equal rights under the law but face discrimination in practice; there is no Sunni mosque in Tehran, and few Sunnis hold senior government posts" (Freedom House.org). Inequality is prevalent in countries that are similar to Iran. You and Khagram (2005, 136-157) provide information about inequality: “In a highly unequal society with elections, a large number of poor people are likely to sell their votes in exchange for money, gifts, or other favors, whereas the rich and the powerful will buy votes to maintain the status quo of inequality". In countries that are not democratic, situations of that nature occur and there has not been any course of action as well.

A country that is democratized has free elections. The right to vote is every citizen’s right, but realistically, all countries do not have free elections. It would be assumed that free elections would be in every country along with the right to vote. Unfortunately, that is not a right in some countries currently. In countries that do not have fair elections, countries that are not a democracy have tendencies to hold elections that are not fair. Rose and Shin (2001,333) explain:

Many countries do not adhere to the rule of law even though they hold elections. Of the fifty-three countries

placed in the bottom half of Transparency International’s Corruption Index, twenty-three hold more or less free elections. While free elections are necessary, they are not sufficient for democratization.

When it was mentioned that free elections are not sufficient for democratization, allowing free elections is only a small component of a country that is democratized. Although allowing free elections are important, having freedoms and civil liberties in a country are important as well.

GDP per capita is another factor to determine if a country is a democracy. Examples are Afghanistan and the United States. Afghanistan has a GDP per capita of $1,000 and the United States has a GDP per capita of $46,000. Furthermore, a country with a low GDP such as Afghanistan struggles economically due to limited resources.

The temperature of a country can be a determining factor as well. By looking at the countries that have high and low temperatures, there is a relationship. In cooler countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Sweden, those areas have a cooler temperature and also, those countries are a democracy. By looking at countries with a warmer climate, those countries would not be a democracy. Iraq and Saudi Arabia have warmer climates and the two countries are not a democracy. It is interesting to look at temperatures of different countries to determine if it is a factor for democratization because much can be said by looking at different temperatures in different countries. “Inequalities in the level of democracy can be partly traced to global differences in climatic conditions" (Tatu, 2004).

Literacy is important for a country to function under democratic rule. Without that component, a country is not be a democracy. In a developed country, the literacy rate is almost 100%. The United States, Australia, and Canada are examples of countries that have a literacy rate that is close to 100%. Countries that have a lower literacy rate are countries such as Burkina Faso, Bangladesh, and Benin. Those types of countries lack the resources to attain a high literacy. In addition, those countries are developing nations, which affects the literacy rate. Furthermore, with a low literacy rate, other factors come into play.

Democratization is important in countries because it allows individuals to have a good life and privileges that grant them free exercise of their civil liberties. A democratized nation results in individuals feeling safe rather than fearing for their lives. Mark Peffley and Robert Rohrschneider (2003, 245) noted that political tolerance is important in a democratic system:

The democratic learning model stresses the importance

of two institutional characteristics in fostering political tolerance. First, as indicated earlier, an important lesson that synthesizes the democratization and tolerance literatures is that political tolerance should be greater in more stable democratic nations that have successfully persisted over time. When civil liberties have been in place for longer periods, citizens have more opportunities to apply democratic norms to disliked opponents.

As both authors stated, political tolerance allows a nation to have stability. Furthermore, political tolerance only benefits those countries that are democratized. Evidently, countries that are not politically tolerant experience many problems. A citizen who lives in a country that is not democratic is limited to express how he/she feels about a political issue due to that country not being democratic.

In a democracy, an electoral system is important. With an electoral system in a country, elections are held in a fair manner. A country that does not have an electoral system is bound to have problems that lead to corruption. According to Shaheen Mozaffar (2002, 87),

To democratize is to craft institutions, the sets of rules that structure strategic interactions and shape political outcomes (DiPalma, 1990). In democratizing countries, the choice of electoral rules is one of the most important institutional choices political actors make. This choice involves decisions about two conceptually distinct but empirically related sets of electoral rules.

According to Mozaffar, an electoral system in a country plays a vital role into the lives of the citizens who are living in that specific country. By having an electoral system in place, a country exhibits qualities of a democratized nation.

Robert Dahl (1998, 85) provides factors that determine whether a country is a democracy. A country that wants to be a democracy needs to have the follow factors:

elected officials, free, fair, and frequent elections, freedom of expression, alternative sources of information, as-sociational autonomy, and inclusive citizenship.

Elected officials define democracy as control over government decisions about policy that is constitutionally vested in officials elected by citizens. Free, fair, and frequent elections state that elected officials are chosen

28

in frequent and fairly conducted elections in which coercion is comparatively uncommon. Freedom of expression says that citizens have a right to express themselves without danger of severe punishment on political matters broadly defined, including criticism of officials, the government, the regime, the socioeconomic order, and the prevailing ideology. Access to alternative sources of information allows citizens to have a right to seek out alternative and independent sources of information from other citizens, experts, newspapers, magazines, books, telecommunications, etc. Moreover, alternative sources of information actually exist that are not under the control of the government or any other single political group attempting to influence public political beliefs and attitudes, and these alternative sources are effectively protected by law. Associational autonomy states that citizens also have a right to form relatively independent associations or organizations, including independent political parties and interest groups. Inclusive citizenship states that no adult permanently residing in the country and subject to its laws can be denied the rights that are available to others.

The factors that Dahl listed are the factors that determine whether that country is a democracy. To provide an example, the United States classifies as a democracy and a country such as Iran does not based on the factors that Dahl mentioned. In addition, those factors all have to be in place for a country to be a democracy. Dahl (1998, 95) provides a a reason why democracy requires free, fair, and frequent elections. He notes, “If we accept the desirability of political equality, then every citizen must have an equal and effective opportunity to vote, and all votes must be counted as equal. If equality in voting is to be implemented, then clearly elections must be free and fair."

Countries aside from the United States may not fit the factor of having free, fair, and frequent elections. An example is Saudi Arabia. Freedom House.org provides information about countries that are free and they have their own factors as well. According to Freedom House,

Saudi Arabia is not an electoral democracy. The 1992 Law declares that the Koran and the Sunna are the country’s constitution. Limited elections for advisory councils at the municipal level were introduced in 2005, but women were excluded. The next round of municipal elections was postponed by two years in May 2009, having initially been scheduled for that year (Freedom House.org).

Evidently, Saudi Arabia is not free due to the limitation of elections. In addition, Saudi Arabia does not have the political freedom nor civil liberties in comparison to a country that is a democracy. If Saudi Arabia was free, a freedom score of one would be appropriate. Furthermore, the fact that women do not have any rights in that country says enough. In a democracy, every individual has the basic rights and freedoms. In the case of Saudi Arabia, corruption is an issue along with the government controlling the media.

Corruption is a significant problem, with foreign companies reporting that they often pay bribes to middlemen and government officials to secure business deals. Saudi Arabia was ranked 63 out of 180 countries surveyed in Transparency International’s 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (Freedom House.org).

Saudi Arabia is the classic illustration of a country that is not a democracy. Because corruption is an issue, it is obvious that democratization does not exist and that the country does not fit the factors Dahl mentioned in his book.

When it comes to free expression, it is important. Without free expression in a country, citizens do not have the privileges to say how they feel about an issue for fear of the consequences. It would be assumed that all countries have the right of expression, but that is not the case for some countries. Unfortunately, these countries do not allow citizens to express how they feel about an issue. Dahl (1998, 97) explains why free expression is important in a democratized nation.

Freedom of expression is required in order for citizens to participate effectively in political life...To acquire civic competence, citizens need opportunities to express their own views; learn from one another; engage in discussion and deliberation; read; hear, and question experts, political candidates, and persons whose judgments they trust; and learn in other ways that depend on freedom of expression.

Freedom of expression is another factor that makes a country democratized. If a country is democratized, that particular country allows freedom of expression. As Dahl stated, freedom of expression gives citizens the liberty to think for themselves rather than having the government step in and make the decisions.

In a democratized society, it is the citizens right to know information about their government as well as where they get their sources from. By allowing citizens to have information about their governments, it is illustrating democracy. However, there are countries that do not allow citizens to receive information about their governments. Examples of countries that would fit those characteristics are countries that are not democracies. Dahl (1998, 95) explains the importance of citizens knowing about their government:

The availability of alternative and relatively independent sources of information is required by several of the basic democratic criteria. Citizens must have access, then, to alternative sources of information that are not under control of the government or dominated by any other group or point of view.

Countries such as Iran and North Korea would not allow their citizens to receive information about their government. In addition, those forms of governments would restrict access and rather give the citizens information when it is not true.

Dahl is not the only one who writes about democracy. Samuel Huntington is a well-known author and is synonymous with democracy as well. Huntington wrote the book titled The Third Wave and studies transitions of over thirty countries that were nondemocratic and became a democracy. Huntington (1992, 4) also indentifies five changes that led to democracy. The five changes are:

1) the deepening legitimacy problems of authoritarian governments unable to cope with military defeat and economic failure; 2) the burgeoning economies of many countries, which have raised living standards, levels of education, and urbanization, while also raising civic expectations and the ability to express them; 3) changes in religious institutions which have made them more prone to oppose governmental authoritarianism than defend the status quo; 4) the push to promote human rights and democracy by external actors such as non-governmental organizations and the European Community; and 5) “the snowballing" or demonstration effects, enhanced by new international communications, of democratization in other countries" (scottlondon.com).

According to Huntington, these changes are important if a country wants to be a democracy. Critics find the fourth idea that was mentioned relevant because human rights is important. Without human rights in a country, that country would not be able to function.

Data and Methods

After reviewing what the scholars wrote about democracy and the factors that make a country democratized, 203 countries were used in the study to determine the factors that makes a country democratized. The Unit of Analysis was 203 countries. Table 1 provides the numbers used for the study. The variables used are the Freedom House scores, corruption scores, GDP, literacy, temperature, inequality, and urbanization. The Freedom House Scores come from Freedom House.org. Freedom House provides scores for countries, which range from 1 to 7. The mean is 3.71 and the standard deviation is 2.02. The corruption scores came from Transparency International. Transparency International gives information about the corruption index in different countries. A country with a score of 10 is free of corruption and with a score of one is highly corrupt and non-transparent. The scores for the corruption scores ranged from 1 to

9. The mean is 4.02 and the standard deviation is 2.10. CIA World Fact Book is the other source that was used to get information about the GDP per capita and the level of urbanization. GDP per capita ranged from $10,047 to $123,047. The mean is 14,000 and the standard deviation is 18,000. Literacy ranged from 22 to 100% literacy rate. The mean for the literacy rate is 82.51 and the standard deviation is 20.01. The range for inequality ranged from 24 to 70. The mean is 39.87 and the standard deviation is 10.47. Temperature is another variable that was used. The temperatures ranged from 32 degrees Fahrenheit to 86 degrees Fahrenheit. The mean is 66.25 and the standard deviation is 14.07. The variables used in the study are described in Table 1.

The hypotheses to be tested in this study are as follows:

H1: As corruption declines in a country, the level of democracy will rise.

H2: As GDP increases, the level of a democracy will rise.

H3: As literacy increases in a country, the level of democratiza tion will rise.

H4: As urbanization increases in a country, the level of democratization will rise.

H5: As temperatures decrease, the level of democratization will rise.

H6: As inequality decreases, the level of democratization will rise.

Table 1

Variables, Characteristics, and Sources

Variables \fin Max    Mean    SD    Source

IH Score | 1 |  | 3.3S | 2.02 | Freedom House.org
Corruption | 1 | 9 | 4.02 | 2 10 | Transparency Inoemati onal
GEfP | 10047 | 123047 | 14000 | IS 000 | CIA World Fact Book
Literacy | 22 | 100 | £2.51 | 20.01 | CIA World Fac t Book
Utbanization | 10 | 100 | 55.4S | 23.42 | CIA World Fact Book
Temperature | 32 | S6 | 66.25 | 14.07 | WeatherEase.com
Inequality | 24 | 70 | 39.il | 10.47 | Food and Agriculture

Organization

Findings

The Sublime in Frankenstein

Conclusion:

Findings

Bibliography Primary Book Sources

Findings

The findings for this study reveal a lot about the variables. Of the six independent variables used in the study, the variable inequality is statistically significant at p<.05. In addition, the remaining variables used in the study are statistically significant at p< .01. All correlations are shown below in Table 2.

Table 2 Correlation Analysis

Independent Variable | Correlations
Inequality | 0.177*
Temperature | 0.266**
Urbanization | -0.334**
Literacy | -0.393**
GDP Per Capita | -0.343**
Corruption | -o.591**

N=203 *p<.01 ** p<.05

The correlation was 0.177 for inequality. Furthermore, temperature, literacy, GDP per capita, and corruption illustrates the confidence of a relationship. The following figures show the independent variables and their relationship to the dependent variable.

The correlation of -0.591 is statistically significant at p<.01. The r² is .35 for the regression model. In addition, the regression shows that the level of corruption explains 35 % of the variance in Freedom House Scores. Furthermore, a country with a corruption score of 0 has a Freedom House score of 5.79. For every unit increase in the corruption scores, the Freedom scores decline by .56. The chart illustrates that the countries that are free are more transparent than the countries that are not.

The correlation of -0.393 is statistically significant at p<.01. The r² is .154 for the regression. The literacy rate explains 15% of the variance in Freedom Scores. A country with a literacy rate of 0% has a Freedom House score of 6.73. For every unit increase in the literacy rate, the Freedom scores decline by .040.

The correlation of -0.343 is statistically significant at p<.01. The r2 is .118 for its regression. The GDP explains 12% of the variance in the Freedom House scores.

Figure 4: Scatter Plot Analysis of Urbanization

The correlation of -0.334 is statistically significant at p<.01. The r² is

11. Urbanization of a country explains 11% of the variance in the Freedom House scores. A country that has an Urbanization rate of 0 has a Freedom House score of 5.01. For every unit increase in the urbanization rate, the Freedom House scores decline by .029.

The correlation of 0.266 is statistically significant at p<.01 and the r2 is .07. Temperatures of the different countries explain 7% of the variance in the Freedom House scores. A country with a temperature of 0 has a Freedom House score of 87. For every unit increase in temperature, the Freedom House scores increase by .038.

Figure 6: Scatter Plot Analysis of Inequality

The correlation of 0.177 is statistically significant at p<.05. The r² is .031. Inequality of a country explains 3% of the variance in the Freedom House scores. In addition, a country with a score of 0 has a Freedom House score 1.94. For every unit increase in inequality, the Freedom House scores increase by .032. As inequality rises, the Freedom House scores increase which means countries are less free.

Conclusion

The use of the Freedom House scores is an important factor in determining if a country is free or not free. In addition, the corruption scores provided by Transparency International is another factor as well. GDP, inequality, temperature, and urbanization contribute to the findings as well. Looking at each independent variable illustrates a strong relationship. Other variables do not illustrate a relationship. As a result, GDP Per Capita, literacy, corruption, urbanization, and inequality are proven to show there is a relationship and those hypotheses are accepted. Temperature is statistically significant, which illustrates a relationship. There is a relationship because countries that have hot temperatures are those countries that are not a democracy. The theory traces back to Montesquieu and many scholars do not consider temperature a factor. By looking at the Freedom House and corruption scores for each country, it is not a surprise to have seen the results. The findings provide a new way on how to determine if a country is a democracy. In addition, if individuals want to study the factors of democratization, they should do a similar study. Furthermore, the number of political parties is interesting to explore. By studying the political landscape of all the countries, a better understanding is established at what makes a country a democracy.

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References

Andors, Stephen. 1978. “Urbanization and Urban Government in China's Development: Toward a Political Economy of Urban Community?" Economic Development and Cultural Change 26 (April): 525-545.

"CIA - The World Factbook." Welcome to the CIA Web Site — Central Intelligence Agency. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/.

Dahl, Robert .1998. On Democracy. New Haven: Yale University Press.

DiPalma, Giuseppe Di. 1990. To Craft Democracies: An Essay in

Democratic Transition. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Freedomhouse.org: Home. 2010.

http://freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=1.

You, Jong-Sung, and Sanjeev Khagram. 2005. “A Comparative Study of Inequality and Corruption." American Sociological Review 70 (February): 136-157.

Mozaffar, Shaeen. 2002. “Patterns of Electoral Governance in Africa's Emerging Democracies." International Political Science Review 23 (January): 85-101.

Peffley Mark, and Robert Rohrschneider. 2003. “Democratization and Political Tolerance in Seventeen Countries: A Multi-Level Model of Democratic Learning." Political Research Quarterly 56 (September): 243-257.

Rose, Richard, and Doh Chull Shin. 2001. “Democratization Back

wards: The Problem of Third-Wave Democracies." British Journal of Political Science 31: 331-354.

"The Third Wave by Samuel Huntington :: A Book Review by Scott London." Scott London. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. http://www.scottlondon.com/reviews/huntington.html.

Vanhanen, Tatu. 2004. "Climate and Democracy." Paper presented at the 1998 meetings of the American Political Science Associa tion, Chicago.

Transparency International. 2010. http://www.transparency.org/.

Weatherbase. Web. 2010. http://www.weatherbase.com/?refer=.

Genetic Enhancement of Human Memory and Cognition

by Chelsie Norton

Abstract: Technological advances are changing the quintessential idea of what it means to be human. The possibility of genetically enhancing human memory and cognition will promise an advance in society but may also challenge the boundaries of scientific ethics. As the rate of technology increases at an alarming rate, society may not be able to grasp the consequences of such enhancements until the results are present in the physical world. By this time, the chance to question human enhancement will have passed.

For this paper, I researched multiple science ethics journals and pieces that present both sides of the argument surrounding the human enhancement of memory and cognition. I evaluated the steps of medical procedures, including in vitro fertilization, and presented the result of such processes as they relate to human futures. Each side of the controversy is accurately and equally supported by this research.

The findings include a successful trial in prolonging the long-term memory and enhancing the cognitive processes of lab mice performed by Dr. Tsien. This brings about the reality that human enhancement could be safe, constructive, and accessible in the near future. The Principle of Procreative Beneficence states that parents have an innate moral obligation to choose, when possible, for the characteristics that will give their child the best chance for the “best” life. Without a doubt, human cognitive enhancement will change the rules of parenting, the social constructs of education, and society’s views of “perfection”.

In order to make the most of what scientific advances have to offer, humans must remain open-minded and become proactive in the decision involving human enhancements.

For centuries, the human species has tirelessly pursued innovative approaches to make the environment more user-friendly. The wheel, tetanus vaccinations, elevators, and gel insoles make our surroundings less challenging and in their own ways allow us to operate more efficiently. What happens when science reduces the need of supportive tools to increase human potential? Generations from now, will textbooks be obsolete study tools replaced by a precise memory and fine-tuned cognitive skills? The answers to these inquiries are arriving sooner than the human race can grasp the questions. Ironically, science’s

39

solution will allow human beings to interpret, store, and retrieve vast amounts of information with profound accuracy. The possibility of human genetic enhancement threatens scientific ethics and contravenes the rights of embryos. Although society may benefit vastly from advances in medical science, it must understand the impending controversy and act as an educated body.

The brain is the internal hard drive of the human body; it runs, processes, and stores thousands of pieces of data. Scientists theorize that improving the brain’s capabilities to store and process information will make humans more efficient. Instead of relying upon multiple external hard drives such as pen and paper, books, or computers, humans can become more independent from their surroundings; fewer adaptations to the environment will be necessary to perform with efficiency (Bostrom, 2009, p. 320). This situation is similar to computer repairs. When a computer does not run at the desired level of performance, the consumer often upgrades the internal workings of the machine instead of purchasing external memory. Ultimately, this saves time and money. Perhaps the human brain is due for an upgrade.

Society determines what is outdated and what is desirable through the system of supply and demand. The curve of technology is increasing at an alarming rate and makes it difficult to remain modernized. However, humans have always valued, respected, and sought natural intelligence and giftedness. “History is replete with countless examples of creative individuals whose unique talents and capabilities led to extraordinary accomplishments. The intrigue for the scientist is to determine what variables and characteristics enable eminently gifted persons to effortlessly achieve what others struggle to master," notes Martin Mrazik (2010, p. 224). A 2008 American survey reflects society’s partiality to higher education. Fifty-five percent of individuals between the ages of twenty-five and sixty-four are employed with less than a high school education compared to eighty-two percent employed with at least a bachelor’s degree (Employment Status, 2008).

The enhancement of the human brain through genetic alterations will change society in multiple aspects: the need for schools may drastically decrease, resulting in job loss; parents may hold outrageous standards for their enhanced children; the job market may become increasingly competitive as more individuals become qualified for positions. In addition to black and white changes, shades of grey controversy will surely erupt. Religious groups may argue that man should not change his maker’s creation. Different cultures may argue over the extent to which science should advance. The core of human morality and nature will be challenged.

Humankind must understand the proper definitions, procedures, and possible effects before choosing a side of the impending controversy. Cognitive enhancement is “the amplification or extension of core capacities of the mind through improvement or augmentation of internal or external information processing systems" (Bostrom, 2009, p. 311). A cognitively enhanced person profits from a procedure that improves function, not a procedure that fixes an existing problem. Therefore, any changes made to an embryo that tests positive for Down syndrome does not result in a cognitive enhancement. Cognitive function can be divided into three categories that all relate to how the senses capture and organize data: focusing on, understanding, and retaining information; and using it to control behavior through “reasoning and coordination of motor outputs" (Bostrom, 2009, p. 311). Thus, memory is a component of cognition and may be targeted through genetic enhancement to improve cognition.

Genetic enhancement is a relatively new branch of biology with no regulations, laws, or widespread public opinions. To the novice researcher’s best knowledge no human trials have taken place nor have any significant conferences introduced the subject to the public. An ordinary citizen may not suspect enhancement is possible until he sees a “Be Smarter Now!" infomercial on television. Is it society’s duty to ask questions, or is it scientists’ responsibility to survey the public before taking action? This power struggle between the experts and the recipients may result in an outcry for regulation and honesty.

Although controversial, genetic cognitive enhancement in humans and other mammals is feasible. The positive effects of transgenic experiments are seen in Doogie, transgenic mice engineered by Joe Tsien and his team in 1999 (Tang, 1999, p. 64). Tsien recognized Hebb’s rule, which states:

Learning and memory are based on modifications of synaptic strength among neurons that are simultaneously active. This implies that enhanced synaptic coincidence detection would lead to better learning and memory. If the NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor, a synaptic coincidence detector, acts as a graded switch for memory formation, enhanced signal detection by NMDA receptors should enhance learning and memory (1999, p. 63).

Tsien over-expressed one of the NMDA receptors, NR2B, in Doogie to prolong the detection of synaptic coincidence. The results followed Hebb’s rule; Doogie displayed an increase in cognitive function and a sharper memory. The mice displayed no adverse side effects, seemed to mate and grow normally, and were indistinguishable from wild mice in behavior. Additionally, as the mice aged, they did not exhibit a severe decrease in memory function (Tang, 1999, p. 64). Tsien used an object recognition test to determine if the Doogie mice had enhanced memories. Field mice and transgenic mice were given five minutes to explore two familiar objects. After an hour, one object was replaced with a foreign item and both groups had five minutes to explore again. After three days, the groups were given five minutes to explore the foreign and familiar objects once more. Doogie focused more on the foreign object and the wild mice spent nearly equal amounts of time on both items. This indicates that the enhanced population has better long-term memory (Tang, 1999, p. 67).

The Doogie experiment illustrates possibilities for human enhancement. If geneticists add the NR2B gene to human embryos instead of mouse embryos, will the process produce an individual with enhanced characteristics? Science has already made it possible to select genes and create new human embryos. Targeting receptors in the brain of an existing embryo is the next level. The choices for parents are constantly expanding. Gene testing for cystic fibrosis, Down syndrome, trisomy 18, inherent cancers, and Huntington’s or Alzheimer’s disease gives a sneak peek at conditions the child may have. A method called FISH can determine the gender of the embryo much sooner than ultrasounds by detecting certain chromosomes. Recently, the test ATCN3 identified endurance and sprinting, an athletic talent, in embryos. One polymorphism gene is associated with perfect pitch so musical parents may choose this trait for their child. Finally, behavioral geneticists are identifying the components of sexual orientation, inclination to addiction, personality, and cognitive function (Savulescu, 2009, p. 275-6).

In vitro fertilization, the joining of egg and sperm outside of the human body, allows mothers to choose the sperm that will create their child instead of relying on the “old-fashioned" intercourse method (McGee, 1997, p. 2). The Repository for Germinal Choice in California is a facility that gives its customers the chance to pick the genes of intelligent, athletic, or attractive individuals in hopes of gaining a child with desirable qualities (McGee, 1997, p. 26). In vitro fertilization is considered a form of enhancement because the mother selects the sperm that will result in the child with the best chance for the best life. The “best life" is comparative to the mother’s culture and beliefs. For example, one deaf, lesbian couple might choose the sperm of a deaf man so their child would have permanent deafness as well (Savulescu, 2009, p. 284). One can assume that most other parents would not choose deafness for their child.

Dilemmas such as the case above are types of controversies society will face as enhancement becomes sophisticated. Should parents be able to bring a child into the world with a condition that the majority views as a disability or defect? Scientists, policymakers, and citizens must band together and discuss issues of morality and regulations of enhancement before starting the latest trend in parenting. Society has a responsibility to consider the effects, both positive and negative. “Ethical principles that are not carefully attuned to the biological and cultural contexts of genetics will not guide our scientific actions in intelligent ways," asserts Glenn McGee, author of a book that discusses the circumstances of prenatal enhancement (1997, p. 26). Is this a path humanity should take? Is genetic enhancement a needless shortcut to an artificial future?

The Principle of Procreative Beneficence, or PB, states that couples who decide to have a child also have a moral obligation to select, when possible, for the genetic endowment that will result in the highest welfare for the child (Savulescu, 2009, p. 274). This implies that if possible, parents will choose a child with high aptitude and memory function. PB “instructs women to seriously consider [in vitro fertilization] if natural reproduction is likely to lead to a child with a condition that is expected to reduce wellbeing significantly, even if that condition is not a disease" (Savulescu, 2009, p. 281). Parents already take actions to secure the best life for their children, such as: waiting to conceive until financial situations are stable; choosing pediatricians and health facilities carefully; selecting a school that best fits their child’s needs; purchasing enriched infant formula; and opting for a mate with desirable genetic qualities (Savlescu,

2009, p. 276, Bostrom, 2009, p. 319).

Psychologists and teachers argue that environment influences a child’s behavior and cognitive skill the most. McGee asserts that schools and churches have more of an effect than genetics on intelligence (1997, p. 112). Studies found that children from lower socioeconomic households performed poorer on tests than students with comfortable situations (Grasso, 2002). A home life that supports language development through parental involvement and the “freedom to engage in verbal expression" stimulates cognitive development (Grasso, 2002). On the other hand, scientists find that heredity influences academic performance. Generalist genes influence multiple academic skills in an individual (Plomin, 2007, p. 11). The “twin studies" illustrate that siblings have identical IQ scores fifty-three percent of the time while unrelated individuals correlate only seventeen percent of the time (Grasso, 2002). If the generalist gene of a genius could be replicated, any parent could choose that level of intelligence for their child. “Common folklore tells us that highly gifted and creative individuals have some innate capabilities that facilitate their brilliance (i.e., genius is born, not made)" (Mrazik, 2010, p. 224). History esteems great thinkers because of their natural-born abilities. Although cognitive enhancement would result in a natural-born product, the individual’s cognitive skills would be less of a bestowment and more of an assignment.

Parents must consider if this artificial gift is worth psychological and health risks to their child. Geniuses such as Albert Einstein, Sigmund

Freud, and Pablo Picasso displayed “patterns of aberrant behavior" and well-documented “pervasive affective and mood disturbances"; this implies that “creativity and madness may be invariably associated" (Mrazik,

2010, p. 225). Gifted¹ children show abnormal brain development and organization. Therefore, they can have a predisposition to dyslexia if the spatial abilities are particularly strong, tend to be nearsighted, or lefthanded (Mrazik, 2010, p. 226-7). The NMDA receptor not only manipulates synaptic processes that affect cognition, but also some processes that affect sensitivity to pain as well (Cooke, 2003, p. 4). Enhanced juveniles could experience hypersensitivity to pain that, over time, would fade along with memory retention.

Multiple risks associated with cognitive enhancement seem to disagree with the Principle of Procreative Beneficence. “The measure and kinds of skills known as ‘intelligence’ change as [society’s] beliefs, values, and needs change" (McGee, 1997, p. 61). Parents could give into fads, “superstition, and outrageous conceptions of the good life" to create children with substandard futures (Savulescu, 2009, p. 279). Everyone designs his or her own picture of happiness. Some find depression repulsive and choose immediate medication because healthiness to them is the ultimate happiness. Disability advocates worry that the future of genetic enhancement will result in a negative approach to individuals with disabilities and increase discrimination (Bostrom, 2009, p. 324). If parents deny their child the opportunity to experience emotional turmoil or struggles and instead provide windows of bliss, will it make the child happier in the end?

The foremost disadvantage of genetic enhancement is the lack of choice it presents to the embryo. McGee proposes, “When we determine for future ‘defenseless’ embryos what kind of characteristics are best avoided, we engage in an unjustified assessment of the value of human traits" (1997, p. 44). This complication with cognitive enhancement is much like the abortion controversy. If the embryo is not given a chance at a natural life, did its life have initial value? When a child is born, he or she should feel unconditional love from caregivers despite any flaws that make him or her an individual. When the majority of human beings are genetically enhanced, ‘thinking outside the box’ will cease; the box will be destroyed by a uniformity of cognitive ability (Mrazik, 2010, p. 227-8). Pressure to perform at a predetermined level can destroy a child’s motivation and self-esteem. In this way, steps taken to secure a “better life" may become self-defeating (Savulescu, 2009, p. 282).

Genetic enhancement, as it relates to the development of children, may change the two most important influences in a child’s life: parenting and schooling. These environments will no longer need to be enriched with tools that promote learning through exploration or observation. With improvements made to cognition and memory, children can listen to, process, and store information with accurate recall and replication. “Enriching the environment [through toys, tunnels, houses, and platforms] has no [positive] effect on the [Doogie] mice, suggesting that the [NMDA] mutation has already forced the memory capacity of these animals to its biological limit," notes Cooke (2003, p. 4). Does the future have no place for playgrounds, toys, or enrichment opportunities for children? Parents may need to provide nothing more than sustenance, shelter, and clothing to their enhanced children. “Is society prepared to sacrifice on the altar of consumerism even those deep values that are embodied in traditional relationships between child and parents?" challenges Bostrom (2009, p. 323).

The education system may lose its significance as a contributing factor to society, particularly in high school and college. Primary education is valuable to the development of social skills, but cognitive enhancement will enable individuals to obtain a higher education with ease. McGee responds to the possible devaluation of schools by observing that “goals in education are constrained not with reference to what is genetically possible, but with reference to what we are able at the present time to accomplish" (1997, p. 119). Like education, the governmental and social programs are built to nourish tangible skill sets and if humans decide to advance past tangibility, current constructs will be of no use.

Current views on religion may become compromised as well. The antiselection standpoint held by much of the conservative society opposes any human interference with the natural development of an embryo. Like the Principle of Procreative Beneficence (PPB), anti-selection affirms that serious diseases and disabilities should not be selected. This satisfies the definition of anti-selection and fulfills the moral obligation delineated by the Principle of Procreative Beneficence. However, the anti-selection view disagrees with selecting against disability; according to the PPB, this view is immoral (Savulescu, 2009, p. 289). The nature of anti-selection is to leave all outcomes up to a higher power and in this case to sacrifice human morals. By examining the idea that a God does choose disability at times, one may challenge if this God is moral. “Humans literally risk offending God if they overstep their mandate here on Earth," explains Bostrom (2009, p. 326). Should man become the master of his own evolution? While the answer is embedded in an endless controversy, this spiritual dilemma should be considered when weighing the pros and cons of genetic enhancement.

To enhance, by definition, is to improve. Genetic enhancement has the obvious advantage of a more intelligent human race that can further contribute to society. Other effects of improved cognition and memory include self-satisfaction and independence: “Cognitive enhancements amplify the

capacities required for . . . independent judgment . . . [and] a more authentic life by enabling one to base choices on more deeply considered beliefs about unique circumstances, personal style, ideals, and the options available" (Bostrom 2009, p. 326). Recognition of the “options available" could solve problems such as poor leadership and broken budgets in the political and economic realms of society. The procedure of genetic enhancement itself could possibly save money over time when compared to extensive education programs (Bostrom, 2009, p. 312).

Memory enhancement will improve one’s ability to remember data and allow a linkage between data and meaningful associations (Bostrom, 2009, p. 320). For example, an education major can remember last month’s lecture about motivating learners and effectively use behavior reinforcements in a classroom without practice. The promise of memory enhancement could also benefit society through an increase of solved crimes. If a witness is able to retrieve the same smells, locations, and faces each time she remembers an instance, fewer mistakes due to poor memory will be made. The results of the Doogie experiment show a sustained level of memory function as the mice age (Cooke, 2003, p. 4). Genetic enhancement could possibly alleviate Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss. In addition, increased memory function could be self-fulfilling because important moments in one’s life would never disappear.

Human enhancement could allow for optimal utility of the modern education system. Today’s school systems tend to enforce rote memorization of facts. With enhanced memory and cognition, students could interpret information and effectively apply it to real scenarios. An education would be much simpler to obtain without necessary hours of studying and cramming. “Technological self-modification and the use of cognitive enhancement methods can be seen as an extension of the human species’ ability to adapt to its environment," explains Bostrom (2009, p. 323). For example, a mother and her child could have the same realistic chance of receiving an equal education, regardless of their schedules or responsibilities.

An increase in education could also secure jobs for countless individuals. “Many people would prefer to fly with airlines or go to hospitals where the personnel take[s] alertness-enhancing drugs"; cognitive enhancement may be a desirable trait for positions in marketing, business, education, or engineering (Bostrom, 2009, p. 327). With a decrease in welfare programs, some economies could prosper and the socioeconomic statuses of families could improve. Third world countries in desperate need of education systems and job training could have citizens born with half of the resources needed for success. In addition, as enhancement methods mature, health and athletic attributes could procure opportunities for those populations.

With the controversies, dilemmas, pros, and cons that human enhan-ceprovements made to cognition and memory, children can listen to, process, and store information with accurate recall and replication. “Enriching the environment [through toys, tunnels, houses, and platforms] has no [positive] effect on the [Doogie] mice, suggesting that the [NMDA] mutation has already forced the memory capacity of these animals to its biological limit," notes Cooke (2003, p. 4). Does the future have no place for playgrounds, toys, or enrichment opportunities for children? Parents may need to provide nothing more than sustenance, shelter, and clothing to their enhanced children. “Is society prepared to sacrifice on the altar of consumerism even those deep values that are embodied in traditional relationships between child and parents?" challenges Bostrom (2009, p. 323).

The education system may lose its significance as a contributing factor to society, particularly in high school and college. Primary education is valuable to the development of social skills, but cognitive enhancement will enable individuals to obtain a higher education with ease. McGee responds to the possible devaluation of schools by observing that “goals in education are constrained not with reference to what is genetically possible, but with reference to what we are able at the present time to accomplish" (1997, p. 119). Like education, the governmental and social programs are built to nourish tangible skill sets and if humans decide to advance past tangibility, current constructs will be of no use.

Current views on religion may become compromised as well. The antiselection standpoint held by much of the conservative society opposes any human interference with the natural development of an embryo. Like the Principle of Procreative Beneficence (PPB), anti-selection affirms that serious diseases and disabilities should not be selected. This satisfies the definition of anti-selection and fulfills the moral obligation delineated by the Principle of Procreative Beneficence. However, the anti-selection view disagrees with selecting against disability; according to the PPB, this view is immoral (Savulescu, 2009, p. 289). The nature of anti-selection is to leave all outcomes up to a higher power and in this case to sacrifice human morals. By examining the idea that a God does choose disability at times, one may challenge if this God is moral. “Humans literally risk offending God if they overstep their mandate here on Earth," explains Bostrom (2009, p. 326). Should man become the master of his own evolution? While the answer is embedded in an endless controversy, this spiritual dilemma should be considered when weighing the pros and cons of genetic enhancement.

To enhance, by definition, is to improve. Genetic enhancement has the obvious advantage of a more intelligent human race that can further contribute to society. Other effects of improved cognition and memory include self-satisfaction and independence: “Cognitive enhancements amplify the capacities required for . . . independent judgment . . . [and] a more authentic life by enabling one to base choices on more deeply considered beliefs about unique circumstances, personal style, ideals, and the options available" (Bostrom 2009, p. 326). Recognition of the “options available" could solve problems such as poor leadership and broken budgets in the political and economic realms of society. The procedure of genetic enhancement itself could possibly save money over time when compared to extensive education programs (Bostrom, 2009, p. 312).

Memory enhancement will improve one’s ability to remember data and allow a linkage between data and meaningful associations (Bostrom, 2009, p. 320). For example, an education major can remember last month’s lecture about motivating learners and effectively use behavior reinforcements in a classroom without practice. The promise of memory enhancement could also benefit society through an increase of solved crimes. If a witness is able to retrieve the same smells, locations, and faces each time she remembers an instance, fewer mistakes due to poor memory will be made. The results of the Doogie experiment show a sustained level of memory function as the mice age (Cooke, 2003, p. 4). Genetic enhancement could possibly alleviate Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss. In addition, increased memory function could be self-fulfilling because important moments in one’s life would never disappear.

Human enhancement could allow for optimal utility of the modern education system. Today’s school systems tend to enforce rote memorization of facts. With enhanced memory and cognition, students could interpret information and effectively apply it to real scenarios. An education would be much simpler to obtain without necessary hours of studying and cramming. “Technological self-modification and the use of cognitive enhancement methods can be seen as an extension of the human species’ ability to adapt to its environment," explains Bostrom (2009, p. 323). For example, a mother and her child could have the same realistic chance of receiving an equal education, regardless of their schedules or responsibilities.

An increase in education could also secure jobs for countless individuals. “Many people would prefer to fly with airlines or go to hospitals where the personnel take[s] alertness-enhancing drugs"; cognitive enhancement may be a desirable trait for positions in marketing, business, education, or engineering (Bostrom, 2009, p. 327). With a decrease in welfare programs, some economies could prosper and the socioeconomic statuses of families could improve. Third world countries in desperate need of education systems and job training could have citizens born with half of the resources needed for success. In addition, as enhancement methods mature, health and athletic attributes could procure opportunities for those populations.

With the controversies, dilemmas, pros, and cons that human enhancement poses, a form of regulation will be necessary to ensure no one abuses the abilities technology can produce. Bostrom suggests an enhancement license:

People willing to undergo potentially risky but rewarding enhancements could be required to demonstrate sufficient understanding of the risks and the ability to handle them responsibly. This would both ensure informed consent and enable better monitoring. A downside with enhancement licenses is that people with low cognitive capacity, who may have the most to gain from enhancements, could find it hard to get access if the license requirements were too demanding (2009, p. 331).

Privacy and rights laws are necessary to protect the information humans share across connectivity outlets such as the Internet (Bostrom, 2009, p. 320). After enhancement, humans could become small networks capable of capturing and collecting vast amounts of information. A line must be drawn between sharing and stealing information and ideas. Scientists and society must recognize the right of an individual to say ‘no’ to enhancement and remember to treat all beings, enhanced or not, like the humans that we are.

Cognitive enhancement reflects society’s wants, parents’ dreams, and the unknown. Opening this new door involves questioning human morality and weighing the importance of intelligence next to the negative possibilities. When parents decide to genetically enhance their child, they must consider the rights, if any, of their child and what modifications they should make to their home environment and parenting styles. They should always keep in mind the Principle of Procreative Beneficence and understand that the “best life" is relative to everyone. Cognitive enhancement could be the key to unlocking phenomenal human potential.

Of course, there are no guarantees when it comes to new technology. The genetic enhancement of human memory and cognition will become everything humanity shapes it to be. Policies and regulations regarding the rights of the enhanced are imperative to the implementation of this technology. With successful animal trials completed, now is the time to contemplate the possibilities of human futures. Perhaps we do not hold the answers to things beyond ourselves. Maybe we have yet to look at human nature for guidance.

Sno

Endnotes:

1. “The U.S. Federal definition of gifted and talented individuals in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) public law act of 2002 refers to individuals who give evidence of high achievement capability in such areas as intellectual, creative, artistic, leadership capacity, or specific academic fields" (Mrazik, 2009, p. 224).

References

Bostrom, N., and Sandberg, A. (2009). Cognitive enhancements: Methods, ethics, regulatory challenges. Science and Engineering Ethics, 15, 311-341. doi: 10.1007/s11948-009-9142-5.

Cooke, S. F., and Bliss, T. (2003). Visions and reflections: The genetic enhancement of memory. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 60, 1-5. doi: 1420-682X/03/010001-05.

Grasso, F. (2002). IQ - Genetics or environment. AllPsych Journal, n. pag. Retrieved from: http://allpsych.com/journal/iq.html McGee, G. (1997). The perfect baby: A pragmatic approach to genetics.

Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.

Mrazik, M., and Dombrowski, S. (2010). The neurobiological foundations of giftedness. Roeper Review, 32.4, 224-234. doi: 10.1080/02783193.2010.508154 Plomin, R., Kovas, Y., and Haworth, C. (2007). Generalist genes: Genetic links between brain, mind, and education. Mind, Brain, Education,

1.1, 11-19. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Savulescu, J., and Kahane, G. (2009). The moral obligation to create children with the best chance of the best life. Bioethics, 23.5, 274290. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2008.00687.x Tang, Y., Shimizu, E., Dube, G., Rampon, C., Kerchner, G., Zhuo, M., Liu, G., and Tsien, J. (1999). Genetic enhancement of learning and memory in mice. Nature, 401, 63-69. Retrieved from: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal.

United States Census Bureau. (2008). [Table listing selected economic characteristics of the United States]. 2006-2008 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates Employment Status. Retrieved from: http://factfinder.census.gov.

52

Marriage Makes a Man:

Masculinity and Miscegenation in Nineteenth Century America

by Dallas Suttles

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of miscegenation and marriage laws over the course of the nineteenth century in the United States. Legislators exploited the genders role derived within marriage to justify the exclusion of women and non-whites from citizenship. Through the regulation of marriage, legislators were able to ensure the perpetuity of white patriarchal rule over the course of the nineteenth century. This paper will examine the gender roles established by marriage, the role of miscegenation laws in the creation of legal racial categories, and the results of denying slave marriages in the antebellum South. The lingering effects of racial and gender discrimination as well as the issue of same-sex marriages continue to make this historical data pertinent.

In the nineteenth century, white men defended their authority in America by defining masculinity as exclusively white. As white men, they claimed the right to govern their families and by extension, society. In order to maintain this system of white patriarchal power in a racially diverse society, the emasculation of non-white men became necessary to justify their subjugation. The regulation of marriage serves as a useful tool for legislators in this process.

Miscegenation is a term that first entered the American lexicon in 1864 in an anonymously published pamphlet meant to satirize Abolitionists.¹ Miscegenation literally means the “mixing of the races," but the legal use of the term at the time referred to interracial marriage specifically. Amalgamation, miscegenation’s precursor, was the notion that if interracial sexual liaisons continued the races would blend into one mongrelized race eventually.² At the very heart of white supremacy lingered the fear of amalgamation. Interracial couples and their children were walking contradictions that defied the deeply held beliefs of race and gender supremacy that legitimized white patriarchal rule, a system in which white men alone were sovereign. In order to ensure the continuation of this system, legislators used the institution of marriage as an instrument of control. Through laws governing marriage white men were able to subordinate women and non-whites through institutionalized racial categorization. Understanding why marriage was the cornerstone for this subjugation requires an examination of marriage itself and the gender roles derived therein.

Nineteenth-century American masculinity was forged in the traditions of Judeo-Christian marriage that. It was through marriage that men, as head of their household, gained authority over women. Religious ceremonies and sacred vows united husband and wife as one. This belief had translated directly into English common law as a literal manifestation.³ Protesting marriage laws in 1855, Lucy Stone declared it “a system where man and wife were one, and that one is the husband."⁴ In effect, women became legal and social non-entities. Upon marrying, they forfeited all property rights including the rights to their earnings, the custody of their children, and the right to contract.

Marriage in the nineteenth century revolved around the central tenet that a woman, in exchange for total economic support, forfeited all social and legal rights while providing domestic labor and exclusive sexual access to her husband.⁵ In this relationship, the man’s role was to provide for and protect his family in exchange for their obedience and subservience. The gauge of manhood was thus how well he provided and protected. It was through property rights that men preserved their favored status. Property, especially in an agrarian society, was essential for basic sustenance; it provided the raw materials needed for survival. Whether through agriculture, trade, or industry, property created wealth. Marriage assured dependence of women by denying them these fundamental assets of survival. Consequently, dependency came to define womanhood. Therefore, masculinity was the opposite of dependence: independence.⁶ This equated to the exclusive civic, economic, and sexual rights of men that, in turn, came to define masculinity. Thus, in order to subjugate men of other races, whites sought to emasculate them. By doing so, they justified their domination over them in the same way they justified their domination over women. For white male legislators throughout the nineteenth century this was the rationality for maintaining white patriarchy. The consequences of dependency and submission thus became the evidence of inferiority needed to morally justify the political and social hierarchy. The roots of this discrimination began in the early seventeenth century where the arbitrary decisions of colonial lawmakers changed the face of American slavery and provided the framework for miscegenation laws for centuries after.

In colonial America, white indentured servants and black slaves occupied nearly the same social status.⁷ In this environment, blacks and poor whites worked alongside one another and formed intimate relationships. Consequently, enough of them married that in 1661 the General Assembly of the Colony of Maryland lamented the frequency of such unions.⁸ As whites came to define slavery by race, these marriages posed a problem. In 1664, Maryland legislators passed the first laws regulating interracial marriages. The law stated that any freeborn English woman who married a slave would become a slave, as well as her children.⁹ The blatant gendered bias of this early law is revealing in its frankness. Controlling the sexual and marital choices of white women was the primary goal, not just preventing the intermixing of race. Englishmen had long controlled the sexual choices of their women as husbands and fathers. This law was just an extension of that tradition. Interestingly, passing legal status from mother to child was an inversion of traditional English patriarchy, where fathers passed on citizenship.¹⁰

The effects of establishing matrilineal descent in the colonial era were profound. Firstly, it controlled the sexuality of women by limiting their sexual choices to white men alone. Perhaps the shortage of females in the colonies had made this a pertinent issue for lonely Englishmen. Secondly, it established the legal incentive for continual regulation of miscegenistic unions. It was now of national, religious, and cultural interests to prevent the enslavement of white children causing the sexual relations of white women to become a civic matter. Ultimately this gave white men increased sexual-freedom. They bore no legal responsibility to the non-white women they impregnated. Furthermore, it financially incentivized white slaveholders to impregnate their slaves, whose children would become slaves as well. As Martha Hodes points out, these children could be raised by their mothers and live on the owner’s estate without arousing suspicion, or be sold away if they did. Under patriarchal descent, this would not have been possible.¹¹ The effects of this become apparent in the antebellum South.

Harriet Jacobs observed in her 1861 autobiographical narrative that

the children of white slaveholders and black women were “unblushingly reared for the market." Furthermore, she insinuated that if the children were girls, they would be sexually exploited.¹² As historian Edward Baptist has documented, slave traders bought and sold light-skinned slave girls, called “fancy maids," as sexual commodities.¹³ Mary Chestnut, a confederate aristocrat, compared every plantation to a harem where the wealthy wives of planters rationalized away the mulatto children that resembled their own.¹⁴ The 1850 U.S. census was the first to make a distinctive category for mulattoes, the contemporary term for the offspring of white and black parents.¹⁵ Among free blacks, 159,095 registered as mulattoes in the United States. How many biracial slaves remained uncounted in the South is difficult to judge. By the 1850s, accounts of runaway slaves, indistinguishable from whites, had become common.¹⁶

The notion of the white slave was contrary to every racial justification used to support slavery. The pamphlet Miscegenation: the Theory of the Blending of the Races Applied to the American White Man and Negro appeared in 1864, only a month before Harpers Weekly addressed the issue of white slaves in the South.¹⁷ Ironically, the pamphlet’s intention was to paint abolitionists as supporters of amalgamation. William Lloyd Garrison had previously attacked this notion in 1831 when he wrote that it was actually slavery that promoted amalgamation.¹⁸ Under antebellum miscegenation laws, an inherent bias manifested; interracial couples could not legally wed. Thus, States that charged a couple with miscegenation had to prove that cohabitation and fornication was taking place between the accused.¹⁹ For white women and black men establishing cohabitation was a simple matter. With cohabitation proven, fornication followed post hoc. Conversely, establishing cohabitation between white men and black women often proved irrelevant as black women commonly lived as domestic servants in the households of white men. Thus, miscegenation laws had little effect on white males in the South.

Another component of maintaining white male privilege can be found in the marriage laws of the antebellum South that subjugated and emasculated black men. The masculinity bestowed by marriage is perhaps most apparent in the denial of slave marriages. The role a husband fulfilled within marriage was inseparable from the tenets of white manhood. Accordingly, if slave marriages were valid, black men could establish their own independence by fulfilling their role in matrimony as head of household. Of course, this would undermine the hierarchy of the plantation system and the property rights of slaveholders. It would also contradict white justifications for slavery, namely that black men were not capable of independence.

While slave marriages were illegal, enslaved blacks still married one another with great frequency.²⁰ In some cases, these marriages took place with the blessings of their owners and lasted decades.²¹ Others spoke their betrothal in whispers. Without legal recourse, these marriages were subject to the whims of slaveholders. Henry Bibb describes marriage under slavery in his memoirs:

It calls fresh to my mind the separation of husband and wife; of stripping, tying up and flogging; of tearing children from their parents and selling them on the auction block.

It calls to mind female virtue trampled underfoot with impunity. But Oh! When I remember that my daughter, my only child, is still there, destined to share the fate of all these calamities, it is too much to bear. If ever there was one act of my life while a slave, that I have to lament over, it is that of a father and a husband of slaves.²²

Henry Bibb’s tale demonstrates the central role marriage played in establishing masculinity. Denied the rights of matrimony, black men lost all of the vestiges of what constituted manhood. An enslaved black man could not support or protect his family from the white patriarchy that supplanted itself into his rightful role. The plantation owner ostensibly fulfilled the role of husband by providing sustenance, shelter, and support to the wives and children of black men. Furthermore, slaveholders expected domestic labor and sexual access from their female slaves. In this way, it resembled the traditional English marriage, only twisted by coercion and force.²³

The consequences of denying slave marriages provided white patriarchal power two enduring but conflicting legacies. First, the repercussions of denying black men their roles as husbands and fathers became the very evidence of their inferiority, which served to justify their enslavement. Second, the exclusive sexual rights white men held over their female slaves produced mixed offspring that would complicate racial categories indefinitely.

After the Civil War, emancipated slaves gained the right to contract. The Freedmen’s Bureau legalized tens of thousands of slave marriages immediately after the war.²⁴ In what can only be described as an understatement, Freedmen bureaucrat Mansfield French said he thought blacks “appreciated" being able to legalize their marriages.²⁵ Marriage was much more important than French realized because marriage promised family. For couples, such as Benjamin Manson and Sarah White, who had lived as man and wife for twenty-three years and had sixteen children, the legalization of their marriage meant everything. It meant they could finally live together as a family.²⁶ Henry Turner, a black minister, was cognizant of the importance of marriage when he said in an 1866 speech,

“The difficulty has heretofore been our ladies were not at our disposal."²⁷

With emancipation, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and the Fourteenth Amendment, black men could fulfill the role of husband and father long denied to them. As patriarchs of their own families, black men gained all the vestiges of masculinity. However, the wounds of slavery would fester as long established racial assumptions lingered on. Whites, convinced of their own superiority, grew resentful of the new status of black men. Well over a century of derision and emasculation had rooted itself deep into the beliefs and suppositions of white culture. As a result, miscegenation laws remained on the books in most states until 1967’s Loving vs. Virginia.

In the post-bellum years, miscegenation laws continued and expanded across the United States.²⁸ The Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment proved no match for state legislators who continued to use marriage laws to limit the rights of blacks and white women. In Pace v Alabama 1883, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that because miscegenation law punished both whites and blacks equally there was no discrimination, and therefore did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment.²⁹ Georgia’s Supreme Court argued that the social status of citizens could not be legislated and that to permit marriage between whites and blacks would impose an “equality that did not exist."³⁰ In Indiana, legislators warned that miscegenation threatened the sanctity of marriage, civilization, and Christendom. In the Gibson Case, the Indiana Supreme Court decided the Civil Rights Act of 1866 only gave blacks the right of contract in locations under federal jurisdiction.³¹ These rulings would later provide the legal precedent for segregation in Roberts v Boston 1849 and Plessy v. Ferguson 1896.³² Additionally, in the Post-bellum era, anti-miscegenation laws expanded to include other ethnicities.

Over the course of the 1860s, racial tensions were dominating the political landscape in the West. White men coveted Indian land and resented the influx of Chinese immigrants. Consequently, miscegenation laws expanded their racial categories to include the Chinese and American Indians.³³ Western states like Oregon began creating new racial categories such as Mongolian, Malay, and Kanakas.³⁴ As historian Peggy Pascoe observed, miscegenation laws produced the legal formation of race.³⁵ Here, white legislators used marriage once again to deny access to white privilege by emasculating the men of other races as justification for their subjugation.

Chinese started immigrating by the thousands to San Francisco in 1851. They quickly put their entrepreneurial aspirations into action by establishing laundries, restaurants, theatres, and newspapers.³⁶ The 1870 census lists 63,199 Chinese immigrants in America, the vast majority of them resided in California and over ninety percent of them were male.³⁷

The abundance of Chinese workers inevitably drove down wages as more and more people competed for the same jobs in post-gold rush California. It was here that seeds of resentment towards the Chinese grew. By the 1870s, miscegenation laws added the term ‘Mongolian’, which were passed without notable debate in many western states.³⁸ Interestingly, Chinese men seemed to exemplify American masculinity. Lee Chew, a Chinese railroader, realized this when he pointed out that the work ethic, sobriety, and honesty of Chinese laborers was so great employers would not hire white men anymore.³⁹

Despite all of this, Chinese men remained outcasts degenerated by white discourse. The reason seems clear: the Chinese were competition. In the 1870s, “The Chinese must go!" became the slogan of California’s Working Men’s party who blamed Chinese immigrants for lowering wages and causing unemployment.⁴⁰ White men feared they would have to live on the same wages or worse which would reduce them to the depredation and poverty the Chinese were experiencing. This would leave them unable to provide, as men, for their families. This connection explains why family and home became the rallying cry used to justify white animosity towards Chinese immigrants.⁴¹

White discourse also served to emasculate Chinese men and sexualize Chinese women, again on the basis of marriage. Chinese gangs, such as the Tongs, had brought the majority of Chinese women to America against their will to serve as prostitutes for lonely Chinese men. These women were slaves. They were bought and sold on auction blocks in San Francisco before large audiences during the 1850s. Kept naked in cages, swathed in filth and refuse, these women became the public face of Chinese women to white America.⁴² Furthermore, the wives of successful Chinese entrepreneurs lived in an environment akin to a prison. The Tradition of feet binding kept them practically immobile. Some spent their whole lives whiling away the hours in their homes and rarely going outside.⁴³ Chinese men who were married in America lived in fear of Chinese gangs who were notorious for kidnapping Chinese wives. Between this, abject poverty, and the relatively small population of Chinese women, Chinese men had extremely limited chances of getting married in America and raising a family. Though they exemplified all the ideals of American manhood, Chinese men did not appear to be husbands and fathers. Without the masculinity bestowed by marriage, Chinese men were not men and Chinese women were sexualized objects. These factors essentially made the Chinese immigrants appear the antithesis of the white American family. Ironically, the Chinese traditionally held the same values of family and marriage as whites did, including a strong stigma against exogamy.⁴⁴

Western states added Indians to the miscegenation statutes starting in the 1860s along with Chinese, but without the consensus that other racial designations had received.⁴⁵ While eastern states had occasionally banned the marriages of whites and Indians, such laws were sporadic and short-lived.⁴⁶ The reason for this discrepancy was the long tradition of marriages between indigenous women and white men. Fur traders and trappers, living on the frontier, often married Indian women for companionship. This created trade networks and communication between native tribes and whites.⁴⁷ In Virginia, Thomas Jefferson had advocated for assimilation between whites and Indians as an acceptable alternative to removal.⁴⁸ Patrick Henry tried to pass a bill to encourage white and native marriages.⁴⁹ White men through marriage to native women would gain their property and land rights, allowing whites legitimate claims to Indian lands. Judges in antebellum America accepted these marriages as valid, even when created under Indian customs. Cherokee legislators were no doubt thinking of this when they passed their own miscegenation laws in 1824.⁵⁰

Another interesting aspect of the early acceptance of Native American and white marriages was that American Indians were, originally, a symbol of liberty and independence, which was the crucial element that defined white masculinity.⁵¹ They were worthy adversaries and traders, and unlike blacks they held a position of geographic and political power in America initially. Whites had to make concessions and compromises with neighboring Indian communities to avoid making untimely enemies.

As tribe after tribe was subjugated through trickery, disease, and warfare, American Indians lost their noble status. During the Reservation period after the Civil War, they became the dependants of white men. Senator John Logan berated Sitting Bull in 1883, “The government feeds and clothes and educates your children now . . . to civilize you and make you as white men."⁵² In the 1860s, western legislators categorized them into miscegenation laws.⁵³ Miscegenation laws cast many nations and cultures of Native Americans under the legal designation of Indian. White officials no longer distinguished tribes as allies and enemies. Thus, hostilities from any tribe became justification for the subjugation of all tribes.⁵⁴ With western expansion and the Indian Wars, anti-miscegenation laws targeting Native Americans were politically expedient, but with the end of Slavery, anti-miscegenation laws against blacks were no longer necessary.

During reconstruction, laws forbidding interracial marriage were challenged by states across the nation. By the early 1870s, a dozen states had repealed their bans on interracial marriage, with the majority of them in the South.⁵⁵ Interestingly, protecting the white patriarchy was still at the heart of these changes.

Attorney General Joseph Heiskell of Tennessee turned the Fourteenth Amendment upside down when he used it to convict a black man married to a white woman in 1871. Heiskell argued that the Fourteenth Amendment applied equally to whites and blacks. White men could not marry black women; therefore, black men could not marry white women. “Really, [miscegenation laws] were intended to repress the white race, and not the negro," Heiskell charged.⁵⁶ This sentiment, that miscegenation laws were repressing the rights of white men, was a recurring theme in cases where white men had taken non-white wives.

In inheritance cases, as Historian Mary Frances Berry’s research indicates, southern supreme courts validated twenty out of twenty-seven marriages between white men and their black wives.⁵⁷ Peggy Pascoe’s research contrasts this data with the fact that no marriages between black men and white women were upheld.⁵⁸ Lawyers were using the fourteenth amendment to protect the inheritance and property rights of white men, while they simultaneously used state laws to prosecute black men.

The system built off miscegenation law would restore a similar situation to what existed under slavery. Seduction laws, which made it a crime to fornicate with an unmarried woman under a false pretense of commitment, allowed white men legal access to black women. Charges of seduction between whites could immediately be rectified by marriage. For interracial incidents marriage was impossible and, therefore, so was seduction. This allowed white men to seduce, cohabitate, and even rape black women with near impunity. As Mary Francis Berry noted, black women who sought recourse faced charges of miscegenation. Furthermore, the sexual exploitation that black women had endured during slavery was now the proof of their inherent licentiousness. Black men who faced such charges from a white woman could lose their lives.⁵⁹

Miscegenation laws effectively disempowered women and codified into law racial categories as absolutes, strengthening and entrenching white patriarchy. However, as to their ostensible purpose, these laws were ineffective. Interracial marriages, whether legally recognized or not, persisted. Ironically, the social conditions imposed by white patriarchal rule actually encouraged such unions.

First, the indigent people throughout the nineteenth century were predominantly women. In America’s patriarchal society, a woman cast out without a male supporter likely faced a life of wage slavery or prostitution.⁶⁰ The economic incentive for women to marry was all- encompassing. One example of this practicality is found in New York City during the 1850s. Irish women, outnumbering the Irish men in the city by a wide margin, began marrying Chinese businessmen in numbers that elevated this coupling into a stereotype. Harper’s Weekly addressed the issue in 1857, depicting a Chinese cigar vendor and his Irish wife.⁶¹ One New York reporter berated one such woman, who defended her Chinese husband as “whiter" than the white men in her neighborhood.⁶² The association

61

here between whiteness, marriage, and masculinity could not be clearer. In another instance, a young attractive Irish girl bragged to a curious reporter that she and her Irish friends were proud to be married to Chinese men. They worked hard and were devoted husbands, she explained.⁶³

Secondly, the privileged position of white men made them desirable to the women of other ethnicities. It could allow these women a foothold into the world of white privilege when the men of their own races could not. Therefore, marriage to a white man could empower a woman. For example, Francis Chardon casually mentions in his journal two instances of his Lakota wife beating him. As historian Michael Lansing points out this is quite revealing; it shows the power Plains Indian women could wield. Fur traders in the Upper Missouri dealt with the Plains women exclusively. These women were the traders. Their intimate connections to white men over decades empowered these women above the men of their own tribes because of such contact.⁶⁴ They exercised their sexual freedom in the same way white men did. If they wanted a white man, they went after them overtly.⁶⁵ These marriages were common enough for an Arikara leader in 1811 to ask one of the white men if they had any women of their own.⁶⁶

Finally, miscegenation laws were ultimately ineffective because of love. Social ostracism, fines, imprisonment, and even death were not enough of a deterrent to stop these unions. Love, able to draw two people together indefinitely and sometimes suddenly, proved an ungovernable force. At the heart of segregation, and the later Jim Crow laws, was this realization. That it would take the total separation of the races to prevent these relationships.

The white American patriarchy was partially founded in the traditions of marriage, wherein, religion, law, and tradition weaved together and created an institution concrete in its abstractions. The authority of men derived from their positions as husbands and fathers while the dependence and submission of the wife promoted the subordination of women in society. In order to subjugate men of other races, white men sought to define masculinity as exclusively their own. Miscegenation law and the regulation of marriage became the cornerstone to the denial of those rights and privileges.

NINO

Endnotes:

1. Miscegenation: The Theory of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro (New York: Dexter, Hamilton, 1864), ii [Pamphlet].

2.    Ibid.

3.    William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England: Book the First, Vol. 1 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1765), 430-31.

4.    “A Marriage Under Protest," The New York Times, May 4, 1855.

5.    Sharon E. Wood, The Freedom of the Streets: Work, Citizenship, and Sexuality in a Gilded Age City, (Chapel Hill, London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 16.

6.    Bruce Dorsey, Reforming Men and Women: Gender in the Antebellum City (New York: Cornell University Press, 2002), 35.

7.    Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present (New York, HarperCollins Publishers, 1980), 31, 44-45.

8.    Ernest Porterfield, Black and White Mixed Marriages (Chicago: Nel-son-Hall, 1978), 9.

9.    William Hand Browne, Edward C. Papenfuse, et. al. eds., General Assembly (Law Records): 1640-1692, (Baltimore and Annapolis, Md., 1883) Volume:1;53. Archives of Maryland Online, http://aomol.net/html/codes.html (accessed February 10, 2010).

10.    Martha Hodes, White Women, Black Men: Illicit Sex in the 19th Century (New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 1997), 29..

11.    Ibid., 30.

12.    Harriet A. Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself, ed. Maria Child (Boston: Publish for the Author, 1861; Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2003), 86, http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/ja-cobs/jacobs.html (accessed April 24, 2010).

13.    Edward E. Baptist, “‘Cuffy,’ ‘Fancy Maids,’ and ‘One-Eye Men’: Rape, Commodification, and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States," American Historical Review (2001): 1641-42.

14.    A Diary from Dixie: As written by Mary Boykin Chesnut, 1859-1861, ed. Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary (New York: Appleton and Company, 1905; Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina), 114, http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/chesnut/maryches.html (accessed April 22, 2010).

15.    U.S. Census Bureau. Historical Census Statistics on Population Totals by Race From 1790 to 1990, January 2010, http://www.census.gov/pop-ulation/www/documentation/twps0076.html (accessed April 22, 2010).

16.    Lydia Maria Child, Patriarchal Institution, as Described by Members of its Own Family (New York: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1860), 26.

17.    C.C. Leigh, “White and Colored Slaves," Harper’s Weekly, January 30, 1864, 71.

18.    Dorsey, Reforming Men and Women, 190.

19.    Julie Novkov, “Racial Constructions: The Legal Regulation of Miscegenation in Alabama," Law and History Review 20, no. 2 (2002): 5. http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lhr/20.2/novkov.html (accessed February 22, 2010).

20.    Reginald Washington, “Sealing the Sacred Bonds of Holy Matrimony: Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Records." The United States Archives & Records Administration 37, no. 1 (Spring 2005)

21.    Pension File Disposition of Benjamin Manson, 1866, Records of the Department of Veteran Affairs, RG15.

22.    Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave: Written by Himself (New York: Published by Author, 1849; Project Gutenberg, 2005), 21, http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15398 (accessed April 26, 2010).

23.    Ibid., 20, 41.

24.    Washington, “Sealing the Sacred Bonds of Holy Matrimony," 1-2.

25.    Elaine C. Everly, “Marriage Registers of Freedmen," The U.S. National Archives & Records Administration, 5, no. 3 (Fall 1973), 3.

26.    Washington, “Sealing the Sacred Bonds of Holy Matrimony," 1.

27.    Peggy Pascoe, What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 32.

28.    Ibid., 21.

29.    Pace v. Alabama, 1883 Lexis 1584; 106 U.S. 1 (1883); Roberts v. Boston, 1849 Lexis 299; 5 Cush. 198 (1849).

30.    “Miscegenation- Opinion of the Supreme Court of Georgia" The New York Times, June 23, 1869.

31.    Pascoe, What Comes Naturally, 55-56.

32.    Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 Lexis 3390; 163 U.S. 537 (1896)

33.    Pascoe, What Comes Naturally, 77-78.

34.    Ibid., 78-79.

35.    Ibid., 11.

36.    Iris Chang, The Chinese in America (New York: Penguin Group, 2003),

50.

37.    Ibid., 93.

38.    Pascoe, What Comes Naturally, 82 81.

39.    Chang, The Chinese in America, 57.

40.    William Wei, “Denis Kearney and the California Anti-Chinese Campaign" in The Chinese America Experience, 1857-1892 (Harpweek 1998):

2, http://immigrants.harpweek.com/chineseamericans/1Introduction/Bill-WeiIntro.htm (accessed April 23, 2010)

41.    Joshua R. Greenburg, Advocating the Man: Masculinity, Organized Labor, and the Household in New York, 1800-1840 (New York: Columbia University Press; Gutenberg<e>, 2006), 6-7. http://www.gutenberg-e.org/greenberg/Chapter6JRG.html (accessed April 23, 2010)

42.    Chang, The Chinese in America, 83-84.

43.    Ibid., 90-91.

44.    Pascoe, What Comes Naturally, 82, 110, 198.

45.    Pascoe. “What Comes Naturally", 94.

46.    Ibid., 96-97.

47.    Michael Lansing, “Plains Women and Interracial Marriage in the Upper Missouri Trade, 1804-1868," Western Historical Quarterly, 31 no. 4 (2000): 417-418.

48.    Thomas Jefferson to William H. Harrison, February 27, 1803, The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1. General Correspondence. 1651-1827, The Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

49.    Pascoe, What Comes Naturally, 90.

50.    Fay Yarbrough, “Legislating Women’s Sexuality: Cherokee Marriage Laws in the Nineteenth Century," Journal of Social History (Winter 2004): 389-390.

51.    Donald A. Grinde, Jr. and Bruce E. Johansen, “Mohawks, Axes, and Taxes: Symbolic Identity as a Prelude to Revolution" in Exemplar of Liberty: Native America and the Evolution of Democracy, 7th Ed. (Los Angeles: UCLA American Indian Studies Center Publications, 1990; Manataka American Indian Council, 2009), 1-3,

http://www.manataka.org/page1558.html (accessed April 30, 2010).

52.    Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, 2nd ed. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970), 498.

53.    Pascoe, What Comes Naturally, 98.

54.    George Klos, “‘Our People Could Not Distinguish One Tribe from Another": The 1859 Expulsion of the Reserve Indians from Texas," The Southwestren Historical Quarterly 97, No. 4 (April 1994): 598.

55.    Pascoe. “What Comes Naturally", 40.

56.    Wall v. Williamson, 1871 Lexis 100; 3 Tnn. 287 (1871).

57.    Berry. “Judging Morality: Sexual Behavior and Legal Consequences in the Late Nineteenth-Century South," The Journal of American History (December 1991): 389.

58.    Pascoe. “What Comes Naturally," 44.

59.    Berry. “Judging Morality", 849.

60.    Dorsey, Reforming Men and Women, 61.

61.    “The Pacific Railroad Complete," Harper's Weekly, June 12, 1869, 384.

62.    Chang, The Chinese in America, 111-112.

63.    Ibid.

64.    Lasing, “Plains Indian women," 412-414, 418.

65.    Ibid., 417.

66.    Ibid., 420.

66

The Sublime in Frankenstein

by Emily Conheady

abstract: This paper examines the use of the sublime in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Critics have noted her use of the sublime as directly related to the sublime that Edmund Burke details in his A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Much of the sublime that Burke describes is also portrayed differently in the works of several British Romantic poets; particularly Mary’s husband Percy Shelley. Literary critic Anne K. Mellor claims Shelley is rejecting the sublime and favoring the beautiful in nature. Critic Nancy Fredricks argues that Shelley uses the sublime as an outlet for the marginalized voices in the novel, and also believes that Shelley uses the sublime to show the hubris of Victor Frankenstein. However, Mary Shelley neither rejects nor accepts the sublime over the beautiful, she merely uses it to reveal Victor’s deliberate alienation. Nor does she use it to show the hubris of man: when Victor escapes, he does so for solitude. Mary Shelley uses the sublime settings to reveal the escapist tendencies of Victor, and through this she critiques Percy’s escape as well.

In the summer of 1816, Mary Godwin traveled to Switzerland to meet fellow Romantic poet Lord George Gordon Byron with her stepsister, Claire Clairemont, and soon-to-be husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley. In her diary, Mary Shelley recorded the events of her summer; Percy would travel the Alps with Lord Byron and Mary spent most of her time alone in the chalet (Grylls 62, 63). While perched amongst some of the most sublime landscapes in Switzerland, Mary began to write Frankenstein. Mary Shelley created a story which both incorporated and interpreted her personal and physical surroundings. In the introduction to the 1831 edition of the novel, Shelley revealed her desire to write a story “which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature" (171). Frankenstein is filled with scenes of the great and sublime Alps, which mimics the setting where Shelley herself resided while writing the novel. However, Shelley’s use of the sublime differs from the way in which British Romantic poets employed it; Mary develops her own interpretation of its affects.

In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses Edmund Burke’s definition of the sublime to reveal Victor’s escapist tendencies, through his desire to flee his responsibilities as creator of a monster for a more secluded, lonesome setting. Shelley interprets the Burkean sublime in such a way to show how, in excess, it has negative effects on both Victor and his creation. However, the echoes of Shelley’s personal experiences are not limited to the setting of the novel; the context of Victor’s alienation is strikingly similar to Mary’s relationship with her husband Percy. Where Victor’s evasion into the sublime is based on his need to escape the Creature, Percy’s is a reflection of the Romantic poets and their need to get closer to nature and focus on the self. Mary Shelley uses the sublime in Frankenstein to reveal Victor’s escapist tendencies, which then translates into a manipulation of what she perceives to be the Romantic ideal as a result of Percy’s alienation.

Although criticism of Frankenstein has gone in various directions, several critics have made note of its sublime landscape. However, few have analyzed the exact way in which Mary Shelley uses the sublime. Most notably is critic Anne K. Mellor, who discusses the settings in Frankenstein in terms of Burkean sublime, and the Creature as a sublime creation itself. Mellor notes that “not only does the Creature bound through such sublime landscapes, but he also embodies the sublime... [and] his very existence seems to constitute a threat to human life" (102). Although Mellor feels that Shelley employs the sublime, she views it as a criticism of the sublime as well:

because the mind is more likely to respond to the sublime or the unknown with fear and hostility than with love and acceptance, the unfettered imagination celebrated by the Romantic poets is more likely to construct evil than good.

Mary Shelley believed . . . that the Romantic imagination must be consciously controlled by love, specifically a love that seeks all the products of nature. (104)

Mellor believes that Shelley is strictly criticizing the actual sublime for the way it allows the imagination to formulate fear and hostility, and that the only way to prevent this is to read the sublime as lovable. Thus, to Mellor, Mary Shelley advocates the beautiful over the sublime (Mellor

104). Critic Nancy Fredricks disagrees with Mellor’s assumption; she acknowledges there is “a critique of beauty in Frankenstein on aesthetic and ethical grounds," but directly refutes Mellor’s assumptions by stating that Mary Shelley actually values the sublime over the beautiful, because she sees the sublime as a voice for the marginalized (178). Fredricks views the sublime settings in the novel as a positive outlet for the Creature, claiming that he has an advantage “at the margins of representation" (187). In the same sense, she believes that Victor shows a great hubris in the face of the sublime (Fredricks 178).

Furthermore, Andrew Griffin believes that the sublime mountains are actually a place of exile for the Creature (54). His beliefs are somewhat aligned with Shelley’s in that he views Victor as an embodiment of all that is wrong with Romantic exploration, an opinion which the Creature’s speech reveals (Griffin 51). Peter Brooks addresses the role of nature in

Frankenstein, stating that the novel “dissents from the optimistic assumption that nature is support and comfort and a source of right moral feeling" (216). He also notes that the Creature is a complex creation which “comes into existence as a product of nature—his ingredients are one hundred percent natural—yet by the fact and process of his creation he is unnatural" (215).

In 2006, Steve Vine wrote an article on the sublime in three different Shelley novels, Frankenstein included. He addresses the nature of the Creature as Brooks did, but elevates the argument. Vine claims that “[Victor has an] ability to raise himself above the body - the material body of nature - into the transcendent and ‘celestial’ realm of mind: to sublime himself, as it were, above and beyond nature by ‘elevating his soul from earth’" (143). Vine views Victor’s sublimity as ephemeral and views the monster as a corporeal reminder that Victor cannot stay in the sublime forever. To Vine, the mountains are not necessarily an exile for the monster, but rather an unattainable treat—not a negative space, but an inaccessible positive one.

The sublime that Mary Shelley uses in Frankenstein is the epitome of the sublime that Edmund Burke describes in his A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Burke goes into great detail about what he believes the sublime is and the emotions which it evokes. Burke states that the sublime is “whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger . . . or operates in a manner analogous to terror, [and] is productive of the strongest emotions which the mind is capable of" (36). Sublime objects are vast in magnitude, and are evoked by, for example, “looking down from a precipice" and pondering depth (Burke 66). Burke’s sublime is not only evoked in the settings of Frankenstein, but is also seen in the way that Victor uses these settings. For Victor, the sublime is less of terror and more of astonishment and “the passion caused by the great and sublime in nature... is Astonishment... [and in] this case the mind is so entirely filled with its object, that it cannot entertain any other" (Burke 53). Clearly, Victor realizes the power that the sublime has over the mind, which is why he repeatedly retreats to the mountains and other sublime areas. Burke also addresses the idea of alienation, stating that “a temporary solitude . . . is itself agreeable [, but] an entire life of solitude contradicts the purposes of our being" (40). He believes that there should be a balance between society and solitude, which is something that neither the Creature nor Victor experience.

Mary Shelley employs Burkean sublime to show how Victor indulgently uses the settings to escape the reality of his failures. Victor escapes to the magnificent, awe-inspiring mountains to avoid assuming responsibility for the Creature’s actions. When he realizes his creature is destructive, he finds solace in running away to the Alps to be alone. While Victor travels, he hopes that he “might forget [his] companions, the world, and, more than all, [him]self" (Shelley 63). However, he finds solitude to be increasingly enjoyable; and as his isolation becomes more pleasurable, his responsibilities seem to fade from his mind. At one point he desires to travel alone to Montanvert, because he feels that “the sight of the awful and majestic in nature had indeed always the effect of solemnizing [his] mind, and causing [him] to forget the passing cares of life" (Shelley 64). Victor, in the previous statement, makes it seem as if his cares are merely trivial, and apparently forgets that his creation is on a murderous rampage. The ability of the sublime to rid Victor of his worries results in Victor’s increased tendency to hide away in those locations.

Unlike Fredricks’ beliefs, Victor does not act out of hubris, but out of fear and a desire to escape responsibility. For Victor, the “sublime and magnificent scenes afforded [him] the greatest consolation that [he] was capable of receiving. They elevated [him] from all littleness of feeling; and although they did not remove [his] grief, they subdued and tranquilized it" (Shelley 63). Clearly, there is no air of hubris in his statement, only a sense of relief. Although Shelley does not present the way that Victor acts in the face of the sublime in a positive manner, she certainly does not hint at any sort of swelling pride. Victor laments and attempts to receive sympathy from spirits - or anyone who listens - but he does not accomplish much: he cries, “‘wandering spirits . . . allow me this faint happiness, or take me, as your companion, away from the joys of life’" (Shelley 65). Unlike what some critics believe, Mary Shelley does not value the beautiful over the sublime, but rather she criticizes Victor’s reactions in its face. Solitude is not dealt to Victor: he chooses to alienate himself. However, it is a different situation for the Creature, because repeated rejections forced him into solitude.

Not only are the mountains and other settings sublime, but the Creature itself is a sublime creation. With its watery yellow eyes, huge stature, and swift movements, it is the culmination of many examples of both Burke’s sublime and the opposite of his beautiful personified. Mary Shelley’s description of the Creature’s body evokes a horrid response from Victor. Upon seeing his breathing creation, Victor says, “now that I [have] finished [the monster], the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart" (Shelley 34). The creation that Victor had worked so hard on is depicted as having “yellow skin [that] scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast" to his eyes (Shelley 34). Burke states how the beautiful eye must look; he says that “none are pleased with an eye, whose water . . . is dull and muddy" (108). This rejection of the muddy eye is directly reflected in the eye that the Creature opens at his first spark of life. Mary Shelley describes the creature as having “watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set" (34). This description perfectly mimics Burke’s description of the undesirable eye; and in a greater aspect, the way the Creature looks and the emotions he evokes are examples of Burke’s sublime. He claims that whatever “is terrible, with regard to sight, is sublime too" (Burke 53). Even Victor Frankenstein, the monster’s Creator, is confronted with terror when looking at the Creature. Unfortunately, the monster is completely aware of his situation, most notably at the end of his life, which serves to further enhance Victor’s implications in the way that the monster has acted. The reader is directed to feel sympathy for the Creature, because his actions can always be attributed to Victor. When talking to Walton, the Creature says, “Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all human kind sinned against me? . . . I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on" (Shelley 155). Although the Creature is the one who has done the killing, Victor is the one who initiated his negative behavior. However, because of his anatomical composition, he will always be seen as unnatural, sublime, and something to fear, rather than something helpless and potentially benevolent.

Not only is the Creature’s body sublime, but his forced home is as well; the “desert mountains" and “caves of ice" are as much a makeshift refuge to him as they are to Victor (Shelley 66). Although the Creature may be of sublime creation, the setting is not his home by choice because Victor has forced him into this alienation. Unlike Fredricks’ beliefs, there is nothing comforting about the mountainous exile that the Creature has been forced into. It is not a positive space; there is nothing optimistic about the isolation the Creature experiences in the sublime. This is not because of the setting itself, but rather the way in which he has been forced into it, contrary to Victor, who choose to alienate himself. The Creature does not desire to escape to the Alps as Victor does. In fact, it is the opposite: the creature wants, initially, nothing more than to be happy and accepted into society (Shelley 66). Although society’s repeated negative reactions solidify the Creatures solitude, it is Victor’s initial rejection that ignites the Creature’s evil nature. As the Creature’s creator, Victor fails to provide the Creature with parental comfort. The Creature has been denied the simple human rights of companionship and acceptance by Victor and subsequently society, which leads him to his constant rage.

The way the Creature reacts in the face of the sublime reveals the effects of constant solitude; and because Victor’s insists on escaping and living in constant solitude amongst the Alps, he comes face-to-face with the monster; this seems to be a consequence of his actions. Victor cannot see that what he runs to is the same type of creation that he runs from. This ironic realization is also a play on the idea that one cannot escape

his past, like Vine believes.

Regardless of the reactions Victor elicits with the Creature, through his attempted appeasement, the Creature still experiences alienation. This alienation cannot be reconciled, if not for any other reason than the fact that the Creature’s make up is as unnatural as his alienation: if he does not blame Victor for rejecting him, then he should blame Victor for his abnormal creation; similar to the idea that Peter Brooks presented. And like Burke described, the simple nature of the Creature will always evoke fear in others, because he is sublime. Unfortunately the Creature’s alienation, though initiated by Victor, is only reassured by his birth - or lack thereof.

How Shelley interprets Burke’s sublime and alienation is somewhat similar, but not identical, to the British Romantic poets and their use of the sublime. The Romantic poets claim to use the sublime to bring their minds to enlightenment; rather than using it to block things out, like Victor, they used it to open their minds to a more pure, untainted experience of nature. The Romantic poets desired for their experience to transcend beyond two differing levels of nature: for them, the “relation of the two levels of nature, human and physical, is . . . transformed in Romantic poetry," which gives way to a “central theme of Romanticism [,] the attaining of the expanded consciousness" (Frye 26, 42). Again, the Romantic poets, before Mary Shelley, used the sublime to enhance this Romantic ideal. Northrop Frye explains:

The sublime emphasized a sense of mystery and vagueness, not of order or purpose, coming through uncultivated nature, and addressing the individual or solitary man rather than the community. There is nothing new in this as a principle, but locating the sublime and oceans and wilderness, where a solitary traveler confronts it, is relatively new as an emphasis in poetic imagery . . . From the sublime develops the sense of nature as oracular, as dropping hints of expanding mysteries into the narrowed rational consciousness. (28)

Through first-hand observations of her husband and Lord Byron, Mary Shelley manipulates the sublime in such a way to emphasize that, in excess, it has potential to produce negative consequences.

Percy Shelley reveals his Romantic use of the sublime through his poem “Mont Blanc," which was written at the same time Mary was writing Frankenstein. In this poem, Percy admires Mont Blanc of the Alps for its sublime qualities and the way it allows him to open his mind to contemplation of both past and new experiences. He shows an appreciation of nature and enjoys the time that he is able to spend alone in the Alps. Percy Shelley’s descriptions of the mountain mimic those of the vastness that both Burke and Mary Shelley use to describe their respective sublime settings. Percy initially states that when he gazes at the mountain, he “seem[s] as in a trance so strange," which causes his mind to “render and receive fast influencing" of the “universe of things around" (P. Shelley li. 35, 38, 40). Not only does the mountain put him in a trance, but it allows him to learn—it teaches his averting mind (P. Shelley 100). Percy, in this sense, uses the sublime to learn the secrets of nature, giving himself over to the mountain in order to do so. He asks himself what the origin of the mountain is, and through this personal interrogation he learns the ability of nature to force one to ask questions (P. Shelley 71-74, 77). His yearning to discover the origins of the mountain relates to Victor’s Percy Shelley reveals his Romantic use of the sublime through his poem “Mont Blanc," which was written at the same time Mary was writing Frankenstein. In this poem, Percy admires Mont Blanc of the Alps for its sublime qualities and the way it allows him to open his mind to contemplation of that both Burke and Mary Shelley use to describe their respective sublime settings. Percy initially states that when he gazes at the mountain, he “seem[s] as in a trance so strange," which causes his mind to “render and receive fast influencing" of the “universe of things around" (P. Shelley

li. 35, 38, 40). Not only does the mountain put him in a trance, but it allows him to learn—it teaches his averting mind (P. Shelley 100). Percy, in this sense, uses the sublime to learn the secrets of nature, giving himself over to the mountain in order to do so. He asks himself what the origin of the mountain is, and through this personal interrogation he learns the ability of nature to force one to ask questions (P. Shelley 71-74, 77). His yearning to discover the origins of the mountain relates to Victor’s Percy Shelley reveals his Romantic use of the sublime through his poem “Mont Blanc," which was written at the same time Mary was writing Frankenstein. In this poem, Percy admires Mont Blanc of the Alps for its sublime qualities and the way it allows him to open his mind to contemplation of both past and new experiences. He shows an appreciation of nature and enjoys the time that he is able to spend alone in the Alps. Percy Shelley’s descriptions of the mountain mimic those of the vastness that both Burke and Mary Shelley use to describe their respective sublime settings. Percy initially states that when he gazes at the mountain, he “seem[s] as in a trance so strange," which causes his mind to “render and receive fast influencing" of the “universe of things around" (P. Shelley li. 35, 38, 40). Not only does the mountain put him in a trance, but it allows him to learn— it teaches his averting mind (P. Shelley 100). Percy, in this sense, uses the sublime to learn the secrets of nature, giving himself over to the mountain in order to do so. He asks himself what the origin of the mountain is, and through this personal interrogation he learns the ability of nature to force one to ask questions (P. Shelley 71-74, 77). His yearning to discover the origins of the mountain relates to Victor’s admiration of the philosophers to “penetrate into the recesses of nature, and [show] how she works in her hiding places" (Shelley 28). However, Percy acknowledges that he is marked differently because of his perception of the mountain. For him, Mont Blanc is able “to repeal / Large codes of fraud and woe; not understood / By all, but which the wise and great and good / Interpret, or make felt, or deeply feel" (P. Shelley 80-84). Percy believes it is his ability to appreciate nature that allows him to feel what the mountain presents. As Frye describes, for Percy Mont Blanc acts as a work of “physical nature [that] provides the missing complement to human nature" (28). For Percy Shelley, solitude is not a form of alienation, because in this case Mont Blanc acts as companion. Although Percy and Victor claim to be doing different things in the face of the sublime, Mary alludes to their reasons for retreat as the same. Both men withdraw to the sublime to clear their minds, but for Victor the experience is an act of escapism and desperation. Where Percy’s retreat would not initially be viewed as an escape, the link between the two men’s absence is inevitably similar. She seems to be critiquing the idea that human nature and physical nature are interchangeable as a companion for Percy and Victor. Thus Mary Shelley’s use of Victor’s alienation in the face of the sublime is a critique of the Romantic focus on the individual self and the closeness that nature provides, which Percy Shelley exhibits in “Mont Blanc".

The result of Victor’s alienation is his inability to assess the situations that he has placed himself in, which leads to the deaths of his loved ones. While Victor is in a constant state of retreat, he cannot protect his family and friends. He believes that by running away he will save them, but it is the opposite; and he realizes this too late. Victor laments that he “allowed [him]self to be governed by the impulses of the moment; and [his] present sensations strongly intimated that the fiend would follow [him], and exempt his family from the danger of [the Creature’s] machinations" (Shelley

105). Although the eventual appeasement of the monster is the closest Victor comes to actively working through his problems, he nevertheless fails. He alienates himself from society too much to realize how he should morally protect his family and friends. His only attempt to save them is to retreat even farther away; he clearly does not realize that this leaves his loved ones in a constant state of vulnerability.

Unfortunately, Victor becomes so engrossed in the problems his monster has caused that he only thinks about the immediate implications to himself. This again alludes to his selfish tendencies, because he is unable to think about other people’s reactions to his mistakes, until it is too late. Victor only focuses on being alone: on his return to Geneva, Victor explains that he “took refuge in the most perfect solitude . . . pass[ing] whole days on the lake alone in a little boat" (Shelley 103). Thus Victor causes his own downfall, if not because of his monstrous creation then because of the way in which he reacts after he realizes the Creature’s potential danger.

Victor enjoys the solitude that the sublime provides him, which Mary Shelley criticizes him for. Victor relies too much on nature and the sublime while choosing to forego human relationships, in order to attempt to reconcile the Creature’s needs. The implications of alienation have taken their toll on the Creature as well: he becomes malicious due to the way he is treated, which ultimately reverts back to Victor. The way each man acts in the face of the sublime reveals what constant solitude can produce. Victor is nearly pushed to the brink of insanity; the loss of his loved ones leaves him with no one else and no other choice but to “quit Geneva for ever," and wander “a vast portion of the earth, . . . endur[ing] all the hardships which travellers, in deserts and barbarous countries, are wont to meet"(Shelley 140). It is ironic that the fate Victor meets is the same one that the Creature experienced after Victor’s rejection; and even after Victor left, the Creature continued to endure hardship, struggling for “hours and months of misery," unable to “satisfy [his] own desires" (Shelley 154).

Thus Shelley portrays the sublime in a negative fashion, only when used in excess. She uses both Burkean sublime settings and their respective human reactions to reveal that Victor clearly choose to alienate himself, and does so repeatedly. She sees this alienation as unnatural and a form of avoiding responsibility; his excessive indulgence into the sublime leads to negative consequences. When Victor runs away, Mary seems to be alluding to the escapism that her husband Percy involved himself in. Whether a Romantic poet or mad scientist, both men appear to use the sublime as a form of escape: Victor’s escape is created by Mary’s manipulation of Percy’s allegiance to the Romantic ideal. In both situations, the sublime is used as an excuse for the men to retreat into nature. The abuse of the sublime has taken them from momentary transcendence to somewhat of an overdose. However, both men choose to alienate themselves, whereas the Creature’s alienation is by force. The repeated rejections of companionship the Creature experiences forces him into the sublime, thus initiating his rampant, destructive behavior. The monster’s experience with the sublime is negative, not because he takes advantage of its power, but because he is forced into it. Therefore, Mary Shelley shows that the alienation the men experience is unnatural, and by distancing themselves from society, either by force or by choice, the outcome of their respective experiences in the sublime are negative.

OM

NINO

Works Cited

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Butler, Marilyn. “Frankenstein and Radical Science." Frankenstein. Ed.

L. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996. 302-313. Print.

Brooks, Peter. “’Godlike Science/Unhallowed Arts’: Language, Nature, and Monstrosity." The Endurance of Frankenstein - Essays on Mary Shelley’s Novel. Ed. George Levine and U. C. Knoepflmacher. Berkley: U of California P, 1979. 205-20. Print.

Fredricks, Nancy. “On the Sublime and Beautiful in Shelley’s

Frankenstein." Essays in Literature 23.2 (1996): 178-88. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Jan. 2010.

Frye, Northrop. “The Romantic Myth." A Study of English Romanticism. New York: Random House, 1968. 3-49. Print.

Griffin, Andrew. “Fire and Ice in Frankenstein." The Endurance of

Frankenstein - Essays on Mary Shelley's Novel. Ed. George Levine and U. C. Knoepflmacher. Berkley: U of California P, 1979. 49-73. Print.

Grylls, R. Glynn. “Marriage: England V: May-August 1816." Mary Shelley, A Biography. Folcroft Library Edition, 1970. 58-71. Print.

Holt, Terrence. “Teaching Frankenstein as Science Fiction." Approaches to Teaching Shelley's Frankenstein. Ed. Stephen C. Behrendt. New York: MLA, 1990. 112-20. Print.

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Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Mont Blanc." The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Ed. David Damrosch and Kevin Dettmar. Vol. 2A. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. 817-21. Print.

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Morgan le Fay:

From Goddess to Villain

by Kaci West

abstract: “Morgan le Fay: From Goddess to Villain” is a character study of the Arthurian figure, Morgan le Fay. This essay follows her transformation throughout literature from her beginnings in Celtic myths to contemporary understandings; this drastic evolution is seemingly directly related to increased Christian influence from the Middle Ages to today. In fact, the following thesis is explored: Morgan's characterizations in the late Middle Ages suggest that Morgan is humanized with the addition of Christian influence to the tradition, so her depiction changes drastically from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s account to later works, thus representing the overall effects of Christianity on the original Arthurian legend. Morgan's miscellaneous roles in several important Arthurian texts, like Le Morte d’Arthur and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, are examined in order to arrive at the conclusion that her transformation can be seen as representative of the changes Christianity made to all preconceptions about pre-Christian ways of life.

The Arthurian tradition serves the literary world as a reminder of the beauty of chivalry and the legacy of ancient legends throughout the ages. Characters and their many adventures have evolved over hundreds of years and thrived across countless cultures. From the Arthurian origin in Norman-Welsh Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae to present-day books and films, the Arthurian tradition has transformed while maintaining its fantastical essence entirely. The mystical Morgan, first introduced in Geoffrey’s second Arthurian work, Vita Merlini, is likely the most interesting and puzzling of all characters of the legend. Her evolution is complicated, though there are certainly patterns that can be traced in order to understand her complex characterization more fully. The key characteristics in interpreting Morgan’s character include different authors’ choices in describing Morgan’s origin and family, her relationship with Arthur, her attitude towards magic, and her role in Arthur’s life and death. Morgan’s depiction changes according to each author’s comfort in dealing with magical aspects of her character. Her characterizations in the late Middle Ages suggest that Morgan is humanized with the addition of Christian influence to the tradition, so her depiction changes drastically from Geoffrey’s account to later works, thus representing the overall effects of Christianity on the original Arthurian legend.

The most accurate reflection of Morgan’s transformation appears when one compares three stages: beginnings, namely her origins and a more historical viewpoint than later representations; adaptation, which addresses the more religious views developed with the influence of Christianity on the Morgan le Fay legend; and inheritance, a look at Morgan’s depiction after the implementation of staunch religious scrutiny into the legend. Her origins began in Celtic mythology. Although Morgan was first introduced in Geoffrey’s work, her character seems to have been derived from multiple ancient Celtic myths. Irish legends present a triple goddess and war deity named Morrigan, thought of as “the great queen" and a goddess of death (Dee). In Welsh tales, Modron, which translates as “Mother," was the wife of the great king Urien and the mother of Owain, son of Urien. Later in Arthuriana, “romances from early on make Morgan the wife of Urien of Rheged and the mother of Owain/Uwain/Yvain" (Carver 30). While none of these figures are actually named Morgan, they are clearly similar. In fact, Morgan, in Wales, is actually a masculine name. Geoffrey likely derived “Morgen" from the Bretons’ idea of water-fairies, known as morgans, an identification that suits Morgan’s presumed character perfectly (Geoffrey 31). According to legend:

The Morgan is a fairy eternally young . . . Her place of abode is beneath the sea; there she possesses marvelous palaces where gold and diamonds glimmer. Accompanied by other fairies, of whom she is in some respects the queen, she rises to the surface of the waters in the splendor of her unveiled beauty (Loomis 198).

Most authors relate Morgan to the Isle of Avalon, another strand of her origin drawn from Celtic mythology. Finally, Morgan’s full title, in most works, including le Fay further suggests her mystical nature; “fay" means fairy, clearly meaning that Morgan is fairy-like, or supernatural in some way (Geoffrey 31). Morgan’s complex history clearly begins in pagan traditions and this perspective resonates in Geoffrey’s Vita Merlini. These Celtic beginnings of Morgan’s character, though, are stifled as the tradition progresses.

Geoffrey serves as the primary historical source for Morgan’s beginnings. After Geoffrey’s first installment of the legend of Arthur in 1136, he introduced several new characters in his second, Vita Merlini, written circa 1150 AD, including Morgan. Geoffrey’s accounts of the legend are historical in focus rather than religious as later works prove to be. This work clearly relies on the aforementioned Celtic myths to develop setting, characters, and plot. Geoffrey’s reference to Morgan is brief: “Her name is Morgen, and she has learned the uses of all plants in curing the ills of the body. She knows, too, the art of changing her shape, of flying through the air, like Daedalus, on strange wings" (Geoffrey 101); thus, in Geoffrey’s work, she is marked as a healer and a shape shifter, though never referred to as Morgan Le Fay. Geoffrey deems her a helpful mystical figure, especially when he goes on to note her role in Arthur’s death:

Morgan received us with due honour. She put the king in her chamber on a golden bed, uncovered his wound with her noble hand and looked long at it. At length she said he could be cured if only he stayed with her a long while and accepted her treatment. We therefore happily committed the king to her care. . . . (103)

Geoffrey clearly never intended for his Morgan to be perceived as anything but inherently good. Key phrases and descriptors like “received us with honour" and “her noble hand" imply that Morgan is a positive, sympathetic character in Geoffrey’s version of the tradition. Her very brief mention suggests that she is a character used for very specific literary purposes, like saving King Arthur’s life. Her pagan roots in magic essentially save the protagonist of the Arthurian tradition, King Arthur.

The late twelfth century brought another author into the realm of Arthur and Morgan and another perspective on Morgan’s beginnings. Chretien de Troyes, an early Christian French writer, composed Erec et Enide, the supposed earliest Arthurian romance, consisting of 7,000 lines. While this work, like Geoffrey’s, is not about Morgan and focuses mostly on the importance of the chivalric code to the legend, Morgan makes a few noteworthy appearances. Geoffrey and De Troyes present Morgan as a healer and a friend of Guigomar, lord of the mystical Isle of Avalon (De Troyes). Later, Arthur provides Erec with a healing balm made by his sister, Morgan: “This piaster, which Morgan had given to Arthur, was of such sovereign virtue that no wound . . . could fail to be completely cured and healed within a week" (De Troyes). For the first time, the familial tie of Morgan and Arthur is noted, thus humanizing Morgan le Fay (Carver 34). Still, her healing ability is her defining characteristic. De Troyes mingles Christian influence with the old pagan background in a balanced way, allowing Morgan to remain an accommodating and powerful figure in the legend. De Troyes is at ease with the pagan magical element and construes it positively as part of the story.

Morgan’s depiction begins to change, and the period of adaptation begins with another Frenchman, Robert de Boron. He adds a twist to the tradition by marking Arthur and Morgan as half-siblings, clearly providing a more distinct description of their relationship. He characterizes Morgan as “a well-educated sorceress," a more sinister portrayal than in previous works. Dax D. Carver says, “Robert is . . . the first writer to say that Morgan was sent to school and that she learned so much that she became a great sorceress" (35).

De Boron also emphasizes the role of the grail in his version of the Arthurian tradition. This marks an important shift exploited by later writers of the Vulgate Cycle, another work of the period of adaptation. His focus on the grail establishes him as more religiously oriented than previous authors. The writers of the Vulgate Cycle, possibly French Cistercian monks, “wanted to convert the Arthurian Romances into religious allegories in order to indoctrinate the superiority of the spirit over all earthly concerns" (Wu). The increasing emphasis on the Christian elements of the tradition corresponds to the shift in the portrayal of Morgan. As Carver points out, “The anti-gynocratic beliefs of the Cistercians and the Templars could not bode well for any Arthurian female character whose origins were so evidently grounded in pagan concepts" (39); Morgan’s depiction becomes ambivalent. For example, in Volume II of the Vulgate Cycle, Suite du Merlin, “Morgain, once beautiful, is said to have become ugly when the devil entered her heart" (Brewer 47). Through the perspective of the Christian authors, physical appearance is used to best display Morgan’s spiritual ugliness. In the Vulgate Cycle, Morgan is married to Uriens and serves as a lady-in-waiting to Guinevere. When the Queen finds out about Morgan’s affair with Guiomar, she releases Morgan from the court, essentially ending Morgan’s relationship with Guiomar. Morgan’s relationship with Lancelot is especially notable in Vulgate Lancelot. In this work, “the hero twice rejected the preferred love of Morgain. On one occasion Lancelot was lured to her castle by a damsel, and was incarcerated" (Loomis 186).

Morgan takes a larger role in the Vulgate Cycle than in previous works, a role that marks her as vengeful. Also, Morgan’s relationship with Arthur is characterized through her relationship with his knights and other individuals who surround him, like Guinevere. Morgan essentially hopes to reveal Guinevere’s affair with Lancelot not so much to help Arthur, but for her own gain. She wants to be queen, and she wants justice, but only because she hates Guinevere so much. In the last volume of the Cycle, Mort Artu, Morgan still escorts King Arthur to Avalon: “after the episode of the sword, Girflet, on the insistence of the king, leaves him and goes to a nearby hill, from where he sees the arrival of Morgan who, with other ladies, invites the king to go aboard her ship. The king accepts and the craft moves away" (201). There does not seem to be any animosity at the closing, but overall, in the eyes of Cistercian writers, Morgan’s original characterization as a positive influence has deteriorated to that of a sinful, evil woman, who occasionally enacts the role of an antagonist.

After the transformation Morgan undergoes in the romances of the Vulgate Cycle, her character never reverts back to that created by Geoffrey of Monmouth in 1150. The legend falls into the hands of English inheritors, who were heavily influenced by the religious amendments made to

Morgan’s character by De Boron and the Cistercian monks. When the tradition reappears in its birthplace of Britain, Morgan has permanently become an ambivalent character. In Sir Gawain & the Green Knight, an alliterative romance written in Middle English, Morgan le Fay appears once Gawain arrives at Lord Bertilak’s castle; though she is not named until the end of the work. Morgan is characterized as “A matron . . . past middle age / Who was highly honoured by an escort of squires" (498-99). The audience is only given Gawain’s perspective on this mysterious elderly woman:

Nothing was bare on that beldame but the black brows,

The two eyes, protruding nose and stark lips,

And those were a sorry sight and exceedingly bleary:

A grand lady, God knows, of greatness in the world Well tried! (961-65)

Gawain obviously is not impressed by her physical appearance, but he does notice that she seems to be held in high esteem by Lord Bertilak and his household. During this first meeting, Morgan is contrasted with Lady Bertilak, who appears “Most winsome in ways of all women alive, / She seemed to Sir Gawain, excelling Guinevere," proving how obviously beautiful Lady Bertilak is and how unattractive Morgan is (Sir Gawain 94445). The two characters, though, seem to be secretly plotting together against Gawain, and the end of the work reveals Morgan along with her ploy. The Green Knight, or Lord Bertilak, says to Gawain:

She [Morgan] put this shape upon me to puzzle your wits,

To afflict the fair queen [Guinevere], and frighten her to death

With awe of that elvish man that eerily spoke With his head in his hand before the high table.

She was with my wife at home, that old withered lady,

Your own aunt is she, Arthur’s half-sister,

The Duchess’ daughter of Tintagel, that dear King Uther Got Arthur on after, that honored is now. (2459-66)

According to Lord Bertilak, Morgan arranges the beheading game, the journey, and the exchange of gifts, all using her mystical powers for the greater good of Arthur’s court. She still plots against Arthur, but it is seemingly for the good of his court. As in the Vulgate Cycle, Morgan is ambivalent; this Morgan is still a goddess, capable of impeccable power, but Christian impact makes her tricky and sly. She works against Arthur’s court, Gawain specifically, but Lord Bertilak praises her:

“So ‘Morgan the Goddess’

She accordingly became;

The proudest she can oppress

And to her purpose tame---" (2452-55).

To characterize her further throughout the work she is coupled with nature. The color green chosen for the Green Knight is important to note because Morgan works so closely with: “Yes, garbed in all green was this gallant rider" (Sir Gawain 179) and “The steed that he spurred on was similar in hue" (173). The Green Knight is an obvious representation of nature and therefore, so is Morgan. The Green Chapel, where the Green Knight challenges Gawain to meet him, is not an ornate religious work of architecture, but a mound:

It had a hole in each end and on either side,

And was overgrown with grass in great patches.

All hollow it was within, only an old cavern Or the crevice of an ancient crag: he could not explain it

Aright. (2180-84)

The Green Knight dwells in the middle of a natural world, and this is where Gawain must be dealt his deadly blows. The most important natural aspect is the magic green girdle given to Gawain by Lady Bertilak that he secretly wears to meet the Green Knight. Gawain is supposed to be relying on Mary, whose image is on the inside of his shield, and the values of Christianity. Instead, Gawain relies entirely on magic. Morgan tricks Gawain into this shift in faith through Lady Bertilak. Clearly, Morgan’s pagan origins can be seen scattered throughout this poem, though the representation of these origins has evolved into one of trickery and deceit.

Sir Thomas Malory, fifteenth-century writer and another inheritor of the legend, penned one of the most influential and prominent works of Arthurian literature to this day, Le Morte d’Arthur. Written in Middle English, Malory’s work unites the traditions of the English and the French, creating one of the most thorough Arthurian texts (Carver 11). Of Morgan’s beginnings, Malory gives the following: “And the third sister, Morgan le Fay, was put to school in a nunnery; there she learned so much that she was a great clerk of necromancy. Later she was wedded to King Uryens of the land of Gore" (5). Morgan is thus established as disobedient and rebellious against her intended Christian upbringing. Instead, she work diligently to ground herself through her magic. It is important to note her marriage to Uriens because she rebels against this institution as well; a revolt completely against the teachings of the Christian faith. Further, for the first time in the legend, Morgan and Arthur unknowingly commit incest. Arthur “cast great love unto her and desired to lie beside her. So they were agreed and he begat upon her Mordred; and she was his sister on the mother’s side, Igrayne" (Malory 29). This portrayal of Arthur and Morgan’s relationship is unlike any developed in previous works of Arthuri-ana.

Morgan is represented as working against the court. As in the Vulgate Cycle, Morgan stirs up trouble for a few famous knights, namely Arthur and Lancelot, all to retaliate against Queen Guinevere who ended Morgan’s secret relationship with Guiomar (Carver 18). When one of Morgan’s ladies reveals to Arthur’s knights that Morgan is plotting to kidnap both Lancelot and Tristram, Gawain responds, saying, “‘Fie, for shame . . . that ever such false treason should be wrought or used by a queen and a king’s sister, and a king and queen’s daughter!’" (312). She does indeed kidnap Lancelot and later plots Arthur’s death by replacing his scabbard of invincibility with a mere replica. She wants to replace Guinevere as queen or, at the very least, scare her senseless:

. . . in great trust Arthur gave the scabbard to Morgan le Fay, his sister. She loved another knight better than her husband, King Uryens, or King Arthur, and she wished to have her brother slain. Therefore by enchantment she had another scabbard made for Excalibur, just like the first, and she gave the real scabbard for Excalibur to her lover. That knight’s name was Accolon, who later nearly slew Arthur (51).

Malory represents a huge change from Geoffrey, De Troyes, and even from the Cistercian monks. Morgan is no longer just a jealous schemer. She is now a destructive murderer of the king.

As in all previous versions of the legend Morgan is still present and an active participant in Arthur’s journey to the Isle of Avalon for his final days: “Nor did I ever hear or read more with true certainty concerning his death, except that he was thus led away in a ship wherein were three queens: one was King Arthur’s sister, Queen Morgan le Fay" (740). This representation does not suggest that Morgan saves Arthur with her healing powers, but simply that she is present at his life’s end. Given that Malory is the source for most of the subsequent Arthurian legend, his work stands historically as the most influential representation of Morgan le Fay.

According to Carver, “Morgan le Fay is seen the world over as the destroyer of heroes and all that is holy"; this perception of her character is different from that of 1150 AD (42). Her once fantastical presence as the leader of nine mystical sisters on the Isle of Avalon as a great queen and as a magical healer has been transformed into that of an adulterous murderer, guilty of incest and treason. Morgan has come to be a character feared as opposed to one relied on to save other characters through her use of magic. Her transformation can be seen as representative of the changes Christianity made to all preconceptions about pre-Christian ways of life.

OM

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Works Cited

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Brewer, D.S. A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle. Suffolk: St.

Edmundsbury Press Ltd., 2003. Print.

Carver, Dax D. “Goddess Dethroned: The Evolution of Morgan le Fay." MA thesis Georgia State University, Atlanta, 2006. Dissertations and Theses. Web. 24 Feb. 2010.

Dee, Danielle. Morrigan. Encyclopedia Mythica, 1999. Web. 04 Mar. 2010.

De Troyes, Chretien. Ed. Douglas B. Killings. Erec et Enide. Trans. W.W.

Comfort, 1914. Web. 10 Feb. 2010.

Friedman, Albert B. “Morgan le Fay in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Speculum 35.2 (1960): 260-274. JSTOR. Web. 06 Apr. 2010.

Geoffrey of Monmouth. Vita Merlini. Trans. Basil Clarke. Cardiff: U of Wales P, 1973. Print.

Loomis, Roger S. “Morgan La Fee and the Celtic Goddesses." Speculum 20.2 (1945): 183-203. JSTOR. Web. 06 Apr. 2010.

Lupack, Alan. Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend. New York: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.

Malory, Thomas. Le Morte d’Arthur. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982. Print.

Mead, William Edward. Introduction. Selections from Sir Thomas

Malory’s ‘Le Morte Darthur’. Boston: The Athen^um Press Series, 1901. Print.

Rigby, Marjory. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Vulgate “Lancelot.’" Modern Language Review 78.2 (1983): 257-66. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 06 Apr. 2010.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. London: Penguin Books, 1974. Print. Stone, Brian. “Notes on Arthurian Matters." Afterword. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. London: Penguin Books, 1974. Print.

“Vulgate Cycle". Ed. & Trans. Jimmy Joe. Arthurian Legends. Timeless Myths, 1999. Web. 16 Feb. 2010.

Williams, Edith Whitehurst. “Morgan Le Fee as Trickster in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Folklore 96.1 (1985): 38-56. JSTOR. Web. 06 Apr. 2010.

Wu, Joanne. Wu on Morgan. U of Stanford. Web. 06 April 2010.

86

2009 Federal Spending for the 50 States

by Katie Wagnon

abstract: This quantitative study examines total federal spending per capita across the American states for fiscal year 2009. The major categories of federal spending as well as federal spending in select policy areas are also examined in this study. This research examines the major demographic, economic, and political predictors of per capita federal spending across the states. Correlation and regression analysis reveal that federal spending from the previous year and the more state and local bureaucrats a state has are strong predictors of the total amount federal spending. And the percentage of persons 65 and older has a significant influence on the major categories of federal spending and select policy areas of federal spending. When examining the regional distribution of federal spending, this study finds a declining role for region in the distribution of federal funds over the last twenty years and reveals that federal spending funds are actually being more equally distributed among regions.

Federal spending is a topic that certainly does not fascinate or captivate a large audience in our society, but it certainly is a topic that affects all state and local governments, as well as every individual living in the United States. Whether you are a student in the public education system or you take some form of public transportation to work everyday, federal spending has influenced your everyday life. There are numerous categories of spending, which depend heavily on federal dollars: education, transportation, defense, and healthcare. Even though states contribute a significant amount to each category of spending, federal dollars still help shape and direct a state’s economy. This study will attempt to explain and answer the question, “What factors predict the amount of federal spending in a state?"

This study consists of a literature review, data and methods, findings, and a conclusion. The literature review uses several journals, newspaper articles, and other sources, which define the topic of federal spending and the different independent variables used in this study. The second section, data and methods, presents the data of this study and the several hypotheses this data will either accept or reject. In the findings section, correlation tables, scatter plots, and ANOVA analysis charts are used to depict whether the data is statistically significant or statistically insignificant in this study. In conjunction with the tables and figures in the findings section, the results of the study will explain why each hypothesis was accepted or rejected. Finally, the conclusion summarizes and clarifies the

87

key findings in this study and which independent variables proved to influence the amount of federal spending in a state.

Literature Review:

Transportation is one of the many categories of federal aid. According to the Center on Budget and Polices Priorities (Policy Basics: Where Do your Federal Tax Dollars Go?) the estimated amount of transportation spending for 2010 was 3% of the total federal spending for the United States. Angie Cradock and Phillip Troped (2009, 40) illustrate in their article that in the United States, the Federal Department of Transportation provides substantial funding for all transportation-related projects. The Federal Highway Administration is the lead agency within the US Department of Transportation; they oversee program administration and provide financial and technical support to state and tribal governments that administer the programs locally. The Federal Highway Administration budget for transportation comes primarily from fuel and motor vehicle excise taxes. In an article in the NY Times by Jackie Calmes (2010, para. 1), the Obama administration asked the lame-duck Congress to approve a $50 billion down payment on his long-range initiative to improve the nation’s roads, railways and air systems. According to Sean R. Sedam (2010, para.

3),    the most recent stimulus spending on public transportation created nearly twice as many jobs as spending on highway projects during the first 10 months of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Even with an increase in jobs, Angie Cradock and Phillip Troped (2009, 47) explain that some states characterized by persistent poverty or low educational status were less likely to implement transportation projects than other states.

Steven D. Gold (1992, 37) illustrates that as the percentage of poverty increases, the growth of Medicaid‘s assistance to the poor increases too. On average, state and local governments pay 43% of the total cost of Medicaid, while the federal government pays 57% . Gold also explains that a state’s growth of welfare and Medicaid for the poor has caused states to increase their own spending in proportion to the increase of federal aid (1992, 39). However, Paul Goren (2008, 147) points out that the public view of poverty can potentially affect federal spending. If people are seen as victims of economic forces beyond their control then the typical citizen will believe they deserve some form of public aid to help them get back on their feet. However, if economic distress results from laziness or lack of moral fiber, the typical citizen will believe that such individuals are not truly needy, and therefore do not deserve government assistance.

The elderly population in the United States influences Medicare, which is closely related to Medicaid. According to Dennis Cauchon, (2010, para.

4)    nearly $468 billion went to Medicare in 2010, which provided health coverage to around 46 million people who are either over the age of 65 or have disabilities. Debra Street and Jeralynn Crossman (2006, 75) illustrate that popular discourse has characterized older citizens as both the "greatest generation" and "greedy geezers." These terms signal both the tremendous sacrifices and accomplishments of this age group's members and the massive political power which they could potentially wield in self-serving ways. The influence of the elderly population, according to the Congressional Budget Office, causes programs which are carried out by the federal government to focus more heavily on assisting their population than families with children. In 2000, CBO (cbo.gov) estimated spending on the elderly to reach $615 billion, which was more than four times the amount spent on children, and three and a half times the amount spent on families.

Educational spending is expressed by the Center on Budget and Polices Priorities (Policy Basics: Where Do your Federal Tax Dollars Go?) as the combination of the following three sub-functions: training, employment, and social services. Social services main functions are for: elementary, secondary, and vocational education; higher education; and research and general educational aids. For 2010, the Center on Budget and Policies Priorities estimated that only 3% of the federal budget would be given to education. Alan L. Gustman and George B. Pidot (1973,5) describe how areas with a higher population of school-aged children are likely to favor larger education budgets due to the greater number of potential beneficiary families. Parenthetically, such areas are likely to have smaller dependent old-age populations with their competing demands on the public sector. Another important topic Gustman and Pidot address is that the population size of the city is not associated with differences in educational spending (1973,16).

Steven D. Gold (1992, 43) expresses in his article that higher enrollments are not the only reason school spending is increasing. Many states have committed themselves to upgrading the quality of their education systems. While restructuring schools is recognized as a necessity, more federal aid money is needed, especially in states with lower teaching salaries. According to the Heritage Foundation (Budget 2011: Educational Spending Skyrockets), the President’s FY2011 budget request calls for significant increases in education spending and, as promised, the Department of Education is exempt from Obama’s so-called spending freeze. Since 1985, inflation-adjusted federal spending on K-12 education has increased 138%. Yet, indicators of educational improvement, such as increases in academic achievement and graduation rates, have remained flat.

Defense spending is clearly one of the largest categories of federal spending, which has endured many periods of change. According to

Robert D. Atkinson (1993,107), the end of the cold war allowed the United States to cut defense spending substantially, perhaps to the lowest level in 40 years. President Bush proposed cutting defense spending outlays from $287.5 billion in 1991 to approximately $221 billion in 1997. President Clinton proposed even deeper cuts to approximately $200 billion in 1997. Rich C. Eichenberg and Richard Stoll (2003, 413) illustrate in their article that the end of the cold war and the consequent reductions in defense spending occurred in some prominent cases under conservatives. However, according to the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities website in 2010 (Policy Basics: Where Do your Federal Tax Dollars Go?), some 20%of the budget, or $715 billion, paid for defense and security-related international activities. The bulk of spending in this category reflects the underlying costs of the Department of Defense and other security-related activities. The total also includes the cost of supporting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is expected to total $172 billion in 2010. History shows that when the United States enters a war defense spending increased, compared to the decreasing defense spending when the United States was leaving a war.

Another impact of the Cold War on defense spending, which Mark Ellis, Richard Barff, and Ann Markusen (1991,182) address in their article, is the theory of structural and locational determinants. This theory proposes that the Cold War created a new set of industrial enclaves in sites outside the traditional industrial heartland, thereby fostering a geographic reconstitution of leading edge manufacturing capacity in the United States and serving as a major determinant of regional growth differentials. J. Long (1983, 283) points out that little research focuses on military spending-related migration in the United States. However, one unique Vietnam-era study confirmed that direct military-related migration was the single largest contributor to net migration in the United States from 1969 to 1976.

According to Barnes and Roseman (1981,100), the services recruited ubiquitously, but on mustering out, a soldier or sailor was more apt to stick with the regional job market or settle into a retirement community near his or her last station of duty. Since military bases were disproportionately located in the South and West, as Larry Long (1988, 247-48) notes, this process contributed to Frostbelt-to-Sun- belt migration. Robert D. Atkinson (1993, 197) also describes that when the military decreases spending on weapons systems, closes bases, and restructures R&D spending, some states and communities will feel the pinch of reduced defense dollars more than others. But according to an article in USA Today by Dennis Cauchon (2010, para. 1), rapidly rising pay and benefits in the armed forces have lifted many military towns into the ranks of the nation's most affluent communities.Steven D. Levitt and James M. Snyder (1997, 33) note that there are strong theoretical reasons to expect to observe positively-correlated shocks to federal spending in districts of a given state. The inflow of federal funds to a district is affected by the decisions of a large number of actors, not simply by a representative acting in isolation. Governors, mayors, and state and local bureaucrats, who apply for and lobby for federal grants and contracts, are important actors. The president plays a major role, both in the budget process and as chief executive. Authorizing and appropriating funds requires legislation passed by coalitions of representatives and senators. As a result, the amount of federal spending in a district depends not only on the effort and skill of the district's representative but also on the effort and skill of other actors. According to David R. Morgan and James T. LaPlant, the higher the percentage of employees for all levels of government within a state, the greater likelihood that a state will receive a larger share of per capita federal funds (1996, 326).

Thomas J. Anton (1983, 431) states that the West and South do somewhat better than the Northeast, and to a lesser degree the Northcentral. He emphasizes that one should not expect fundamental changes in regional distribution over a short time period primarily because federal dollars are closely tied to population. Timothy Schiller (1999, 17) illustrates that from 1986 to 1996, demographic trends and changing priorities resulted in a shift of federal spending from states in the West to states in other regions, especially the South. However, according to Cary M. Atlas (1995, 624), residents of populous states such as California are represented by the same as number of senators as are residents of more sparsely inhabited statessuch as Alaska. This inequality per capita political clout appears to have predictable and significant effects on states shares of the federal net spending pie.

Data and Methods:

This study was designed to discover what factors influenced the total amount of federal spending per capita in a state for the fiscal year 2009. The unit of analysis was the 50 states and the total amount of federal spending per capita for each state was the dependent variable used to conduct this study. Additionally, this study examined federal spending in the key policy areas of: education, transportation, and defense spending. And the study also examined the following main categories of federal spending: payments to individuals, grants, procurements, and salaries and wages. Finally, this study explored the changes in federal spending across regions from 1990-2009. All the data for fiscal year 2009 and the other additional years came from the U.S. Census Bureau website.

The six independent variables chosen for this study are the following: percentage of persons 65 and older, population density, percentage of votes President Obama received in the 2008 presidential race, percentage of poverty, state region, and total amount of state and local employees per 1,000 populations. The U.S. Census Bureau website provided the data from 2009 for each of the independent variables, except for percentage of votes Obama received in 2008 and percentage of poverty in 2009. The National Public Radio (NPR) website provided the total percentages of the 2009 poverty level and total votes Obama received in the 2008 presidential election for each state. All independent variables and the total amount of federal spending for 2009 are presented below in Table

1, with a brief description and source for each.

Table 1

Variables, Characteristics, and Sources

Variables | Mia. | Mai. | Mean | SJJ. | Source
Federal spending (Per capita) | 7,148.00 | 20,447.00 | 10,93],02 | 2750.479 | Census.gov
Transportation Spending (per capita) | 199.00 | 1,400.00 | 336.662 | 204.550 | Cen5us.gov
Education spending (pea capita) | 218.00 | 631.00 | 2SS.992 | rl.T57 | Census.gov
Defense spending (Per capita) | 495.00 | 8,652.00 | 1846.194 | 1689.934 | Census.gov
% of persons 65+ | 9 | 172 | 13.144 | 1.674 | Censu5.g0v
Population Density | 12 | 1170.fi | 151.330 | 256.432 | Cem5u5.gov
% votes for Obama <20080 | 33 | 72 | 50.540 | 9.498 | npr.gov
% poverty | 7.S | 23.1 | 13.638 | 3.567 | npr.org
State region | 1 | 4 | NIA | N/A | Censu5.gov
State and local government employees 1000 pop | 53.63 | 113.57 | 68.63 9 | 11.027 | Censu5.g0v
Payment to Individuals (2009) | 3330.4“ | 1033.46 | 5563.243 | 1106.482 | Census.gov
Grants (2009) | 1431. S3 | 5311.62 | 2550.450 | 750.53S | Cen5u5.gov
Procurements (2009) | 343.83 | 10443.82 | 1721.811 | 1795.553 | CeH5U5.gOV
Salaries and Wages (2 OOP) | 449.15 | 47 5 14 | 1092.715 | 836.695 | CeH5U5.gOV

The first dependent variable, the total 2009 federal spending per capita, ranged from $7,148 to $20,447 per capita. Nevada was the state with the lowest federal spending per capita and Alaska was the state with the highest federal spending per capita. The mean for the federal spending dependent variable was $10,932.02 per capita, which was almost half of what Alaska received. The transportation spending per capita was the next dependent variable and the range for this variable was $199 to $1,400 per capita. The state that received the lowest amount of transportation spending per capita was Massachusetts while Alaska received the highest amount per capita. The mean for transportation spending per capita in 2009 was $336.66 per capita.

The third dependent variable, education spending per capita, ranged from $218 to $631 per student, which revealed similar results as the federal spending dependent variable. Pennsylvania received the least for education spending per capita, and Alaska received the most education spending per capita. The last dependent variable, defense spending, had a larger range of $495 to $8,652 per capita in 2009. West Virginia received the minimum defense dollars per capita while Alaska received the most per capita.

The first independent variable describes the percentage of persons in each state that is 65 years old or older. The range of this independent variable was from 9% to 17.2 %. The mean of this variable was 13.144 and the standard deviation was 1.674, which indicates that the data is not greatly spread out. The second independent variable, population density, had a larger range of 1.2 persons per square mile to 1170.6 persons per square mile. New Jersey had the most residents per square mile and was followed by Rhode Island. Alaska had the minimum and was followed by Wyoming with a population density of 5.5.

The next independent variable, percentage of votes Obama received in the 2008 presidential election, ranged from 33% to 72% and had a standard deviation of 9.498. When 9.498 is added or subtracted to either side of the mean it would result in two thirds of the cases falling within the range of one standard deviation. The fourth independent variable, the percentage of poverty, ranged from 7.8% to 23.1%, with a mean of 13.638. The state with the lowest poverty level in 2009 was New Hampshire, while Alabama and Mississippi both tied for the state with the highest poverty level. The sixth variable, the total amount of state and local employees per 1,000 population, ranged from 53.63 to 113.57. The state with the lowest amount of employees per 1,000 population was Arizona and the state with the most employees per 1,000 population was Wyoming.

The hypotheses in this study will be tested as follows:

H1: As the percentage of persons 65+ years old increases per state, the state’s federal spending will increase.

H2: As the population density increases per state, the state’s federal spending will increase.

H3: As the percentage of votes President Obama received in the 2008 election increases per state, the state’s federal spending will increase.

H4: As the percentage of poverty increases per state, the state’s federal spending will increase.

H5: Southern states will have larger federal spending per state than states in other regions.

H6: As the number of state and local employees per 1,000 population increases per state, the state’s federal spending will increase.

H7: Federal spending will be strongly predicted by spending in the previous fiscal year.

The data analysis software used to conduct the analysis for this study is Wadsworth MicroCase Student Version by Michael K. LeRoy.

Findings:

The data analysis of this study begins by exploring overall federal spending per capita in 2009. Then, an assessment of the main categories of federal spending per capita are shown in Table 2 and several salient policy areas are shown in Table 3. Finally, the data analysis of this study will conclude with an analysis of variance (ANOVA) of federal spending across regions from 1990-2009.

Table 2

Correlation Analysis of Categories of Federal Spending

Independent Variable | Federal Spending 09 | Payments to individuals 09 | Grants 09 | Procurements 09 | Salaries and wages 09
% of persons 65+ | -0.093 | 0.649** | -0.079 | -0359** | -0324*
Population density | 0.040 | 0 059 | -0.04+ | 0.102 | -0.133
% of votes for Obama | 0.110 | 0.1 SO | -0.06S | 0.07 S | O'.OOS
% of poverty | -0.129 | 0.025 | -0.0SS | -0.135 | -0.08 6
Stale & local employees /1,000 | 0.257* | 0.091 | 0.545** | -0.02S | 0.300*
Federal Spending OS ⁼ | 0.SS9** | 0.627** | 0.902** | 0.S1S** | 0.6S1*

N=30

*pi.05

**p=.01

Population density, votes for Obama, and poverty do not impact overall federal spending as well as the main categories of federal spending. Therefore, the null hypothesis is accepted for H2, H3, and H4. However, the null hypothesis for H1 is not accepted because elderly population is significant in three of the five correlations.

With regard to the total amount of state and local employees per 1,000 population, Figure 1 below illustrates, through a scatter plot with a fitted regression line, how this independent variable statistically influences the amount of federal spending per capita. The correlation of 0.257 is statistically significant at p< .05. The r ² is .07 for the regression model. The total amount of state and local government employees per capita accounts for 7% of variance in federal spending per capita. If a state has 0 state and local employees the federal spending per capita would be $6538.08. For every additional state and local government employee per 1,000 population, federal spending per capita increases by $64.16. As the total amount of federal spending per capita increases, the total federal spending per capita increases as well. Therefore, the H6 is accepted.

Another noteworthy correlation is between fiscal years 2009 and 2008. The correlation of 0.889 is statistically significant at p<.01. It is obvious over the years federal spending has increased, but this correlation illustrates that the previous fiscal year has an immense impact on the amount of federal spending a state received the following fiscal year. Across the table, payments to individuals, grants, procurements, salaries, and wages from the previous fiscal year are statistically significant. The last row of Table 2 correlates the 2008 fiscal year federal spending categories by the 2009 fiscal year federal spending categories. All of the results in the last row of Table 2 are statistically significant at p< .01, which confirms the notion that previous fiscal years are predictors of federal spending.

Payments to individuals for 2009 and percentage of persons 65 years and older has a correlation of 0.649 which is statistically significant at p<.01. This correlation is expected since many elderly individuals receive Medicare and other benefits. Two other significant correlations which are closely related are the relationships between the total amount of state and local employees with grants and salaries and wages. The 2009 grant amount resulted in a correlation of 0.545 which is statistically significant at p<.01. Also, the correlation for the 2009 salaries and wages is 0.300, which is statistically significant at p<.05. Both of these correlations illustrate the weighty influence that the number of bureaucrats in a state has on the amount of federal spending a state receives. Since three of the five correlations for state and local employees per 1,000 are statistically significant, this study depicts that the amount of federal spending a state receives can be bureaucratically driven.

Table 3 below illustrates that the independent variables had more statistically significant results when a correlation analysis was conducted with the remaining education, transportation, and defense spending per capita dependent variables. With regards to the transportation spending variable, the percentage of elderly and the percentage of votes President Obama received in the 2008 presidential election are statistically significant at p< .05 in a negative direction. The total amount of state and local government employees per 1,000 population is statistically significant at p< .01 in a positive direction. For the education spending variable, the percentage of elderly, population density, and the percentage of votes President Obama received in 2008 were statistically significant at p< .05 in a negative direction. The total amount of state and local government employees per 1,000 populations correlated against education spending was statistically significant at p< .01 in a positive direction. For defense spending per capita, the only significant independent variable was percentage of elderly, which was statistically significant at p< .01 in a negative direction. Parts of this study will continue to focus on the total amount of state and local government employees per 1,000 population fortrans-portation and education spending variables per capita.

Table 3

Correlation Analysis of Federal Spending in Select Policy Areas

X=50

*p<05

*Y=_oi

Independent Variables | Transportation Spending ipes cipiuj | Education Spending (pw capita) | Defense Spending (pea oguta)
% of persons 65+ | -0J253* | -Q272* | -0.365**
Population density | -0.232 | -0.257* | 0.046
% of votes for Obama | -0_314* | -0.245* | 0.080
% poverty | -0.194 | 0.063 | -0.125
State & local employees | 0.644** | 0.570** | 0.109

In Figure 2, the correlation of 0.644 is statistically significant at p< .01. The r ² is .41 for the regression model. The total amount of state and local government employees per 1,000 populations, accounts for 41% of variance in transportation spending per capita. If a state has 0 state and local government employees per 1,000 population, the transportation spending per capita would be -$483.32. For every additional state and local government employee per 1,000 population, the transportation spending per capita increases by $11.94. However, when examining the scatterplot Alaska was clearly an outlier in the data. When Alaska was removed from the scatterplot the correlation became 0.682 and was still statistically significant at p< .01. The new r 2 became .47, which explained that the total amount of state and local government employees now account for 47% of the variance in transportation spending per capita.

Figure 3

Education Spending and State and Local Government Employees

6*0

Case Nimljer 2

1 - 90 Y ■ 631 Me* rvane f Removed - 0.540" Proi). -0.000

I30

■ • <f rj | ■a
* “ + |

50

120

11 a 1 0 c g 0 v Llie EqiatlOl Y - 3t.S29 + 3.T0T X r-0.570" p rai). - 0.000    N-50 umiig-o

In Figure 3, the correlation of .570 is statistically significant at p< .01. The r ² is .32 for the regression model. The total amount of state and local government employees per 1,000 population accounts for 32% of the variance in education spending per capita. If a state has 0 state and local employees the education spending would be $34.52. For every additional state and local government employee per 1,000 population, education spending per capita increases by $3.70. However, the data from the scat-terplot revealed that Alaska was an outlier. When Alaska was removed from the scatterplot the new correlation of .540 was still statistically significant at p< .01. Alaska’s education spending per capita when removed decreased the percentage of variance in education spending. The new r

2 became .29, which illustrated that the total amount of state and local government employees only accounted for 29% of variance in education spending per capita. Even though education spending per capita remained statistically significant at p< .01 the removal of Alaska from the scatterplot depicted that this state was skewing the data.

This study concludes with the data analysis with ANOVA of region and federal spending. The influence of region on federal spending has shifted over time and has become less important in terms of exploring the distribution of federal funds.

The overall mean of 10932.020 illustrates that the average federal spending per capita in the United States for 2009 was $10,932.02. This ANOVA analysis shows that the North Eastern and North Central states fall below the mean, while Southern and Western states are above the mean. The ETA squared, which is .02, illustrates that only 2% of variance in federal spending per capita is explained by region. The state that received the lowest amount of federal spending per capita was Nevada and the state that received the most federal spending per capita was Alaska. The difference of means across groups is not statistically significant (F= 0.287, P= .0834).

Figure 5

1990 Federal spending and region

The overall mean of 4025.135 illustrates that the average federal spending per capita in the United States for 1990 was $4,025.14. This ANOVA shows that the majority of Southern and North Central states fell below the mean. North Eastern states in 1990 were widely spread out, which resulted in half the states falling below the mean while the other half was above the mean. A large amount of Western states, on the other hand, were above the mean. The ETA squared, which was 0.123, illustrates that 12% of variance in the federal spending per capita for fiscal year 1990 is explained by region. The state that received the lowest amount of federal spending was Indiana and the state that received the most federal spending per capita was Alaska. The difference of mean across groups is not statistically significant (F= 1.750, P= 0.185).

From 1990 to 2009 there has been a 10% decrease in the variance of federal spending per capita that is explained by region. The greatest decline in variance during this 19year period occurred between fiscal years 1995 and 2000. Regions accounted for 10% of the variance in federal spending in 1995, but it plummeted to 3.2% by 2000. The relevance of region in the distribution of federal funds has clearly declined over the last two decades.

Conclusion:

This study revealed that only a few of the independent variables were statistically significant in influencing the overall amount of federal spending per capita a state received in 2009. The total amount of state and local employees per 1,000 population was statistically significant. In Table

2, the total amount of state and local employees per 1,000 population was statistically significant when correlated against total amount of federal spending, grants, and salaries and wages. And in Table 3, this variable revealed significant results in the select policy areas of transportation and education spending per capita. These results illustrate that political influence in a community is very significant because bureaucrats build empires with federal funds. For example, the stimulus bill in 2009 only increased the powerful impact of bureaucrats. Another strong influence the total amount of state and local employees per 1,000 population had was that this variable was a strong predictor of the total grant amount received in 2009.

Furthermore, the previous 2008 federal spending had a powerful impact on the 2009 federal spending, as well as categories of federal spending variables. In Table 2, all the variables were statistically significant at p<.01. Total amount of federal spending, grants, and procurements provided the most statistically significant results of all of the variables investigated. This study clearly illustrated the notion of incrementalism by revealing that the statistically significant correlations from the previous year spending were predictors of federal spending the following year. Percentage of elderly was another independent variable that produced several statistically significant correlations. In Table 2, percentage of persons 65 and older was significant at p<.01 for payments to individuals and procurements, and significant at p<.05 for salaries and wages. For Table 3, percentage of persons 65 and older had a statistically significant impact on all three of the select policy areas.

Another variable that created interesting results in this study was that region did not have a very significant role in which states received the most federal dollars per capita. The Southern states have historically been known for receiving a great deal of federal spending, but the Western states actually received the most federal dollars per capita in this study. However, region has rather dramatically declined in terms of its salience in predicting the distribution of federal spending from 1990 to 2009. With a 10%decrease in the influence of region over the last two decades, federal spending across regions have actually reflected universal norms by becoming more equally distributed among the regions. Some other independent variables that could be worth studying for future research are: mean income of a state, overall GDP of a state, and tax capacity. Lastly, investigating some political variables such as seniority of state’s congressional delegation as well as the political affiliation of a state’s congressional delegation could yield some significant results. During the last twenty years, partisan control of Congress has shifted back and forth between the Democrats and Republicans, so further research could examine whether or not seniority, or party affiliation, is becoming less important in predicting federal spending.

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References

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104

Society’s Viewpoint and its Effect on Interracial Couples

by Kenneth Chase Kelly

abstract: The idea of freely allowing interracial relationships has always been shunned and deemed repulsive. Regardless of societal change, many people hold on to this idea that endogamy, or a relationship between two people of a specific race, and believe anything other than this should not be allowed. These individuals should be allowed to openly display their relationship and feel comfortable in doing so. In this essay, I analyze the effects that society has placed upon these types of relationships. I found, upon analyzing other studies within this discipline, that society’s rejection of these relationships leaves the couple questioning whether they should be together. Rather than forcing the couple apart, the harshness of society towards them actually draws them closer to one another, making them realize how much they really want to be together and making their relationship much stronger. These types of relationships must have a strong accepting atmosphere in order to surmount society’s rejection. Therefore, I developed the solution that society, especially the parents of these couples, should become more accepting of them in order to help them become more comfortable being open about their relationship, rather than having to go through social rejection.

Regardless of societal change over the past half-century, many people still hold true to their standing on forcing endogamy, or a relationship between two people of a specific race, and rejecting anything other than this. I very strongly disagree with this outlook and find it simply ethically incorrect. Since we have established equality for all people, I believe it is wrong to frown upon a couple because they represent two different races or ethnic groups and reject them from society due to their lack of conformity. Forcing a couple who doesn’t partake in endogamy to separate is just as prejudice as denying suffrage to a person of a certain race. However, many individuals still blatantly disregard the change in society and still insist that endogamy is a necessity and reject couples who are of two different races.

In my opinion, the denial of acceptance society has displayed towards interracial couples is discrimination towards their feelings and is therefore a violation of their natural rights. An article written by Anita Kathy Foeman and Teresa Nance in The Journal of Black Studies says “many [interracial] couples are actually forced into the coping place by an unaccepting society" (Foeman 551). The majority of interracial couples feel this negative

105

tension directed towards them and it often leaves them feeling distant from society and even unwanted. In a separate article by Marisol Clark-Ibanez and Diane Felmee’s published in The Journal of Marriage and the Family, they state “having an intimate relationship across ethnic or racial boundaries remains a substantial social norm violation for many today because it challenges the general societal norm" (Clark-Ibanez 293). The huge impact society’s reaction has on these couples defines exactly why individuals should not degrade those who are in an intimate relationship crossing racial lines. The feeling of rejection from society is a huge violation of couples’ rights to be together and causes them to question their own decision to be together. This feeling then creates a hesitation amongst the couple regarding whether or not they should publicly display their relationship for fear of rejection by society. The negation of couples’ rights and rejection by society has left them feeling distant from everyone else and even themselves just because of their differences in ethnicity.

Some people are beginning to realize interracial relationships are not horrid and are even moving towards promoting diversity in relationships, but this group still differs from my opinion because they do not understand the impact it has from first-hand experiences with rejection by society. In an article written by Sheryline Zebroski for The Journal of Black Studies, she states “there may even be a tendency of the part of the interracial couples to actively seek supportive social situations and avoid those that are not, in order to live ordinary lives" (Zebroski 124). Many of these people who are not completely involved in an interracial relationship do not understand the feeling of rejection, such as avoiding certain social gathering or interactions because of fear of persecution. Foeman and Nance’s article also states “those around [the interracial couple] may predict negative outcomes or challenge the couple’s choices" (Foeman 551). The feeling that the majority of people within society look upon an interracial couples’ relationship as negative and challenge their choice to be together is a huge blow to the self esteem which often leaves the couples feeling as though they are total outcasts. Those who are not directly involved within such a relationship do not appreciate the effort the couples must give and the defiance and hurt they must encounter just to remain together.

The side which is promoting interracial marriages differs from my opinion in the ideal that they do not understand how harsh society is towards them, but they are completely contrary in the way they perceive the couples to react. Foeman and Nance’s article reveals “as [interracial] couples work their way through these issues, they will draw closer together" (Foeman 552). Many perceive that couples realize how difficult it is to be together, and it causes them to give up and go their separate ways. Also in Paul H. Landis’ book “Your Dating Days, he states “often love affairs between people of different groups, which face considerable criticism from parents and friends become more intense and meaningful to the persons involved than those of people in the same group" (Landis 83). However, these statements reveal as these couples go through the issues that try to tear them away from each other, rather than splitting up as many believe, it actually draws them even closer together and makes their relationship much stronger. Society’s harsh rejection of these couples does not cause them to split up, but rather helps them realize how much they want to be together and creates a stronger connection with one another, as opposed to other more traditional couples who feel no pressure at all.

The main reason society opposes interracial relationships is because they break from the normality of society and causes a negative view towards those involved. Going back to Foeman and Nance’s article in the Journal of Black Studies, they cite a statement from Porterfield’s article in Marriage and Family Review, which says “no other mixture touches off such a widespread condemnation as black-White intermixing" (Foeman 541). Labeling the couples as a condemnation displays precisely how harshly society retaliates when individuals attempt to break from what has been label as the “norm." Clark-Ibanez and Felmee’s article cites two different quotes from individuals in their study about how their families would react to them dating outside of their race. One white female states “it would be difficult for me to date someone of another ethnicity, not because of any prejudices I have, but because my family doesn’t approve of that" (Clark-Ibanez 300). This beautifully displays the individual has no problems at all with dating someone outside of their race, but they would not do it because their parents would be completely opposed to it. The second quote was from a white male who said “[his] family is conservative and elite in the community and it would not look good socially" (Clark-Ibanez 300). This brilliantly displays not only his family’s opposition to him dating interracially, but also reveals the reason why, because of society’s perception of them. An individual’s family is not only the biggest influence upon whether they would partake in an interracial relationship, but also shows the biggest opposition the parents would have draws its roots directly from how they would be seen socially.

In response, the individual’s families should not allow the perceptions of society to force them to comply with what society deems as normal. Foeman and Nance’s article cites a source that reveals a lot about the history of miscegenation. This citation, within the journal, says an article by Smith from 1966 “reports that there is evidence of intermixing between the two races before Blacks even came to the continent as slaves" (Foeman 541). This disproves the opposing theory in which interracial couples are a new idea and such relationships should never be allowed to exist in modern society. If anything, society should allow these diverse new relationships to thrive in modern society because of the equal rights of all people, rather than to discourage them.

In order to establish this change within modern society and to allow interracial couples more freedom from persecution, the individual families and society as a whole should move towards a more supportive position in response to interracial relationships. Relating back to Clark-Ibanez and Felmee’s article in The Journal of Marriage and the Family, they state “positive social interactions of friends should strengthen a pairs’ sense of identity as a couple and increase a couple’s ability to withstand threats to relationship viability" (Clark-Ibanez 294). This increase of support from friends allows the couple to feel more comfortable about being together and increases their comfort within society. Clark-Ibanez and Felmee also state “a supportive social network is particularly important for interethni-cal couples because of the societal resistance toward intimate involvement between ethnic groups" (Clark-Ibanez 294). It is imperative for interracial couples to have a supportive social network and if parents would become more supportive towards these interracial couples, it would help them to become more comfortable within their own relationships. If individuals, especially parents, would negate the couples breaking from the societal norms and become more supportive, it would allow the couples to feel less pressure from society and stronger in response to prejudices against them.

As a solution, it would be of great benefit to the couple, their parents, and society as a whole for all to become more supportive and less resistant towards interracial couples. According to the Pew Research Center's article “Marrying Out", they reported after reviewing the 2008 United States Census “a record 14.6% of all new marriages in the United States in 2008 were between spouses of a different race or ethnicity from one another" (Passel). In accordance to this data, about “one-in-seven marriages" are interracial or interethnical, which is an astounding amount considering there is still a great amount of resistance towards these types of marriages (Passel). From a statistical perspective, many families of couples who are involved in these types of relationships should be more supportive, not only for the support these couples require, but also because their main reason for not supporting these marriages is based solely on the fact society is resistant to them, yet this is obviously shrinking because of the rise in numbers. Society’s resistance to these types of marriages should be negated and become more supported by parents because it will soon become the normality to see interracial couples since they are increasing in such drastic numbers.

The opposition and even the individuals on my side may have objections to my proposed solution of becoming more supportive of these couples, so as to allow them to assimilate into the societal norm for several reasons. Many would oppose this solution because of the strong belief that people of different races should not be allowed to become romantically involved with each other in an effort to promote the purity of a race. However in accordance with Foeman and Nance’s article, which cited two addition publications, this idea is not justifiable because “Beigel held in 1966 that perhaps 70 percent of African Americans had white ancestors" (547) and “Stuckert [in 1958] contended that 21 percent of the persons classified as white...have an African element" (Foeman 547). This theory that neither people of African American or White ancestry are classified as a pure race completely disproves this objection both for these ethnic groups and many others. Another theory included in Foeman and Nance’s article was “the problems of interracial couples are insurmountable and the interracial relationships are, by definition, unstable" (Foeman 545). This theory concurs directly with those who have negative outlooks and believe these types of relationships are unstable and could create more problems in society than they help. However, Foeman and Nance cite “research by Monahan [conducted in 1971] indicated Black-White marriages are not less stable than any other marriages" (Foeman 545). This certainly disproves such a theory and reveals these interracial relationships are no more unstable than couples of the same race. Many opposing theories created out of society’s resistance towards these types of relationships can be easily disproved and can be attributed to merely the fact society rejects these types of relationships.

My solution of increasing support from society for these types of relationships will work because several more people are becoming involved in these types of relationships and they are gradually becoming more accepted. In Foeman and Nance’s article, they cited Schlesinger who said “the most recent census figures tell us that today there are 1 million interracial marriages (primarily black and white) and over % million interracial children" (Foeman 542). Schlesinger wrote his piece in 1992, which means this number has vastly increased overtime and people are slowly becoming more accepting of these relationships by negating society’s view of the norm and replaced it with what they perceive as right. In Clark-Ibanez and Felmee’s article, they describe “interethnical relationships are significant because they may act as a catalyst for societal change" (Clark-Ibanez 293). Interracial relationships should indeed act as a catalyst by promoting societal change moving towards helping those involved in these relationships become more socially accepted, rather than rejected due to their conflict with the established norm.

In conclusion, many individuals still hold on to the outlook that endogamy is a necessity and reject those couples who are of two different races. In my opinion, the opposing viewpoint stating these relationships are unstable and will never be as close as other relationships is very incorrect. In fact, because of society’s persecutions of these relationships, they will become much closer and much stronger together than many same race relationships. Parents and friends are the biggest influence upon the support or opposition of these types of relationships and play a crucial role in decided whether an individual should get involved in one of these types of relationships. My solution of parents and society becoming more acceptable of these types of relationships will benefit all involved because the couples will feel more comfortable in openly displaying their relationships and the parents will become more comfortable in society. Interracial relationships are the catalyst for such societal change and will hopefully become more attributed towards the society norm, rather than an example of rejection.

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Works Cited

Clark-Ibanez, Marisol, and Diane Felmee. "Interethnic Relationships:

The Role of Social Network Diversity." Ed. Alexis J. Walker. Journal of Marriage and the Family 66.2 (2004): 293-305.

Foeman, Anita Kathy and Teresa Nance. “From Miscegenation to

Multiculturalism: Perceptions and Stages of Interracial Relationship Development." Journal of Black Studies 29.4 (1999): 540-557.

Landis, Paul H. “Your Dating Days: Looking Forward to Happy Marriage" New York: Whittlesey House, 1954.

Passel, Jeffrey S, Wendy Wang and Paul Taylor. “Marrying Out." Pew Research Center. 4 Jun. 2010. Pew Research Center. 9 Dec. 2010 <http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1616/american-marriage-interra cial-i nterethnic>.

Zebroski, Sheryline A. “Black-White Intermarriages: The Racial and Gender Dynamics of Support and Opposition." Journal of Black Studies 30.1 (1999): 123-132.

112

Adhering to the Same Ethics in the Age of Social Networking

by Sara Lynn McCall

Abstract: This paper examines why privacy law has complicated the world of journalism in the way news is gathered and reported due to the rise of the Internet, social networking sites, and “celebrity culture.” Privacy is essential to personal freedom, and this paper concentrates on the laws that are meant to protect reputations and personal lives but sometimes create a blurry ethical line. The legalities of privacy law may remain solid; however, because of sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and You Tube, what is generally considered an ethical position should be codified in law in order to clarify what should and should not be written about. One of the most important aspects in journalism is consistency, and incorporating this ethical stance into privacy law will only give reporters a clearer guide into how they should approach stories, especially ones that integrate social networking sites.

hering to the Same Ethics in the Age of Social Networking Privacy

as become such an amorphous word due to the rise of the Inter-

et, social networking sites, and celebrity culture, which has complicated the world of journalism in the way news is gathered and reported. Nevertheless, privacy is essential to personal freedom, and it is time to re-examine and strengthen the laws that protect reputations and personal lives. Journalists should keep in mind their ethics and what is being reported should never cause more individual harm than public good. Difficulty arises because the journalism world does not always share the same viewpoint regarding what is considered newsworthy and malicious reporting. The legalities of privacy law may remain solid. However, because of sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and You Tube what is generally considered an ethical position should be codified in law in order to clarify what should and should not be written about.

The four ways to invade privacy are appropriation, intrusion, publicity about private facts, and false light. Generally, the legal rights in privacy law are not a question, but the ethical stance regarding publicity of private facts can be obscured in journalism. In Mass Media Law, Don R. Pember and Clay Calvert assert that publishing private information about a person is illegal if the material would highly offend a reasonable person and is not considered to be of legitimate public concern. In most cases determining whether a matter would be highly offensive to a reasonable person is fairly easy, but whether a matter is of public concern is sometimes unclear. Legitimate public concern means newsworthy in the journalism world. The problem is that courts have held newsworthy information to be what the public wants to know and not necessarily what they need to know. It is human nature to want to have access to information even when there is no justifiable need to know. However, the public should only have the right to information that is reported solely for public good.

Due to the rise of the digital world, information that is deemed newsworthy to some journalists is simply gossip to others. Although the issue regarding newsworthiness has been around for centuries, the divide between hard news and gossip has greatly increased. For this reason, an age-old ethical stance reminds journalists to keep in mind what they report should never cause more individual harm than public good and should be codified in the publicity about private fact’s section in privacy law. Journalists tend to obey the law, but each person has his or her own set of personal standards, which can be problematic in deciding what to report. Ethics are guidelines, but journalists have no legal responsibility to follow a certain ethical code. Although most publications have ethical principles they expect their reporters to follow, not every reporter will abide by these principles and not every publication will agree on what is considered ethical. It is particularly important that all journalists follow the same laws to ensure fairness and unbiased reporting, but ethics cannot be forced uponeveryone. According to Bob Steele, the Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values, journalists should be “seeking meaningful information that serves a legitimate public need to know, while being respectful and compassionate to those whose personal privacy may be intruded upon" (1). If the principle of measuring individual harm versus public good was included in privacy law, it would be much more difficult for journalists to publish stories they deem newsworthy when the information is nothing shy of idle or sometimes malicious talk.

As a result of the rise in technology, the conceptions about privacy are staggeringly different than what they were fifty years ago. In the article, “Too Much Information: Does the Internet Dig Too Deep?" Dinaz Kachhi and Michael W. Link assert that, “When asked if people’s right to privacy is well protected, more than half of those surveyed said they ‘somewhat’ or ‘strongly’ disagreed" (4). They also stated that 71.4 percent of people surveyed believed they no longer had control over how their personal information was used. These numbers are disturbing and somewhat coincidental to the rising number of people using social networking sites. In the article, “The End of Privacy?" Daniel J. Solove reports that 90 percent of students on most college campuses have some sort of social networking site such as Facebook and MySpace. When considering what kinds of information teens and college students post on their sites, the privacy issue seems mind-boggling. Solove goes on to say, “Every day people post more than 65,000 videos on YouTube. In 2006 MySpace surpassed 100 million profiles. Since 1999 the number of blogs has grown from 50 to

50 million. More than 50 percent of blogs are written by children younger than 19" (102). Society thrives on the ability to communicate globally with the click of a mouse, but everything that comes with great potential, also comes with great pitfalls.

The Internet may be a fast and fun way to chat with friends, share information internationally, and post blogs or photos, but whatever personal information goes on the Internet stays on the Internet. The current digital age makes so much possible with instant access to unlimited information, but with every great advancement in technology, something must be at stake. In this case, it is personal privacy and reputation are at stake. The Internet gives users a sense of comfort and naive belief that because they may be in the comfort of their own home, with their personal computer, they are exempt from the potential dangers. Solove says it best, “For the current generation, the past is preserved on the Internet, potentially forever" (101). The quote is simple, but if one does not want certain personal information on the Internet indefinitely then do not post it. Most reporters could embrace the fact that if someone did not care to take the initiative to protect his or her own information then it is definitely not the reporter’s job to do so. However, the ethical stance would call one to question whether the information posted was of legitimate public concern or simply assertions to liven up a story. If information posted was not for public good, then journalists should take it upon themselves to guard people’s privacy when they do not have the sense to do it themselves. Solove also asserts that losing privacy can also equal losing freedom because the ease at which employers, co-workers, and acquaintances, among others can access personal information and sometimes past mistakes. If this ethical position was included in the law, it would save journalists time having to decide ethical dilemmas for themselves and potentially making a wrong decision that could hurt someone’s reputation or ruin someone’s life when it did not have to.

Another issue to consider when deciding whether to use information posted online is the different opinions and viewpoints between Solove’s “Generation Google" and older adults who did not grow up with a rapidly growing Internet. “Generation Google" refers to the younger generation that has never known life without the Internet and whose bits and pieces of personal information will forever reside online to be accessed by a Google search. The younger generation has a completely different outlook on today’s digital age than older adults because they have grown up with the notion that privacy is sometimes a thing of the past. When discussing how the younger generation feels about privacy in , ‘Naked in the ‘Nonop-ticon’," cultural journalist Emily Nussbaum bluntly says, “Your life is being lived in public whether you choose to acknowledge it or not" (2). The younger generation also has a vastly different opinion of what is acceptable to post online than older generations.

This significant divide is not necessarily just between the older and younger generations but sometimes between the younger generations itself. While some adolescents will bare their souls online, others choose not to get sucked into the social networking realm; however, group number two is greatly smaller. Deciding, for journalists, if something would be offensive to a reasonable person is generally easier than if the public has a justifiable need to know. The different generational attitudes towards online privacy can make this difficult in certain circumstances. In the article, “The End of Privacy?" Robert Freeman says, “What I believe to be offensive at my age may be innocuous to a 20-year-old. Everybody has a different notion of where the line should be drawn between unwarranted and permissible" (13). It is in these situations where the law and ethics can become obscured. Ethical standards do not necessarily mean the same to all reporters. Legally, a journalist could justify in most situations that information is not offensive to a reasonable person; however, it seems to be an ethical stance when deciding what is considered offensive. A younger reporter may see nothing insulting in any given circumstance due to the world he or she has grown up in when an older, possibly more conventional reporter may find the story utterly distasteful. These discrepancies should not be acceptable in the legal world or the journalism world. Ethics are helpful until two reporters see the same story in two different lights. The law generally does not leave room for debate, which is why it is necessary for the ethical principle that all stories must not cause more individual harm than public good to be codified in law.

The lack of privacy due to the Internet and social networking sites has complicated the way journalists are expected to gather and verify information. A benefit of the online world is that infinite information can be accessed in an instant, but the drawback is that information from social networking sites can be exaggerated or blatantly inaccurate. This does not mean journalists should not use these resources to their advantage, but they must be extremely careful in determining what is accurate and what should even be printed. Social networks are a great place to find tips or story generators, but information should never be taken directly without an in-depth verification process. Again, with taking information from social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter, the legal rights generally are not the issue. What someone posts on the Internet tends to be considered public domain, and what happens in public is public. When stories arise that call into question whether the information posted on a social network is a matter of legitimate public concern

or public curiosity, it will cause more individual harm than public good.

While the Internet is commonly public territory, many adolescents feel that the information they share with their so-called friends on social networks is private. However, it is naive to think that setting a site to private truly guarantees privacy. What is posted on the Internet stays on the Internet, and the information revealed on private sites can easily be made public and used against someone. In the article, “Social Media and Student Reporting: Figuring out Privacy and Ethics," Mark Goodman says, “The ethical issues are a lot more challenging than the legal issues. Legally, there is not a reasonable expectation of privacy when you are posting on a social networking site, even when they are restricting their ‘quote’-‘unquote,’ friends" (12). Many social network users feel that what they post is private material that will not leave the walls of Facebook or MySpace. It seems comd down to a control issue. When people post personal information online, they are making a decision for themselves to share bits and pieces of their lives with the people they have chosen to have access to their site. On the other hand, they generally do not believe anyone, journalists included, has the right to read, verify, and possibly publish what they have written. Reporters must becareful when using social networking sites as a reporting tool.

It is easy to assume that because society is so willing to use social networks as a means to share otherwise personal thoughts, feelings, and emotions with friends, acquaintances, or even strangers that they do not care how their privacy is protected or their information is distributed; according to Solove, this is far from the truth. Facebook received a shocking response from users when they created a feature called News Feeds in 2006. This new feature sent notifications to a person’s friends within their network notifying them of any profile updates or changes made. This feature allowed friends to see when they became friends with someone new, wrote on someone’s profile, or changed their relationship status. The sharing of information without the user’s permission outraged nearly 700,000 Facebook patrons. This uproar caused Facebook, who seemed to assume that their users were not the type that cared about personal privacy, to make News Feeds a feature that could be turned off. The feelings towards privacy, as well as the laws that protect it, must continue to change and adapt as technology continues to advance our means of communication.

Facebook, apparently, did not learn its lesson after the News Feeds outrage. Solove discusses two more incidents where Facebook launched new features without informing users beforehand. In 2007, Facebook created an advertising system known as Social Ads and Beacon. Social Ads was a means of endorsement where Facebook would send a person’s name, image, and positive review of a product or movie in an advertisement hoping this would entice other users to purchase certain products. If a user made a purchase on a commercial Web site that Facebook had made a data-sharing deal with such as Fandango movie tickets, Beacon allowed these purchases to pop up on a person’s profile. Users were once again outraged at how Facebook was using their personal information as an advertising tool without their prior knowledge or consent. An online petition of nearly tens of thousands of signatures forced Facebook to make some much needed changes. Regardless of the assumption that people no longer care to guard their personal privacy, especially ones who use social networking cites, it is evident through these minor upheavals with Facebook that users will fight to protect themselves.

The Internet can be a dangerous place for people who do not see the potential consequences that come with creating an online persona. When someone posts detrimental information on the Internet, it tends to come back around to hurt them. Journalism and media ethics professor and past reporter Cailin Brown believes social networking users do not see or are not aware of the possibility that incriminating information could be revealed to the public.15 For this reason, journalists are having to re-examine how to tackle sticky situations that deal with people who did not take the time to educate themselves on the effects on posting personal information online or those who simply did not care. When stories arise, journalists are faced with the decision to access a person’s social networking site and to publish information they may find there. Brown recalls a story where a student editor was faced with the decision whether or not to write a story about a student who was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a narcotic with the intent to sell. The editor was able to find out that the student’s favorite movie was “Blow," a movie about the selling of cocaine, simply from accessing her Facebook account. Whether this was mere coincidence or not, the editor had no way to tell. The story was never written nor was the interesting movie fact revealed.

Journalists are often faced with the decision of whether or not to use a photo in conjunction with a story that they have obtained off of a social networking site. Brown recounts another incident where a female student claimed she was sexually assaulted but further recanted her story. She was charged with falsely reporting an incident, and the student editor had to make the decision of using her Facebook photo along with the story. The student reporter Alyson Martin opted not to publish the girl’s photo and said, “If anybody was really that curious they could go and see that information themselves. This was a young girl who was at school for the first time. I kept putting myself in her place" (13). Journalists, young and old, are faced with these same kinds of decisions on a daily basis. When does publishing potentially damaging or embarrassing information obtained and verified from a social networking site start to create more harm than good? When this is the case, journalists must reevaluate their tactics. The ethical standpoint that urges reporters to always consider the public good versus individual harm cannot always be enforced due to differing opinions on what is deemed ethical in a given situation. It is due time for a law to be created on the premise of ethics so journalists will have a measuring stick to go by that is the same for the journalism world across the board.

Another tricky issue crops up when someone is negatively or embarrassingly cast into the media spotlight without his or her consent. A prime example of this is the case of “the Star Wars Kid" discussed in Daniel Solove’s book, “In The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy" as mentioned in Siva Vaidhyanthan’s article, “Naked in the Nonopticon." A young, 15-year-old boy made a video of himself waving around a makeshift light saber in the form of a golf-ball retriever on a school camera. Some students got a hold of this video some months later and posted it on the Internet where millions of people now had access to it. The video was downloaded, enhanced, and embellished with special effects such as adding costumes and opponents for the boy to slay. On many of the websites, people posted negative comments about this young man’s weight and appearance, and he became an “unwilling star" in what he once saw as a harmless, private afternoon of fun. The endless harassment caused the young boy to quit school and move to a new town with his family. Solove asserts, “The very nature of software, computers, the Internet, and Google made it impossible for the young man to erase the record of one afternoon of harmless fantasy" (3). Journalists must realize that, as shown in this case, publishing private and potentially embarrassing information about an individual when it serves no legitimate public interest can scar that person’s reputation for a very long time, possibly forever.

Journalists must keep in mind their job is to report and seek the truth while still maintaining the ability to put themselves in another’s shoes. The journalism realm is not one that relies on compassion, but a little empathy never hurt anyone. Reporters must also realize that due to the fact that the Internet comes with endless possibilities, people are easily able to exaggerate, personify a new image, or downright lie about themselves or others. It is as simple as creating an e-mail address and password to make a Facebook or MySpace account. There have been countless scenarios where people have created profiles pretending to be someone else or posted information about another person that he or she did not want made known to the online world. If journalists choose to peruse social networking sites for legitimate and truly newsworthy information and possibly use them as a reporting tool, they must never take the information at face value without rechecking hard facts with valid sources to avoid

getting duped or misled.

The assertion that the ethical positions urging journalists to report stories of legitimate public concern not simply of mere curiosity and to make sure the private information they include in their stories does not cause more individual harm than public good does not mean that journalists should stop doing their job of seeking and reporting the truth. It merely means that the public’s justifiable right to know should always outweigh the individual’s right to privacy when reporting and publishing stories. Although the law states that to publish personal information it must be of legitimate public concern, the term newsworthy has become unclear and typically refers to stories the public simply wants to know. The ethical argument that newsworthy stories must go beyond mere public nosiness and instead truly affect the public as a whole more than the single individual needs to be codified in law, because the online world has changed people’s perception of what is considered private. This rapid change has complicated the jobs of journalists, because it is the ethical issues that have been blurred and challenged, not the legal ones. One of the most important aspects in journalism is consistency, and incorporating this ethical stance into privacy law will only give reporters a clearer guide into how they should approach stories, especially ones that integrate social networking sites. Journalism changes people’s lives, and eliminating the unclear boundaries of ethics will only be a change for the better.

Sno

Works Cited

Brown, Cailin. "Social Media and Student Reporting: Figuring out Privacy and Ethics." College Media Advisers. (2009): 12-13. Print.

Kachhi, Dinaz, and Michael W. Link. "Too Much Information: Does the Internet Dig Too Deep?" Journal of Advertising Research 49.1 (2009): 74-81. Communication & Mass Media Complete.

EBSCO. Web. 3 Nov. 2009.

Pember, Don R., and Clay Calvert. "Publicity About Private Facts." Mass Media Law. 2009-2010 Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2008: 275. Print.

Solove, Daniel J. "The End of Privacy?" Scientific American (September 2008): 101-106. Print.

Steele, Bob. "Respecting Privacy Guidelines." Poynter Online. 01 Jul 1999: 1-2. Web. 26 Oct 2009. <http://www.poynter.org/con tent/content_print.asp?id=4643>.

Vaidhyanathan, Siva. "Naked in the 'Nonopticon'." Chronicle of Higher Education 54.23 (2008): B7-B10. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 3 Nov. 2009.

122

Georgia’s Gratuitous General Electoral Laws:

A Superfluous Senatorial Runoff in 2008

Predictable?

by Tyler Reber Moore

Abstract: This paper examines the Georgia Senate runoff election of 2008 between Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin. In tracing the history of a top-down Republican realignment in the Southern United States, political and demographic variables are utilized to predict the outcome of the 2008 runoff election. The 159 counties of Georgia are the units of analysis. A multivariate analysis looks at the relationship between the percentage of the vote Senator Chambliss received and variables relating to race, gender, education, and population density. In addition, an analysis of variance examines the relationship between the percentage of the vote for Senator Chambliss and the variable of religiosity. The analyses show a significant relationship between the percentage of the vote for Senator Chambliss and religiosity, the population percent African American, and population density. The results of this paper also call for further research into Georgia’s general election runoff, and bring into question the necessity of such a caveat in Georgia’s electoral procedure.

On December 2, 2008, all eyes were on the state of Georgia in anticipation of its Senate runoff between incumbent Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin. With Democrat Mark Begich’s win over Senator Ted Stevens in Alaska, and the race in Minnesota between Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman still undecided, the runoff in Georgia provided serious implications for the future of American politics. After the November 4 election, Democrats held a 57 seat majority in the Senate, and with Republican Ted Steven’s concession of the race in Alaska later that month, the Democrats held 58 seats as the Georgia runoff approached. If the Democrats could win the seats from both Georgia and Minnesota, they would have a 60-seat filibuster proof majority; with support from 60 senators, a vote on a bill can be forced. Were the Democrats to gain this advantage, Republicans would be powerless against legislation advocated by the Democratic leadership, assuming they could hold together their party members’ votes. Furthermore, Republicans would be unable to block nominations by the new President-elect Barrack Obama. Circumstances as they were, Georgia’s Senate race was suddenly paramount in the eyes of both parties.

Republicans responded by sending prominent party members to campaign for Chambliss, including John McCain and Sarah Palin (Oliphant

2008, A12). Jim Martin found support from many who worked on the Obama campaign but only received a 60-second radio spot from Obama in support of his runoff campaign (Bacon 2008). However, former president Bill Clinton and former vice-president Al Gore did make the trip south to stump on Martin’s behalf (Bacon 2008). A collective sigh of relief was breathed by Republicans across America. As much to the chagrin of Democrats, the runoff ended with Saxby Chambliss claiming victory over Jim Martin by a margin of nearly 15 percent. The Office of the Georgia Secretary of State reports the final vote as 42.6% for Martin to Chambliss’ 57.4%. Democrats had to divest themselves of the dream of a 60-seat majority, and Republicans took solace in the fact that they would have at least 41 Senators to aide in protecting their interests. However, despite the Georgia runoff, Democrats did gain the 60-seat majority eventually with Al Franken’s win in Minnesota, and Senator Arlen Specter’s decision to change parties.

The runoff provided a little extra drama and excitement in the 2008 election cycle, causing the GOP some anxiety and wetting the mouths of Democrats everywhere, but the extra antacids and saliva may have not been necessary. In reference to Obama’s physical absence from Jim Martin’s runoff campaign, Merle Black, an Emory University professor and an expert on southern politics, is quoted as saying, “if Obama really thought Martin was going to win, he’d make a quick hit and claim victory" (Oliphant 2008, A10). Had Obama come to Georgia and campaigned for a candidate who ultimately lost, his political momentum may have suffered (Oliphant 2008, A10). Obama’s absence suggests that there was serious doubt as to whether Martin could win the runoff, despite the fact that he lost a plurality by only a three percent margin in November. Was a Chambliss win foreseeable?

This study seeks to identify variables that may have predicted the outcome of the December 2 runoff election between Senator Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin, by attempting to answer the question, “What factors account for the percentage of the vote Senator Chambliss won, by county, in the Dec. 2 runoff election?" Several news articles and previous studies were reviewed to identify possible variables which may have affected the margin of the vote; this research is presented in the first section of this study. The second section presents the data and methods of the study, and the data analysis and findings are provided in the third section.

Literature Review

Democrats long dominated southern ballots, from the president down to the dog catcher; however, the monopoly on southern voters that the Democratic Party once held no longer exists. The top-down Republican realignment in the South has taken place over the past half century, but it really started to materialize in the 1980s (Bullock 2005, 231). The 1980s found Republican presidential candidates beginning to consistently carry the south, but this success found at the highest levels took time to translate down ticket (Bullock 2005, 231). Georgia paralleled this overall trend in the 1980s as its voters also learned to split their tickets; therefore, while Reagan and Bush won in landslides, no Georgia Republicans were able to ride the coattails of the presidential candidates to the House or the Senate (Bullock 1998, 52). The GOP remained pitifully weak in the state of Georgia until the early 1990s, able to win the presidential election but still dominated at every other level (Bullock 1998, 52).

Bullock, Hoffman, and Gaddie stated that by 1994, the distinction made by southern voters between presidential candidates and all others seemed greatly diminished if not expired (2005, 231). Two years earlier with a seminal election of a Republican candidate for a seat in the Senate, the same revolution had begun to emerge in Georgia (Bullock 1998, 54). Georgia’s electoral laws have shaped its political history and helped to maintain the status quo of Democratic dominance for nearly a century (Bullock 1998, 52). For example, Republican aspirations were set back a generation in a 1966 gubernatorial election, in which the majority-vote rule allowed a Democratic state legislature to award the position to their party despite a Republican having won a plurality of the vote (Bullock 1998, 54). In 1992 it was the same majority-vote rule that allowed a breach of the barriers restraining Republican ambition when a runoff was forced for a seat in the Senate.

The senate race of 1992 was similar to that of 2008, in that the presence of a Libertarian candidate forced a runoff between an incumbent who had a won a plurality but failed to carry a majority. Incumbent Democrat Wyche Fowler had defeated challenger Republican Paul Coverdell by a margin of some 35,000 votes, but the GOP was able to take advantage of Georgia’s unique electoral laws (Bullock 1998, 49). Seeking revenge for having lost Georgia to Clinton, an all-star team of Republicans flocked to Georgia to aide Coverdell in a win over Fowler. In the 1992 runoff, turnout was barely over half of that of the general election, this is common in runoff elections and also the case in the 2008 runoff. Generally when the incumbent has won in the general election he is more likely to win in the runoff, but runoffs can be unpredictable because of low turnout (Tharpe 2008, 09 Nov). The 1992 runoff saw Republicans defeat an incumbent who had won the general election, but in 2008 the Republican incumbent won both the general and runoff elections.

Perhaps there is some relationship between turnout for the 2008 runoff and the percent of the vote Chambliss carried. Turnout in general may be interesting to study in relation to the runoff. Democrats have had problems in past elections motivating voters to get to the polls. Obama’s absence may also have affected the turnout of many young or otherwise unmotivated Democratic voters, as there was no charismatic presidential candidate to vote for in December. Republican voters generally have a greater propensity for getting to the polls on election days, and therefore one might expect that if turnout for the runoff is comparatively lower than turnout for the general election, Chambliss would do better. Reason being, with lower turnout, one might expect more of those who vote to be the Republican base.

Another key point to consider, in relation to the December 2008 runoff, is the fact that much of the support Martin received in November 2008 came on the coattails of Barrack Obama (Han 2008). For this reason, the percent of the vote Obama received in the general election may be interesting to look at in relation to the runoff election. However, as previously mentioned, many of those who voted Democrat on the day of the November 4 election may not have turned out on December 2. Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University stated, in reference to turnout for the runoff, that “the African American turnout on [General] Election Day was self-motivated" (Dewan 2008, A14). African Americans wanted to go to the polls and cast a ballot for an African American presidential candidate (Dewan 2008, A14). Mr. Obama’s absence from the ticket in the runoff may have meant that the motivation for African American Democratic voters to return to the polls was absent (Dewan 2008, A14). Regardless of turnout, the African American vote no doubt has some relationship to the percentage of the vote for Chambliss.

A connection was made between race and turnout, but race is an important autonomous factor as well. To the detriment of the Democratic Party, the white vote in the South has shifted to Republicans. The party that was created to protect and benefit southern white interests has become the party of racial and ethnic inclusion (Black 2004, 1002). Southern whites have largely abandoned the party that they championed for nearly a century. The Democratic Party, formerly the party for white supremacy, now finds its most reliable source of votes in the South coming from African Americans (Black 2004, 1002). The stalwart support of African Americans of the Democratic Party may make the percentage of African Americans in a population a good predictor of support for a Democratic candidate. Even with reliable support from African Americans, Democrats can still have trouble winning elections. African Americans are a minority and even with their unanimous support an election cannot be won without at least some support from the white vote (Black 2004, 1015). Race and turnout aside, there were many other factors that influenced the changing political climate in the South, including Georgia, that may have affected the 2008 runoff.

The parity that Republicans began to attain in the South, including Georgia, during the early 1990s can be attributed to shifting in the bases of partisan support. As Republican support expanded, the trouble Democrats had attracting votes for presidential candidates in the South began to drift down the ballot (Bullock 1998, 60). Many factors contributed to this reversal of fortunes between the two parties. Factors such as changes in the gender gap, shifting support from different education levels, and the growth of suburbia contributed to the apparent realignment of the South.

The gender gap is a well known concept, but is perhaps not as reliable as it once was at predicting the way males or females may vote, especially in the South. While women are still marginally more likely to vote Democrat than men in the South, the gender gap has diminished in recent years. In 1992 the gender gap in the South stood at 26 points, but by 1996 it shrank to only one point. It saw a slight resurgence in 2000, at nine points, but has yet to return to its prominence (Bullock 2005, 235). The gender gap is dwindling but subsists; however, the significance of its effect on elections would now seem to be in question.

Education has been linked to partisanship in the South; early on the Republicans found the greatest support through the college educated (Black 2005, 234). There have been concerted efforts to gain the support of the less educated as well, and they have paid off. Bullock, Hoffman, and Gaddie found Republicans had gained a majority of the vote in the South among all levels of education except high school dropouts by 1994. By the year 2000, with exception of those with the highest education, the longer one remained in school the more likely they were to vote Republican (Bullock 2005, 237). Despite those with the highest education being less likely to vote Republican than those with less education, the Republicans still enjoyed support from a majority of the group; meanwhile, the Democrats were only winning the hearts and minds of high school dropouts.

Another influence on partisanship, which favors Republicans, that began to emerge in the South during the early 1990s, is that of urbanization. Democrats were winning by impressive margins in areas of high urbanization; in Georgia, the counties that have portions of central cities and metropolitan areas became staunchly blue (Bullock 1998, 61). While Democrats were enjoying support from the minority of counties which fit the aforementioned description, Republicans were enjoying increasing support in the other counties, especially those in growth areas of the state. Republicans dominated “suburbia" (Bullock 1998, 59). Republicans built a strong base of support in suburbia in the 1990s to the point that they could count on winning a majority of “suburban" counties in Georgia (Bullock 1998, 61). Suburbia has only continued to grow in the past decade, and perhaps Republican support in these areas has also continued to grow. Therefore, population density may act as a good predictor of the percentage of the vote for Chambliss.

Urbanization brings to mind another potential influence on the runoff. It is a common idea in Georgia politics that race, class, education, and other such factors can be disregarded, as these all pale in comparison to one category. This one “omega" category happens to be region, and region does not refer to the north, northwest, southeast, west, or any other direction. Region refers to a simple concept; there is the area of metropolitan Atlanta and then there is the rest of Georgia. This concept of Atlanta being separate from the rest of the State is supposedly one of the most important concepts in Georgia politics. For this reason, it would be interesting to compare the percentage of the vote for Chambliss in metro Atlanta to the rest of Georgia. The research indicates that Democrats do better in urbanized areas, but much campaigning was done on Chambliss’ behalf in metro Atlanta leading up to the runoff, including an appearance by Sarah Palin (Tharpe 2008, 20 Nov). However, Atlanta presents another advantageous factor, as African Americans make up the majority of the population.

Religious groups have also emerged as important institutions in the political arena. It has been noted that “values" issues are now responsible for some of the most important divides in politics, as they concern morality (Knuckley 2006, 60). Political parties can use religious groups to send messages with a great rallying effect, as religious issues are particularly effective at getting voters to the polls (Glaeser 2006, 142). It has been noted by Glaeser that, in the last three decades, religion has become a better predictor of Republicanism than earnings (2006, 126). There may be a relationship between the vote for Chambliss and county religiosity.

The future of the Democratic Party in the South hangs on its ability to not only motivate African Americans and liberal white Democrats to get to the polls, but also to rally moderates who no longer identify with the party (Black 2004, 1015). The Democrats will need to swing the votes of a majority of independents, and possibly persuade moderate or liberal Republicans to vote against their party, in order to win elections in the South. It is noteworthy however, that Republicans seem to be more consistent in their loyalties than Democrats, and Republicans in Georgia are no exception (Bullock 1998, 61). It seems then, that the percentage of the vote that Republican Saxby Chambliss received in the general election could be a good predictor of the percentage of the vote he received in the runoff.

Georgia politics have been shaped by the state’s own unique electoral laws, as well as the tumultuous changes that have taken place in the South in the last half-century. It seems that there are several factors which may have predicted the outcome of the December 2, 2008 runoff between Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin. Such factors include but are not limited to turnout, race, urbanization, education level, and gender. A quantitative study of these factors is necessary to discover if they had any significant influence on the contest between Chambliss and Martin for the Georgia Senate Seat.

Data and Methods

The units of analysis for this study are the 159 counties which comprise the state of Georgia, and the dependent variable is the percentage of the vote that Senator Saxby Chambliss carried in each county in the runoff. Data for the percentage of the vote for Senator Chambliss in the runoff is available by county, on the website for the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State. Ten independent variables will be studied to determine their The units of analysis for this study are the 159 counties which comprise the state of Georgia, and the dependent variable is the percentage of the vote that Senator Saxby Chambliss carried in each county in the runoff. Data for the percentage of the vote for Senator Chambliss in the runoff is available by county, on the website for the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State. Ten independent variables will be studied to determine their effect on the variation in the dependent variable.

Data for the independent variables of the percentage of the vote Senator Chambliss received in the November election, as well as the percentage of the vote President Obama received in the November election, are also available on the website of the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State. The independent variable called “turnout quotient" is derived by dividing the total number of votes cast during the runoff by the total number of votes cast in the general election. The data necessary to calculate each county’s turnout quotient is also found on the website for the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State.

Data for the independent variables of percent of college graduates, percent high school graduates, and population density (persons per square mile) is from the U.S. Bureau of the Census, but the most recent data on these variables is from the 2000 census. Data for the independent variables of percent African American, and percent female also came from the U.S. Bureau of the Census; however, the data for these variables is accurate as of 2007. In 2003, the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) of metro Atlanta was redefined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to include 28 counties. The counties of Georgia will be divided into two regions, metro Atlanta, and the remainder of counties. Counties in the Atlanta MSA will be coded with a 1, while all other counties in Georgia will be coded with a 0, refer to Appendix A to identify the 28 counties of metro Atlanta MSA.

In 2000 the Glenmarry Research Center published Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States, 2000, and maps taken from this publication can be found for free in the American Ethnic Geography section of Valparaiso University’s website. One of the maps displays religious adherence in the United States on a county level, this data will be used as a measure of religiosity for this study. The counties of each state on the map are shaded on the basis of, “the total number of adherents reported by the 149 religious bodies that participated in a study sponsored by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies divided by the total population in 2000 as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau" (Religious 2002). Counties fall into four categories on the map, those with less than 35.1% adherence, those between 35.1 and 50.0, those between 50.1 and 75.0, and those with more than 75.0% adherence. For this study, the counties in Georgia will be coded with a 1, 2, 3, or 4, with respect to the aforementioned categories, depending on the percentage of religious adherents for each county. All variables are presented, along with descriptive statistics and the source of the data, in Table 1. A difference of means test will be conducted between metro Atlanta and the rest of Georgia; the data for the two individual regions will be displayed in the findings section in Table 2.

Table 1

Variables, Characteristics, and Sources

Variable    Min.    Max.    Mean    Median    S.D.    Source

|  |  |  |  |  | G.A. Office of
Percent of the vote Sen. Chambliss won in runoff | 19.600 | 85.200 | 63.529 | 65.900 | 13.255 | the Secretary of State (GASOS)
Percent African American | 0.900 | 75.700 | 28.075 | 27.700 | 16.978 | U.S. Bureau of the Census
Percent Female | 38.500 | 58.00 | 50.667 | 51.000 | 2.411 | U.S. Bureau of the Census
Pe rcent Col 1 ege G raduate s | 5.400 | 41.400 | 13.979 | 11.600 | 7.248 | U.S. Bureau of the Census
Population Density | 8.500 | 2484.600 | 162.858 | 48.500 | 331.632 | U.S. Bureau of the Census
PercentHigh School Graduates | 56.200 | 92.4 | 70.708 | 69.700 | 7.542 | U.S. Bureau of the Census
Percent of the vote Sen. |  |  |  |  |  |
Chambliss won in Nov. | 16.900 | 77.9 | 55.786 | 58.100 | 11.575 | GASOS
election |  |  |  |  |  |
Percent of the vote President Obama won in Nov. election | 14.700 | 83.0 | 38.175 | 35.200 | 14.102 | GASOS
Turnout Quotient | 0.410 | 0.876 | 0.561 | 0.566 | 0.065 | GASOS
|  |  |  |  |  | Metro Atl.
Region | 0 | 1 | 0.176 | 0.000 | 0.382 | Chamberof Commerce, and GASOS

Religiosity

1

4

2.063

2.000

.709

Glenmarry

Research

Center/Valpo.e

du

The dependent variable, the percentage of the vote Senator Chambliss won in the runoff, ranges from 19.6% to 85.2%, with a mean of 63.529 and a standard deviation of 13.255. A mean of 63.529 indicates that Chambliss won an average of 63.529% of the vote across all 159 counties. The descriptive statistics indicate that Chambliss won a majority of the vote in a large number of counties. Chambliss carried all counties that fall above the mean and all that fall within one standard deviation below the mean, meaning that he carried a majority of the vote in at least 84.135% of the 159 counties. A z-score of -1.02 corresponds with the 50% of the vote required for a majority, meaning that Chambliss actually carried a majority of the vote in 85.77% of the counties.

The percentage of the population of each county that is African American ranges from 0.9% to 75.7%, with a mean of 28.075, and a standard

deviation of 16.978. This means that the average percentage African American in the 159 counties is 28.075%, and this number is actually relatively close to the total percentage of the Georgia population that was African American in 2007 that was 30.0%, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. It is interesting to note that even if the entire African American population in each county was eligible to vote, which they are not, and voted for the same candidate, in more than 90.015% of the counties in Georgia, the African American vote alone could not make a majority for said candidate.

The percentage of female persons that make up each county’s population ranges from 38.5% to 58%, with a mean of 50.667, and a standard deviation of 2.411. This means that, on average, women make up more than half of the population in each of the 159 counties In Georgia.

The percentage of the population of each county that is made up of college graduates ranges from 5.4% to 41.4%, with a mean of 13.979, and a standard deviation of 7.248. This means that across all 159 counties in Georgia an average of 13.979% of each county’s population is made up of college graduates.

The range for population density of the 159 counties was from 8.5 persons per square mile to 2,484.6, with a mean of 162.858, and a standard deviation of 331.632. The standard deviation indicates that the data is greatly spread out, and the median of 48.50 indicates that the data is skewed right. The difference between the mean and median indicate that there are outliers which are pulling the mean toward the right and causing the skewed distribution. DeKalb County has a z-score of 7.00 which clearly makes it an outlier. Other outliers include Clayton County with a z-score of 4.496, Cobb County with a z-score of 4.897, Haralson County with a z-score of 3.607, and Gordon County with a z-score of 4.160. These outliers may greatly affect the relationship between the dependent variable and population density.

The percentage of high school graduates in each county’s population ranges from 56.2% to 92.4%, with a mean of 70.708, and a standard deviation of 7.542. This means that the average percent of high school graduates in the 159 counties is 70.708%. It would be unusual, p<.05, for a county’s high school graduates to make up less than 55.624% of its population or more than 85.792%.

The percentage of the vote for Senator Chambliss in the November 4 General Election ranges from 16.9% to 77.9%, with a mean of 55.786%, and a standard deviation of 11.575. The data for this variable is a stark contrast to that of the dependent variable. Chambliss still averaged a majority of the vote in the 159 counties, but only carried a majority in 72.24% of the counties. This can be derived by finding the z-score of -0.5 which corresponds with the 50% needed for a majority. This 72.24% is nothing to scoff at, but is far less than the 85.7% Chambliss eventually enjoyed in the runoff. The absence of a third party, Libertarian, candidate may be one explanation of this difference.

The percentage of the vote Obama received in the general election ranges from 14.7% to 83.0%, with a mean of 38.175, and a standard deviation of 14.102. Obama did not win the state of Georgia, and so the fact that he averaged only 38.175% of the vote by county is not surprising. The turnout quotient, which is derived by dividing total votes cast in the runoff by total votes cast in the general election, ranges from .410 to .876, with a mean of .561, and a standard deviation of .065. This means that, on average, the number of votes cast in each county for the runoff was 56.1% of the number of votes cast in the general election. Meaning that turnout was 43.9% lower on average throughout the 159 counties. Region data is nominal with two categories coded by either a 0 or a 1. Therefore the variable ranges from 0 to 1. Only 28 counties were coded as inside metro Atlanta (1). The nature of variable allows for no interesting discussion points pertaining to table 1; however, in the findings section a difference of means test will be conducted for the variable of region, the results will be displayed in Table 2.

Religiosity data is ordinal, with four categories coded by the numbers

1, 2, 3, and 4. Therefore the variable ranges from 1 to 4. Only one county, Appling, was coded as a 4. Of the remaining counties, 34 were coded with a 1, 82 with a 2, and 42 with a 3. Like the variable of region, the nature of the data used to measure religiosity does not provide for interesting discussion points in respect to Table 1; however, in the findings section an analysis of variance will be displayed in Figure 1.

The hypotheses that will be tested in this study are as follows:

H As the percentage African Americans in the population increases, the percent of the vote for Chambliss decreases.

H ₂ As the percentage of women in the population increases, the percentage of the vote for Chambliss decreases.

H ₃ As the number of college graduates in the population increases, the percentage of the vote for Chambliss increases.

H ₄ As population density increases, the percentage of the vote for Chambliss decreases.

H ₅ As high school graduation rates decrease, the percentage of the vote for Chambliss decreases.

H ₆ As the percentage of the vote Senator Chambliss won in the November 4 election increases, the percentage of the vote for Senator Chambliss in the runoff increases.

H ₇ As the percentage of the vote Obama won in the November election increases, the percentage of the vote for Senator Chambliss in the runoff decreases.

H ₈ As the turnout quotient decreases, the percent of the vote for Senator Chambliss in the runoff increases.

H ₉ Counties within metro Atlanta will have a lower average percentage of the vote for Senator Chambliss than counties outside of metro Atlanta.

H ₁₀ Counties with greater percentages of religious adherents will have a higher average percentage of the vote for Senator Chambliss.

The data analysis software Wadsworth Microcase Student Version and SPSS Version 17.0 were used to conduct the analysis for this study.

Findings

For the variable of region, a difference of means test was conducted to discover if metro Atlanta voted differently from the way the rest of Georgia voted. The hypothesis of, “counties within metro Atlanta will have a lower average percentage of the vote for Senator Chambliss, than counties outside of metro Atlanta," can be rejected upon viewing the data in Table 2. The counties in the Atlanta MSA actually had a higher mean percentage for Chambliss than the rest of Georgia; therefore, the study failed to reject the null hypothesis of, “there is no difference between the average percentage of the vote for Chambliss inside metro Atlanta versus the rest of Georgia." For this study, the concept that metro Atlanta votes differently from the rest of Georgia can also be rejected, as this was not the case in the December runoff. The difference of means test failed to produce a t-score that would indicate such a conclusion.

Table 2 Difference of Means

| PCT Vote for Chambliss | Standard Deviation | N
Region | Mean |  |
Atlanta MSA | 65.596 | 16.455 | 28
Remainderof Counties | 63.087 | 12.497 | 131

Difference of meanst-score= 0.761

t-score>2.0 is significant

An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to explore the relationship between the dependent variable and county religiosity. A box and whisker plot displays the results in Figure 1, with each of the dots representing a Georgia county, and the rectangles highlighting the cases that fall within one standard deviation above and one standard deviation below the mean. Upon viewing Figure 1, it is apparent that the mean vote for Chambliss increases as it crosses all four categories. The ANOVA produced an Eta square of .068, which indicates that the percentage of religious adherence in a county accounts for 6.8% of the variance in the vote for Chambliss in the runoff.

Descriptive statistics for each of the four individual categories of the religiosity variable are displayed in Table 3. The same relationship that is seen in Figure 1 is evident when examining the means of each category in Table 3; the mean vote for Chambliss steadily increases across the four categories. The difference of means in each category is statistically significant at a probability of less than .05. Interesting as these results on the variable of religiosity are, they must be considered cautiously because only one county fell into category 4, having more than 75.0% religious adherence. However, based on the findings of this study there is support for H10, and we can reject the null hypothesis that there is no relationship between county religiosity and the percentage of the vote Chambliss received in the runoff.

Figure 1 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

Percent of Religious Adherents by County and the Runoff Vote for Chambliss

<35 %0)    35.1-50.0    %(2) 50.1-75.0 %{3)    >75    %{4)

Religious Adherence

Table 3

Descriptive Statistics for Religiosity

Category | Mean | Std.Dev. | N
<35.0%(1) | 59.691 | 16.703 | 34
35.1 50.0%(2) | 62.295 | 12.789 | 82
50.1-75.0%(3) | 6E.E40 | 9.133 | 42
>75%(4) | 72.100 | M/A | 1

A multiple regression analysis was done for all independent variables apart from region, religiosity, the percentage of the vote for Senator Chambliss in the general election, and the percentage of the vote for President Obama in the general election. The variables of region and religiosity were left out because of the nominal and ordinal nature of their data. The other

Table 4

Correlation Analysis and O.L.S. Regression

Independent Variables | Correlation | O.LS. Regression (Std. Error)
Percent African American | -0.881** | -.663(.028)**
Percent Female | -0.135* | -,088(.187)
Percent College Graduates | -0.064 | -,066(.124)
Population Density | -0.320** | -,009(.002)**
Percent High School Graduates | 0.073 | .097(.104)
Turnout Quotient | 0.001 | 13.705(7.059)
Percent of the vote Sen. Chambliss won in | 0.985** |
Nov. election |
Percent of the vote President Obama won i n | -0.979** |
Nov. election |

N=159

O.LS.:r*=.831

*p<.05

**p<.01

two variables were not included in order to avoid the problem of multi-collinearity. Both the percentage of the vote for Chambliss and the percentage of the vote for Obama in the general election are good predictors of the dependent variable, as will be seen in the analysis of Figure 2 and Figure 3, but they are also excellent predictors of each other. Had the aforementioned two variables been included in the multiple regression analysis the data would have produced an r2= .983. The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) coefficients and standard errors for the variables included in the multiple regression analysis are displayed in Table 4. The r2 of the data is .831, indicating that 83.1% of the variance in the percent of the vote for Chambliss is accounted for by the independent variables included in the analysis.

The OSL regression coefficients for the variables of the percent African American and population density are statistically significant at p<.01. Therefore, the null hypotheses for both H1 and H4 can be rejected. The regression coefficient for Percent African American indicates that for every percentage increase in the African American population, the percentage of the vote for Chambliss in the runoff decreases by .663%. The regression coefficient for population density indicates that very every additional person per square mile in a county, the percentage of the vote for Chambliss decreases by .009%.

A statistically significant relationship with the dependent variable was not found for any of the other independent variables included in the multivariate model. Therefore, for H2, H3, H5, and H-8 we must fail to reject the null hypotheses. It should be noted that the bivariate correlation analysis reveals that the variable of percent female is statistically significant. However, the significance seen in the bivariate analysis is lost in the

multivariate model.

Although the variables of the percentage of the vote for Obama and Chambliss in the general election were not included in the multivariate regression analysis because of m u lti co llin ea rity, their bivariate regression lines, seen in Figures 2 and 3, are worth noting. Upon visual examination of the plot in Figure 2, it appears there is a strong direct relationship between the vote Chambliss won in the November 4, 2008 General Election and the December 2, 2008 runoff election. The correlation of .985 is statistically significant at p<.01. In accordance with the regression line from Figure 2, for every one percentage point increase in the vote for Chambliss in November, one could predict his percentage of the vote in December to increase by 1.128%.

Figure 2

Runoff Vote and Chambliss Vote in November

Conclusion

The findings of this study clearly indicate that factors exist that may have predicted Senator Chambliss’ win over Jim Martin in the December runoff. The percentage of African Americans had a significant inverse affect on the vote for Chambliss, but it must be noted that in a majority of the counties in Georgia, the African American population is a minority, and therefore the African American population cannot solely decide an election. Jim Martin seems to have had almost unanimous support from African Americans, but he failed to recruit enough of the white vote to swing the runoff election his way.

The data on the percentage of females indicates that a gender gap did not have a statistically significant effect on the runoff. Population density seems to be a good predictor of the percentage of the vote for Chambliss by county in the December runoff; the findings show that there is in fact

a statistically significant inverse relationship between the variable and the vote for Chambliss. This finding resonates with the research as it appears the Republican candidate dominated rural areas while the Democratic candidate showed more strength in urban areas.

The vote for Obama was a strong predictor of the vote for Chambliss, and this indicates that counties in which Obama received a high percent of the vote in November had a higher probability of voting Democrat for senator in the runoff. Of the variables included in the regression and correlation analyses that had a statistically significant relationship with the dependent variable, only one (percentage of the vote for Chambliss in November) had a positive relationship with the percentage of the vote for Chambliss in the runoff, but it seems that this was enough, as Chambliss won by a large margin. The variables that had inverse relationships with the percentage of the vote for Chambliss seem to have lacked enough influence over the election to swing the vote away from Chambliss.

It is interesting that the variables concerning education level had no significant relationship with the percentage of the vote for Chambliss in the runoff. The research suggested that the percentage of college graduates and percentage of high school graduates would have a significant impact on the dependent variable. Based on the research, a majority of the vote from those counties with high levels of education was expected; however, this was not the case for this study. This study used aggregate level data to investigate the variables concerning education. Had individual level data been used, then a relationship between education and the vote for Chambliss may have been found.

The turnout quotient also failed to produce a significant relationship with respect to the dependent variable. The research indicated that the lower the turnout in the runoff compared to the general election would have benefitted Chambliss (Tharpe 2008). The data failed to provide evidence of such a relationship; however, Emory political science professors have said the lower turnout of the runoff did increase Chambliss’ margin of victory (Han 2008). Early ballot demographics are available for both the November and December elections, and they show that of the early ballots cast in December only 21.7% were cast by African Americans, compared to 34.6% in November (Han 2008). Perhaps a different method to explore this relationship between turnout and the runoff is needed. Further research into the way demographics and turnout combine to affect the vote for Chambliss may produce interesting findings.

In this study religiosity was studied using data that measured religious adherence by county. This study found a statistically significant relationship between county religiosity and the percentage of the vote for Chambliss. However, the data that was available was nearly ten years old; more recent data would obviously be preferred. In addition, perhaps there is

more to be explored in the vein of religion. It would be interesting to study more than just the broad category of adherence. A study that broke adherence into specific religions may yield more revealing findings, and that is just one of many other ways the variable of religion could be studied. Apart from religion, research in other areas that were not examined in this study may produce interesting findings as well.

Some scholars have identified generational replacement as a reason for the growing strength of the Republicans in the South (Bullock 2005, 234). Perhaps looking at the average age of county populations in relation to the Chambliss vote in the runoff could produce some noteworthy findings. Class is another issue in the South that has been playing a growing role in the South, it seems that the more affluent whites become the more likely they are to vote Republican (Brewer 2001, 139). It would be interesting to develop a measure of class that may show the average class ranking of the population of a county as related to the percentage of the vote for Chambliss in the runoff.

In conclusion there were many factors that may have made the outcome of the runoff predictable, and so it seems that all the excitement over the election may have been unnecessary. However, awareness of the factors that predicted the percentage of the vote for Chambliss may have been beneficial to the runoff campaign of Democrat Jim Martin. Martin may also have benefited from campaigning in counties that have a low percentage of African Americans where Chambliss did best. However, Martin may have been fighting a losing battle regardless of an infinite amount of knowledge of the factors that affected the runoff.

It seems Chambliss had strong support throughout the state. Chambliss’ targeted campaigning in metro Atlanta no doubt played a role in his success, as he won a majority of the vote from the area. Atlanta’s suburbs no doubt played a role in Chambliss’ success in the area. Republican support in Georgia, it appears, is strong enough that a third party candidate is necessary to give Democrats a chance to win even a plurality for a Senate seat. A plurality is not really a win in Georgia though, it is just an invitation to another race, and the last two runoffs for Senator have been won by Republicans. It is ironic, that Georgia’s unique majority-vote rule, which once hindered Republicans, has twice now given them the advantage. The last two decades saw only two runoffs for Senate in Georgia. In 1992, the Republicans were given the opportunity to come back and defeat a Democrat, representing the emergence of the party at new levels of office. In 2008, the Republicans were given a chance to underscore the dominance they had now achieved at almost all levels in Georgia politics. The two runoffs parallel the Republican realignment.

SlM)

140

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Bacon, Perry, Jr. "Republican Chambliss Wins Georgia Runoff; Emphatic Victory Leaves Democrats Without Filibuster-Proof Majority in Senate. " The Washington Post [Washington, D.C.] 3 Dec. 2008,A.4. ProQuest National Newspapers Core. ProQuest. Odum Library. 16 Apr. 2009 <http://www.proquest.com/> .

Black, Merle. “The Transformation of the Southern Democratic Party." The Journal of Politics 66.4 (Nov. 2004): 1001-1017.

Brewer, Mark, and Jeffrey Stonecash. "Class, Race Issues, and Declining White Support for the Democratic Party in the South." Political Behavior 23. 2 (June 2001): 131-155.

Bullock, Charles, Donna Hoffman, and Ronald Gaddie. “The

Consolidation of the White Southern Congressional Vote." Political Research Quarterly 58. 2 (June 2005): 231-243.

Bullock, Charles, and Loch K. Johnson. Runoff Elections in the United States. Chapel Hill, N. Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press. 1992.

Bullock, Charles, and Mark Rozel. The New Politics of the Old South. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 1998.

Dewan, Shaila . "A Senate Runoff in Georgia Tries to Rouse Voters After an Intense Election :[National Desk]. " New York Times [New York, N.Y.] 14 Nov. 2008, Late Edition (East Coast): A.14. ProQuest National Newspapers Core. ProQuest. Odum Library. 16 Apr. 2009 < http://www. proq uest.com/>.

Glaeser, Edward, and Bryce Ward. “Myths and Realities of American Political Geography." The Journal of Economic Perspectives 20. 2 (Spring, 2006): 119-144.

Han, Tiffany. “Professors Analyze Georgia Runoff Results."

Emorywheel.com. 5 Dec 2008. 4 Apr 2009 <http://www.emory wheel.com/detail.php?n=26343>.

Knuckley, Jonathan. “Explaining Recent Changes in the Partisan Identifications of Southern Whites." Political Research Quarterly 59.1 (Mar. 2006): 57-70.

Oliphant, James . "CAMPAIGN '08; Democrats hope to add to majority in the Senate; The Georgia runoff between Chambliss and Martin on Tuesday brings out the big political guns. " Los Angeles Times [Los Angeles, Calif.] 1 Dec. 2008,A.10. Los Angeles Times. ProQuest. Odum Library. 16 Apr. 2009 <http://www.proquest.com/>.

Oliphant, James, and Richard Fausset. "THE SENATE; This time, Sen. Chambliss coasts; The Republican easily wins Georgia's runoff,

deflating Democratic hopes for a filibuster- proof Senate majority. " Los Angeles Times [Los Angeles, Calif.] 3 Dec. 2008,A.12. Los Angeles Times. ProQuest. Odum Library. 16 Apr. 2009 <http://www.proquest.com/>.

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Tharpe, Jim. “Palin to speak at Gwinnett Arena, Ludacris to help Martin." Ajc.com. 30 Nov 2008. 20 Apr 2009. <http://www.ajc.com/metro/contentmetrostories/ 2008/11/30/gasenate1201_web.html%3Fcxntlid%3Dhome pa ge_ta b_newsta b >.

The Submerged Tenth:

American Eugenics & German Racial Hygiene in the Early 20 th Century

by W. Jake Newsome

Abstract: Within contemporary society, concepts such as the selective breeding of humans, the vanquishing of the “unfit," and the quest for a master race, all conjure up images of highflying swastika banners. But the truth is that the idea of establishing a superior race is by no means an exclusively Nazi one. On the eve of the twentieth century, scientific and social ideologies of the Western world culminated into a movement known as eugenics. While eugenic ideology took hold in many Western cultures, one country was the first to establish a social and legal framework to push through legislation aimed at blocking the transference of “tainted blood" from one generation to the next by means of segregation, execution, and forced sterilization. Surprisingly, this nation was not Nazi Germany, but instead one that rested on the western shores of the Atlantic: the United States of America. This paper traces the development of the eugenics movement in the United States and reveals the direct connections between U.S. institutions and certain Nazi scientific establishments in the early twentieth century.

I: Introduction

In contemporary society, concepts such as the selective breeding of humans, the vanquishing of the “unfit," and the quest for a master race, all conjure up images of highflying swastika banners. But the truth is the idea of establishing a superior race is by no means an exclusively Nazi one. In fact, one can trace the desire for physical and mental perfection as far back as the ancient Greeks. But in the modern world, one nation stood as the clear forerunner in what became an international movement to purge the world of those deemed inadequate and unworthy of life. One country was the first to establish a social and legal framework to push through legislation which was aimed toward blocking the transference of “tainted blood" from one generation to the next by means of segregation, execution, and forced sterilization. Surprisingly, this nation is not Nazi Germany, but instead one that rests on the western shores of the Atlantic: the United States of America.

II: Eugenics

On the eve of the twentieth century, scientific and social ideologies of the Western world culminated into a movement known as eugenics. The

term, meaning “well born," was coined in 1881 by British mathematician Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin. The basic concepts of eugenics are based upon Gregor Mendel’s laws of heredity, which surmises that certain biological characteristics are passed from one organism to its offspring. Eugenicists took Mendel’s laws, which were previously applied to plants and animals, and applied them to humans with the assertion that human behavior is virtually determined by the inheritance of what they called “germ plasm."¹ The theory was that just as eye and hair color were inherited, germ plasm also carried other traits: intelligence and kindness, as well as poverty, crime, alcoholism, and general immorality. The belief that such attributes were tied to a person’s biological makeup led eugenicists to the conclusion that just as cattle could be bred, humans with undesirable germ plasm could be bred out to produce superior stock. One American eugenicist thus described eugenics as the “improvement of the human race through better breeding."²

The growing importance of biological science also directly influenced eugenical ideology. As the theory of evolution gained ground, it became apparent that evolution itself could not occur without resulting in variation. Such variation was visible in nature; some species were more fit and survived while others lost the fight for survival and perished. Eugenicists and other scientists held that these variations also existed within the human species, and thus made it inevitable that some humans would be fitter than others. This inequality was taken as scientific fact and led to such designations as “superior" and “inferior," “more valuable" and “less valuable."³

There were two schools of thought within the larger eugenics movement. “Positive" eugenics, which found most of its supporters in Great Britain, focused its main attention on the increased breeding of the more desirable race(s). The followers of “negative" eugenics, the movement which took root in the United States, were convinced that good blood could not raise the quality of bad blood; instead, bad blood could only contaminate, and thus weaken the good blood.⁴ Therefore, negative eugenicists dedicated their efforts to eliminating inferior bloodlines. This idea of discontinuing the reproduction of the unfit was supported by both progressives and conservatives in Western Europe and North America. Progressives viewed eugenics as a tool for social improvement that employed modern science as its ally. Conservatives supported eugenics because it would eventually lessen or eliminate the costs of caring for people of a lower economic or social class. The conservatives and progressives of the time agreed on one thing, however: if certain issues such as prostitution, pauperism, and crime were indeed tied to defective germ plasm, and this defective germ plasm could be prevented from being passed on to future generations, then this goal should be pursued with vigor.⁵

It may be easy for contemporary readers, using today’s scientific and moral standards, to look back and dismiss eugenics as a mere offshoot of “serious science," which is not worthy of significant attention.; but, historian Henry Friedlander urges that it is a mistake to dismiss the eugenics movement as pseudoscience, pointing out that, “at the start, many new scientific fields use faulty methodology. By the scientific standards of the time, eugenic research was on the cutting edge of science."⁶ In fact, the very “scientific" nature of the eugenics movement was a main claim of credibility for its plans.⁷

The eugenics movement was also deeply tied to the moral standards of the time. In association with the increasing importance of science and Darwin’s theory of natural selection, the idea of a strict and static moral code was replaced by the idea that morals, like nature, were constantly changing; some would even argue that morality was going through a “natural selection" of its own and would eventually arrive at a perfectly evolved moral standard. At the time, individual rights were generally subverted to the greater good of the whole and the new standard of morality became health. “That which preserves health is moral. Everything that makes one sick or ugly is sin," claimed philosopher Christian von Ehrenfels.⁸ So, if humanity could defeat disease and harness the power of germ plasm, as eugenics was promising, immorality could also be defeated. In this light, negative eugenics was little more than a “racial preventive medicine," meant to keep the human species healthy.⁹

This is why during the early to mid-twentieth century, American eugeni-cists and their German counterparts, who called themselves “racial hy-gienists," proceeded with a sense of moral justification. Just as a surgeon would extract a cancerous tumor to save a patient, eugenicists felt they had the same obligation to separate or remove bad protoplasm (the “unfit") and save the rest of humanity. Some would even maintain that the eugenical race cleansing was not only morally justified, but indeed praiseworthy. For, if so many are ultimately destined to perish in the great struggle of survival, why not speed up the process?¹⁰ American eugenicist T. U. H. Ellinger even stated that it would be “a great deal more merciful to kill the unfortunate outright" and save them from “a life of horrors."¹¹

Therefore, eugenicists around the globe (most notably in the United States and Germany) were not “evil scientists" who delighted in violating the moral code for their own gain. According to both the moral standards and scientific principles of the time, most eugenicists acted with the conviction that they were pursuing a betterment of the human species, even if it meant eradicating those individuals carrying “inferior" germ plasm.

III: The Institutionalization of Eugenics in America

The eugenics movement in the United States began to gain ground around the onset of the twentieth century, but it was not until the 1920s and 1930s that the movement reached its peak. By this time there were many prominent members of the international society who supported the eugenics movement: Alexander Graham Bell, H. G. Wells, Winston Churchill, and even though he was never officially involved with the movement, former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt expressed his opinion that if modern society did nothing to stop the flow of defective blood, it would result in nothing short of “race suicide."

The most prominent eugenicist in America, however, was undoubtedly Charles Benedict Davenport, a zoologist with a puritan upbringing. After earning his degrees from Harvard, Davenport was thoroughly convinced of the credibility and importance of eugenic thought. He began writing letters to likeminded individuals and organizations for both ideological and financial support. In 1903, the thirty-seven year old found a group that would listen. At its first annual meeting, the American Breeders’ Association, the “first nationally organized, membership based institution promoting genetic and eugenic research in the United States,"¹² awarded Davenport one of five permanent seats on its board. During the same meeting, Davenport even convinced the ABA to establish the Eugenics Committee, a separate subcommittee dedicated entirely to the cause.¹³ At last, Davenport had a legitimate organization behind him, from which he could request funding and aid to begin conducting his research.

A year later, in 1904, Davenport hit the jackpot. He received a letter from the Carnegie Institute in Washington, D.C., agreeing to fund him and his research. “I propose to give the rest of my life unreservedly to this work," Davenport exclaimed.¹⁴ The Carnegie Institute made an initial donation of $20,000 (approximately $440,000 in 2009 dollar value¹⁵) to build a state of the art research facility at Cold Springs Harbor on Long Island, New York.¹⁶ Named the Station for Experimental Evolution, Davenport’s new facility was a fully integrated branch of the Carnegie Institute, meaning it had access to the enormous funds of Andrew Carnegie’s fortune.

Before research could get underway, Davenport was already looking for more supporters. He began searching the nation for wealthy individuals who shared his zeal for bettering the human race through the science of eugenics. By the end of the decade, Davenport established a connection with Mary Harriman, the widow of a railroad tycoon. He shared with her his idea of a new institution that would act independently of the Station for Experimental Evolution. His proposal was for the creation of an institution developed under the leadership of the American Breeders’ Association’s Eugenics Committee. This proposed Eugenics Record Office, he told Harriman, would lead the way in identifying the socially unfit within the American population. Harriman was sympathetic to the eugenics cause and agreed to endow Davenport’s newest project. Using the wealth left behind by her late husband, she bought more land at Cold Springs Harbor, built facilities, and poured cash into the project. In the end, Harriman provided more than a half million dollars (approximately $11 million in 2009 dollar value¹⁷) for the establishment of the Eugenics Record Office.

With the opening of the Eugenics Record Office in 1910, Davenport sat at the head of what would become three of the most active and important eugenics organizations in the world, all headquartered at Cold Springs Harbor. To run the ERO, Davenport chose a man who was driven and found comfort in rigor, Harry H. Laughlin, whose dedication to the movement eventually earned him the appellation, “the Lieutenant of Eugenics." While the Station for Experimental Evolution was busy conducting research, Davenport had much larger plans for the Eugenics Record Office. The sole purpose of the ERO was to collect massive, immeasurable amounts of data on the pedigrees and racial backgrounds of individuals and families. At any given time after the ERO got off the ground, hundreds of field workers could be found spread all across America, collecting family histories as data. Note cards, folders, and cabinets were filled with descriptions of the physical appearance, financial standing, educational and/or criminal background of hundreds of thousands of individuals. As historian Harry Bruinius points out, “the resounding theme of eugenics became the drone of statistics."¹⁸

The purpose of all this data is what Davenport regarded as so important; for this data would be interpreted and used to separate the desired from the defective within America’s borders. Using the data gathered, ABA president Willet Hayes proposed the plan to assign eleven-digit “number names" to every individual.¹⁹ These numbers would essentially be genetic ratings, and judging on the numerical sequence, one would instantly be able to tell the “racial worthiness" not only of an individual, but also of the individual’s entire family tree. Both Davenport and Laughlin held the ERO’s work as paramount because they felt it would clearly identify those who carried the dangerous and degenerate germ plasm. Identification, they held, was the first step in eliminating the procreation of the inferior.

Those lucky individuals deemed superior were encouraged to have more children, and the ERO planned to help them along by crafting legislation that would provide them with financial incentives.²⁰ “Fitter family" competitions were held in state fairs around the country in which families competed for the governor’s fittest family trophy and the designation of a “Grade A" family.²¹ All of this was done to promote better breeding as an essential step towards the creation of a superior race. And the goal was not just any super race, but a white, Nordic master race, a new level of human perfection often times called Homo Europaeus.²² Others put it more bluntly: the “preservation of the white race is a true eugenic measure."²³

While the superior were being nurtured, Davenport and Laughlin’s attention was focused on the unfit. Who were these undesirable that the ERO field workers were working so hard to expose? Laughlin and the ABA came up with a list of the ten most undesirables in the nation: 1) the “feebleminded" (an umbrella term never clearly defined, but which often times referred to people who were “severely mentally retarded" or those who were “simply shy, stuttering, poor at English, or otherwise generally nonverbal"²⁴); 2)the impoverished; 3) the inebriate class or alcoholics; 4) criminals of all descriptions; 5) epileptics; 6) the insane; 7) the constitutionally weak class; 8) those predisposed to specific diseases; 9) the deformed; 10) those with defective sense organs (the deaf, blind, and mute).²⁵ Individuals falling into any one of these categories became the target of the American eugenics movement. To help classify the extent of one’s “feeblemindedness," eugenicists established a three-tier classification system that scientists in other fields eventually used as well. If an individual was said to belong to the lowest level of feeblemindedness, he/she was scientifically labeled an “idiot." One step up, and designated for those who could perform simple manual work, was the “imbecile." For the third level of “feebleminded" intelligence, the ardent eugenicist Henry Goddard created a new word: moron, derived from the Greek word moros, meaning “stupid and foolish."²⁶ Such terms were scrawled on ERO forms and institution admittance sheets across America, damning the so-called “feebleminded" to an inferior status.

The ideas of eugenics, and even terms such as feebleminded and moron were accepted by many branches of science as legitimate. In fact, eugenics was proud to be supported by both Science and Academia. In 1914, forty-four major institutions throughout the United States offered eugenic instruction. By 1925, hundreds of institutions were teaching over 20,000 students annually the concepts of eugenics.²⁷ Even ninety percent of high school biology books between 1914 and 1949 included eugenics, and in the mid-1930s, many commented favorably on German eugenics.²⁸ In 1922, Harry Laughlin published a five hundred-page book packed full of graphs and lists, numerically detailing every imaginable aspect of the eugenics movement thus far. One such graph proudly listed the top fifteen “Universities and colleges which offer especially active courses in Eugenics and Genetics." Five of the top six were Ivy League, with Columbia University leading the way.²⁹

With the Eugenics Record Office identifying the unfit and both Science and Academia supporting them, it was time for eugenicists and their leaders to prepare for action. The plan was drawn up. The target: the “submerged tenth," the bottom, most undesired 10% of America’s population.³⁰ Ten percent of America’s population at the time translated into an astounding eleven million individuals. According to the records, there were one million Americans already institutionalized throughout the country and three million who were “equally defective, but not under the state’s care."³¹ But there were an additional seven million “borderline cases" who were viewed as the most dangerous to the American racial stock because they were “higher-functioning and apparently almost normal" and were thus most likely to be allowed to marry and have children.³² When this bottom ten percent was expunged from the population, the plan was to continuously remove the bottom ten percent until only a racially pure and dominant America was left.

But Davenport and other eugenicists did not let large numbers deter them. By 1920, the targets were clear, the objectives were set, and the crusade was launched.

IV: Eliminating the Inferior

The consensus had been reached and the leaders of the eugenics movement had institutions in place. So, the only question was: what to do with those identified as biologically undesirable? The first option that many felt would be the easiest and most legally feasible was segregation. Laughlin and Davenport envisioned “millions of America’s unfit being rounded up and incarcerated in vast colonies, farms or camps" where they would no longer be able to taint others’ blood with their defective germ plasm.³³ Indeed, thousands of individuals had already been tucked away, locked up in asylums and institutions all over the United States, and the Eugenics Record Office was doing nothing but condemning more with its research.

Another method of keeping the fit and unfit separate was through marriage prohibition. In 1913, a German academic journal reported to its readers that twenty-four of the United States had marriage prohibitions in place, citing “absence of understanding, mental illness, feeblemindedness, imbecility, [and] idiocy" as sufficient reasons to deny someone a marriage license.³⁴ A 1920 Louisiana law forbade Native Americans and African Americans to live together in anything that even resembled marriage.³⁵ Most of these marriage laws made it a criminal offense to “abet such marriages in any way, whether by issuing a license, by performing the marriage, or by arranging for it."³⁶ The penalty for breaking such a law varied, but included up to a $1,000 fine and/or a prison sentence of up to three years.³⁷

While those affected by the laws protested, the laws’ authors called upon the most recent scientific findings as justification. One article from the Science News Letter stated, “Nearsightedness could be eliminated, bred out of the human race, by banning marriages between nearsighted people....The large number of nearsighted Germans today is probably due to the fact that such eugenic mating was not practiced in Germany."³⁸ So, the followers of the eugenics movement naturally saw these marriage restrictions as a necessary and commendable action. One author, writing in 1930, claimed that “the purpose of these laws is doubtless excellent," and goes on to explain that his only concern was that “their success is questionable" because the “mentally unsound" did not need to be married to “indulge in sexual intercourse."³⁹

So, segregation was pursued through the physical separation of America’s races, and pursued more vigorously through restrictive marriage laws. But there were others who had more active ideas of how to stop the inheritance of bad blood. Since the turn of the century, one method had been continuously mentioned as a tool against the undesired: gassing them in so-called “lethal chambers." In 1911, E. B. Sherlock, an author on the topic of feeblemindedness, acknowledged that “suggestions of the erection of lethal chambers are common enough."⁴⁰ Two decades later, the lethal chamber debate came to a head. In 1921 -twenty years before the construction of Auschwitz - Nevada passed a law allowing the use of lethal chambers on criminals. Shortly thereafter, the state used cyanide to gas a Chinese-born murderer, the first such execution in the world.⁴¹

At the same time that many eugenicists were focusing on the socially weak already within the United States, others were trying to prevent more from crossing the nation’s borders. “Can we build a wall high enough around this country," Davenport asked his colleagues, “so as to keep out these cheaper races, or will it be a feeble dam....leaving it to our descendants to abandon the country to the blacks, browns and yellows."⁴² Davenport was, of course, talking about fighting the inflow of “misfit" immigrants from all over the world; he found nothing inspiring from the image of America as the “great melting pot." A Science News Letter article spoke out against immigration, reporting that the “[f]ast modern transportation, that has carried civilized people into the remote corners of the earth, is bringing about problems of race mixture such as have never existed before in the history of mankind." The article goes on to claim that the high rate of race mixture within the United States caused physical and biological problems, such as a proportionally higher number of individuals with crowded teeth.⁴³

In general, there was a feeling among the eugenically minded that the genetically inferior “semi-barbaric hordes" were threatening “the gates of civilization itself."⁴⁴ Something had to be done and Harry Laughlin, using the Eugenics Record Office to bridge the gap between science and politics, lobbied for immigration reform. In 1924, Capitol Hill forged this antiimmigrant sentiment into United States law. The Immigration Restriction Act and the National Origin Act reduced the number of immigrants allowed into the United Sates annually to a mere 2% of that nationality’s population already in the U.S. for the 1890 census; as a result, immigration slowed to a trickle. The law also gave American consuls the right to inspect and deny the applications of the feebleminded, beggars, alcoholics, all idiots, imbeciles, and morons. The law went even further by granting the power to deport immigrants if they were found guilty of any crime within the first five years after their arrival in America.⁴⁵ These sweeping measures brought acclaim from much of Western Europe. A Bavarian health minister wrote that “German racial hygienists should learn from the United States how to restrict the influx of Jews and eastern and southern Europeans."⁴⁶ And even while America was shoring up its own borders, Davenport was already urging other nations to begin or further develop eugenics programs in an attempt to stop immigration at its source.

The battle led by American eugenics was fought on two fronts: at the borders and the inland. It was also fought with many weapons; but there was one weapon in the eugenicist’s arsenal that nearly all agreed was the most effective, and that was forced sterilization. The concept was simple; those deemed inferior could not reproduce and pass on their germ plasm if their reproductive organs no longer functioned. The serious debate over coercively sterilizing the unfit had been around years before Davenport founded his eugenics empire at Cold Springs Harbor. In 1905, the Pennsylvania legislature passed the “Act for the Prevention of Idiocy," but the governor vetoed the bill. Two years later, however, on January 29, 1907, the state of Indiana became the first jurisdiction in the world to legislate forced sterilization of its “mentally impaired patients, poorhouse residents and prisoners."⁴⁷ Indiana may have laid the precedent, but in 1909, Connecticut and California followed suit; in 1911, Nevada and New Jersey passed similar laws; 1912 saw a law in New York implemented; and in 1913, Kansas, Michigan, North Dakota, and Oregon all passed laws legalizing the forced sterilization of the unfit, so that by 1921, a total of nine states had uncontested laws on the books.⁴⁸

As eugenics’ lieutenant, Laughlin had been watching the progress of sterilization laws with great interest. As each state enacted a new law, Laughlin applauded them on their audacity to act, but usually criticized the laws themselves as being too shoddily written and thus too ineffective. In 1922, he published a “Model Eugenical Sterilization Law" that could be effectively enforced and was, more importantly, what Laughlin believed to be constitutional. This model law would play a monumental role in the legal history of eugenics for years to come.

Forced sterilization laws had been in place since 1907, but it was 1924 that brought a process that changed everything. In March, Virginia passed its own law, closely based on Laughlin’s Model Law, legalizing the sexual sterilization of the “socially inadequate." Three months later, a teenage Carrie Buck was taken from her foster parents and institutionalized in the Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded. In September, the superintendent of the Colony filed a petition to sterilize the eighteen-year-old Buck. The reason? Buck’s mother, Emma, had been institutionalized years before for feeblemindedness and promiscuity, and Carrie herself had been given up by her foster parents because she was “feebleminded" and became pregnant out of wedlock. Buck’s daughter was taken from her shortly after birth and given to foster care and Dr. John Bell was scheduled to make history by performing the first sterilization under Virginia’s new law.

Before Carrie Buck could be sterilized however, an appeal was filed on her behalf, challenging the Virginia law on the grounds that it “violated the principles of equal protection since it applied only to institutionalized persons."⁴⁹ In 1927, the trial reached the United States Supreme Court. Lawyers pointed to the “promiscuity" and “feeblemindedness" of Emma Buck, and then claimed that the same characteristics could be found within her daughter, Carrie, who the court described as having “a rather badly formed face." No consideration was given to the fact that Carrie’s pregnancy was not caused by “promiscuity" but was instead a result of rape. Vivian Buck, Carrie’s young daughter, who nurses described as “not quite normal," acted as the final piece of evidence of defective germ plasm being passed down through three generations.⁵⁰

In May of 1927, Justice Oliver Holmes revealed the Court’s monumental 8-1 decision to uphold Virginia’s sterilization law, claiming that the law “sought to sterilize all persons with hereditary defects."⁵¹ Holmes’ opinion heralded,

It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind....Three generations of imbecilesare enough.⁵²

The decision was an enormous victory for eugenics. The highest court in the land upheld the constitutionality of forced sterilization, and five months later, Dr. John Bell legally performed the operation on Carrie Buck that rendered her sterile.

Media across the nation spread the news of the Supreme Court’s decision. An Iowa newspaper called the reaction a measure to “protect the world against morons." Some in North Carolina read that Buck v. Bell provided the “remedy for imbecility."⁵³ And one reporter quoted the U.S. surgeon general as saying that the decision was a “step toward a super-race."⁵⁴

After May 1927, a flood of states passed sterilization laws with the backing of the U.S. Supreme Court. Georgia was the last to pass such a law in 1937,⁵⁵ bringing the total number of states with sterilization laws to thirty-three, over half of the states in the Union. Many states that previously had laws in place but had never acted upon them initiated their legal and institutionalized eugenic machinery. Between 1927 and 1940, the number of sterilizations in South Dakota rose from zero to 577; in Minnesota, from zero to 1,880.⁵⁶

In the period between the first legal forced sterilization in 1907 and the Buck v. Bell case twenty years later, there were 6,244 state-sanctioned sterilizations recorded in America, three-quarters of which (4,636) took place in California alone. Between the 1927 Supreme Court decision and 1940, the total number of sterilizations in the United States skyrocketed to 35,878; California accounted for 14,568 of these cases.⁵⁷

The actual sterilization procedure is also worth mentioning. Physicians working at state-run and private institutions, hospitals, and asylums would submit a petition for the sterilization of a particular patient. A centralized eugenics board would be in charge of all such petitions and would launch an investigation to determine the desirability of the specific patient’s reproduction. During such investigations, emphasis was put on relatives who were “considered feebleminded," or “said to be mentally retarded," along with stressing the large number of children in a given family. Any negative trait throughout the entire extended family was elaborated on in an attempt to “prove" the existence of contaminated germ plasm within the family’s bloodline.⁵⁸ The investigators compiled what historian Henry Friedlander called “meaningless but organized numbers"⁵⁹ and used further subjective quantifications, such as: a patient’s flaw “may have been inherited and is likely to pass on,"⁶⁰ or describing a patient as “untruthful and in danger of being a moral delinquent."⁶¹ There were even exercises for children as young as three to six months old, which could allegedly determine if the infant was feebleminded or not, though a “diagnosis" at that young age would not require immediate sterilization, but instead institutionalization until the child was old enough to sterilize.⁶² At the conclusion of the investigation, a decision was reached, and not even the doubtful were allowed to reproduce.

It is important to realize that within the framework of the law, there was no conception that the feebleminded had any right to self-determination.⁶³ The residents of the institutions, hospitals, and asylums were never consulted about the operations, and if the officials could, they would contact the next of kin for a consultation. But even if they were able to contact a family member, the way in which the doctors and officials would present the case, it may have seemed (and indeed usually was) that having the operation was the only way for the patient to ever be released. So, it is difficult to draw a clear line between voluntary and compulsory sterilization.⁶⁴

Once the eugenics board made its decision, it would either deny or grant the specified doctor the permission to sterilize the patient in question. For the actual procedure, doctors found that a vasectomy for males or a salpingectomy (the surgical removal of a Fallopian tube) for females functioned the best, or was the least radical procedure.⁶⁵ Statistically, a higher percentage of poor individuals was sterilized by America’s eugenics campaign simply because they could not afford private care and were thus institutionalized in higher numbers.

After the operation, those patients who could support themselves were given ample time to recover and were then released on a form of parole, to test if they could live and function on their own. Geza von Hoffmann, a German racial hygienist studying cases in California, admitted that after the operation, the mental abilities of the patient stayed the same; but the “overall mannerisms" were perhaps improved.⁶⁶ Then again, improving mental abilities of the patient was never the goal of sterilization; its purpose was to prevent “feebleminded" offspring.

In the end, over 60,000 Americans fell victim to the eugenics movement’s sterilization programs.⁶⁷ California performed one-third of the nation’s sterilizations, and with nearly 20,000 operations, it executed more than twice the amount of sterilizations of either of its closest “competitors," Virginia (approximately 8,000) and North Carolina (7,600).⁶⁸ Even though the organized eugenics movement lost support after World War

II, unwanted sterilizations based on eugenical ideology were carried out into the mid 1970s, and in a few cases, even into the early 1980s. In fact, it was 1979 before the state of California repealed its sterilization law, and not until 2002 did Virginia release an official apology to Carrie Buck and the thousands of other victims of the state’s “sanctioned butchery."⁶⁹ Unfortunately, by that time, the damage was already done.

V: Opposition

Not every American citizen and, perhaps more importantly, not every scientist supported the eugenics movement; however, in the face of the machinery of organized eugenics, with its own scientific and social backing, opposition seemed minimal. Those that resisted did not oppose the eugenic theory itself, but rather warned of the “danger of errors" and the possible abuse of power inherent in programs such as coerced sterilization.⁷⁰ But even for those who opposed eugenical ideology, the scientific research showing that the environment accounts for human action just as much as genetic makeup was slow to make its way into the public sphere in the early twentieth century.

Many lawmakers and politicians opposed the use of sterilization as a punishment against criminals, while supporting the operation on the feebleminded and other “social misfits." Most racial hygienists in Germany also wrote about and opposed using sterilization for purely punitive means. Some lawmakers in America may have wanted to repeal the “penalizing sterilization," but a 1937 poll reveals that 66% of the American public of the time supported sterilizing habitual criminals.⁷¹

The main obstacle for eugenics, however, was federalism and the structure of U.S. law itself. Each state was allowed to pass or veto its own laws and these laws could always be appealed or challenged. This fact made it difficult for the likes of Davenport or Laughlin to push for nation-wide legal reform. In fact, more than one-third of American states refused to pass any sterilization law and many that did refused to enforce them. A sterilization law in Oregon was defeated by a referendum put to its people, making it the only state with recorded popular disapproval. But, it is likely that this disapproval was a result of the fact that under Oregon law, sterilization was designated as legal punishment.⁷²

However, the fact remained that even if the majority of the American people opposed eugenical sterilization, it made no difference. Those in power dismissed resistance as bad germ plasm fighting for survival. Those with the power, like Davenport and Laughlin, wanted to re-shape humanity and they pushed forward with their plans.

VI: The Nazi Connection

The eugenics movement was international, but it was clear that the United States was the forerunner in action, in turning ideologies into policy. This reputation was not simply self-promoted by the American eugenicists; eugenics leaders across Europe praised America for its willingness to act. At the First International Congress for Eugenics, held in London in 1912, Alfred Ploetz, the father of German racial hygiene, hailed the United States “as a bold leader in the realm of eugenics."⁷³ Racial scientist Geza von Hoffmann was sent from Germany to the United States to study every aspect of the emerging American eugenics movement. In America, he wrote, “one doesn’t have to worry if they [eugenic practices] are new or old, if they’ve been tried out or stood the test; if they seem sensible, they’re applied; and if they then pass the test, they become a lasting establishment."⁷⁴ He went on to say, “The American People should always rejuvenate itself, steadily refine itself, stamp out the existing defects, let in only the competent from abroad; these are the ways in which America wants to cultivate a new, ideal, world dominating race."⁷⁵ In 1913, Hoffmann published his findings in his book Race Hygiene in the United States of North America, which became standard reading on the topic in Germany.

This concept of America as the land of eugenical action persisted well into the 1920s, even while Germany was beginning to further develop its own racial hygiene programs. In 1934, the historian Reinhold Muller pointed out, “Racial hygiene in Germany remained until 1926 a purely academic and scientific movement. It was the Americans who busied themselves earnestly about the subject."⁷⁶ But as Germany began building up its programs, it needed a model; it turned to America. In May 1923, German physician Gerhard Boeters began campaigning for a sterilization law in Germany. To support his case, he referred to the U.S.: “In a cultured nation of the first order - the United States of America, that which we strive toward [sterilization legislation] was introduced and tested long ago. It is all so clear and simple."⁷⁷

Boeters’s comments raise an interesting subject: the special relationship between American and German scientists, businessmen, and political leaders regarding eugenics ideology. Even after World War I, when Germany refused to cooperate in any way with France and Great Britain (including in eugenical matters), its ties to America -and Charles Davenport in particular - remained strong. It was this connection that, in the late 1920s, brought Germany back into the international discussion on eugenics. Boeters’s comments also provide insight into the exact parameters of the German-American relationship at the time; it is one of America as the model and Germany as the student. There is much evidence to support this view. In 1913, Dr. W. Feilchenfeld wrote for a German racial hygiene journal, “What is of most importance to us [the Germans] is to see if legal measures similar to those being implemented in America can be arranged in Germany."⁷⁸ Even Adolf Hitler himself is alleged to have told those around him, “I have studied with great interest the laws of several American states concerning prevention of reproduction."⁷⁹ The exchange of information was not all one-sided, however. From the Eugenics Record Office, Davenport and Laughlin published the journal Eugenical News, in which they would print the translated works of German scientists in order to keep its American readers up to date on what was going on across the Atlantic Ocean. In Germany, many academic and scientific publications, such as der Erbarzt, closely followed the eugenics progress in America and would often times publish letters or speeches written by Davenport.

Support for German racial hygiene went beyond mere verbal and scientific encouragement. American dollars also flowed across the Atlantic to support German racial hygienists. The two largest American donors to such German programs were also the two largest donors to the American programs: The Carnegie Institute and to a much larger extent, the Rockefeller Foundation. Carnegie money, relying on personal recommendations from Davenport, usually went to those individuals and organizations that had personal ties with Davenport. The Rockefeller Foundation, however, was not so biased; it wanted to fund eugenics, even if that meant funding German scientists. On occasion, the foundation even used its power and influence to protect scientists that it favored from the periodic Nazi purges.⁸⁰

By 1926, the Rockefeller Foundation had donated $410,000 (approximately $5 million in 2009 dollar value⁸¹) to German researchers. Two years later, the Rockefeller Foundation made yet another donation, this time in the amount of $325,000 (approximately $4 million in 2009 dollar value ) to build the new Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Psychiatry in Munich.⁸³ When, in 1927, Germany opened its new seat of its racial hygiene movement, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics (an institution partially funded by the Rockefeller Foundation), Davenport was there in Berlin to show his support. The name of the new German institute is also noteworthy. The American word “eugenics" (Eu-genik) was used instead of the typical German “race hygiene" (Rassen-hygiene); this was a powerful symbol of the German-American partnership.

The election of the Nazi Party to power in 1933 changed everything. After Hitler and his followers dismantled democracy within Germany, eugenic-minded scientists and policy makers no longer had to worry about “troublesome" bureaucracy; eugenic policy could now be rushed through. And so it was. The “Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring," which closely followed Harry Laughlin’s Model Law, was one of the first laws passed by Hitler’s government. In fact, the University of Heidelberg awarded Laughlin an honorary degree for his work in the field of eugenics, an honor that Laughlin gladly accepted.⁸⁴ The 1935 Nuremberg Laws, which included the “Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor" and the “Reich Citizenship Law," regulated citizenship based on the purity of blood and defined Jews with the same methods as those used at Cold Springs Harbor to define America’s own undesirables. After the conclusion of the Second World War, many of the German doctors and scientists on trial pointed to other Western democracies—to the United States in particular—arguing that the concept of eliminating “inferior elements" was not uniquely German.⁸⁵

By the mid-1930s, the German-American relationship had reversed itself. Only a few years earlier, Davenport had stepped down as the President of the International Federation of Eugenics Organizations, giving the post to Ernst Rudin, a leading German racial hygienist.⁸⁶ It was a move symbolizing that power had shifted and the future of eugenics was now in Germany.

Many American eugenicists cheered the passing of Germany’s laws, seeing it as a victory for the larger eugenics movement. Eugenical News reported: “Germany is the first of the world’s major nations to enact a modern eugenical sterilization law for the nation as a unit...The law recently promulgated by the Nazi Government marks several substantial advances."⁸⁷ While it is important to point out that many American eugenicists did not support the extreme Nazi anti-Semitism, they did recognize that under a dictatorship eugenic laws could pass more easily. The Secretary of the American Public Health Association echoed this belief that a dictatorship allowed for swifter eugenic action after he visited Germany in 1933 and 1934; he claimed that Germany was the “first modern nation to have reached a goal toward which other nations are just looking or approaching at a snail’s pace."⁸⁸ Other American eugenicists, however, did not exactly share the same enthusiasm. Joseph S. DeJarnette, superintendent of Virginia’s Western State Hospital, captured the sentiment of many of his colleagues when he told a local newspaper, “The Germans are beating us at our own game."⁸⁹

VII: The End of Collaboration

It was not until the Nazis’ more radical policies became known that most American eugenicists began distancing themselves from their German counterpart. Two who did not try to sever their German connections, however, were Charles Davenport and Harry Laughlin. They tried, using Eugenical News and their own voices, to cast Hitler’s Third Reich in a more positive light—or at least in a less-negative light. It did not work. Laughlin was forced to retire in December of 1939 and the Carnegie Institute immediately dismantled the Eugenics Record Office. Davenport had retired from the Carnegie Institute five years prior and instead worked solely from a small office at the ERO until its doors were closed. He remained a vigilant eugenicist until he died of pneumonia in February of 1944. Without the movement’s leading figures, eugenics quickly fell into disorganization.

Many American eugenicists had begun distancing themselves from Germany shortly after the Nazi Party was elected, but it was America’s entrance into the Second World War that severed most ties. Further separation developed as many scientists around the world (and specifically in the United States) recognized that anti-Semitism was driving Nazi race policy, not science.⁹⁰ In the years that followed, the existence of large-scale euthanasia programs and death factories within the Third Reich was revealed to the world. American scientists, historians, private philanthropists, and politicians grew eerily silent about America’s own race laws, marriage prohibitions, and forced sterilization programs. Only after a devastating world war and the evidence of the extreme degree to which eugenic ideology could be taken (namely state-sponsored genocide) did the American eugenics movement allow itself to fade from the public mind.

It would be a mistake, however, to assume that eugenic thought ceased to exist or that it found no further supporters. Eugenic thought continued to exist in the scientific community, though images of Auschwitz seemed to put a check on how far the philosophy’s ideas could be actually applied. Some scholars argue that eugenics did little more than change names, that the study of the improvement of humanity through heredity and the control of inherent characteristics simply became known as genetics.

Regardless of the path that eugenics did or did not take after the 1940’s, the historical study of the movement raises many important questions. What is “legitimate" science? Statistics and neatly kept records? Are we able to make judgments (of morality or of legitimacy) on a movement that, at the time, by using the best available knowledge, was actually on the cutting edge of science? If so, how? Such questions are relevant today as scientists have mapped the human genome and have begun prenatal screening for inborn diseases with the hopes of weeding out genetic defects. Furthermore, the study of the American eugenics movement, and the history of science in a general, raises concerns about the continued relationship between science and social policy. All of these are significant, relevant, and pressing topics for further scholarship.

VIII: Conclusion

The twentieth century will forever be scarred by the images of stacked corpses, burning furnaces, and walking skeletons. Since the revelation of such horrors, the reaction of the world has been to designate master race theories and eugenic ideology as exclusively Nazi notions, something far removed and foreign to the rest of Western culture. Yet, as recent research has shown, the basis for such social, moral, and scientific ideologies had also taken root in other Western societies, decades before the first vote was ever cast for the Nazi Party in Germany.

However, recognition of the connections between American eugenics and German race hygiene does not, and should not, detract from the particular path that the racial hygiene movement in Germany eventually took under Nazi rule, nor does it imply that the same path would have eventually been taken in the United States. Certain historical conditions existed in Germany (namely the presence of a totalitarian regime dedicated to racial anti-Semitism) which allowed eugenic practices to be pushed to new, extreme measures. While similarities in ideologies existed, the differences in the manifestations of these ideologies into policy are significant. Whereas eugenicists in the United States sought to terminate the reproductive capabilities of the “submerged tenth," Nazi leadership and their supporters used eugenic principles to justify the physical elimination of the unfit themselves.

Attention also needs to be drawn to the distinction between the rhetoric of the American eugenics movement and the reality of what was actually unfolding on the ground. If one were to simply read the writings of eugenic leaders such as Davenport, Laughlin, or even of other prominent figures such as Justice Oliver Holmes, one receives the picture of an all-out assault that spared no expense in quelling the procreation of the biologically undesirable. However, despite the wishes of the movement’s leaders, eugenic policies never became as far reaching as originally intended. True, over half of the states in America forced sterilization laws, but not all of those states strictly enforced or defended such laws; in fewer still—namely California and a handful of Southern states—did doctors actively pursue the sterilization of asylum and institution of patients. This distinction between rhetoric and reality is important not only in constructing an accurate picture of the American eugenics movement, but also in establishing the difference in the extent to which eugenic practices were carried out in the United States and Nazi Germany.

Though American and Nazi policies differ significantly, there are similarities in their ideological origins. The ideological and financial connections between American eugenics and German racial hygiene cannot be overlooked or glossed over. More importantly, these connections allow us to realize that what happened under Nazi rule was neither a sudden “outbreak of barbarism," nor simply the manifestations of Hitler’s delusions.⁹¹ By acknowledging that legislation meant to halt the reproduction of inferior races existed first in the United Sates, we are able to place what happened in Nazi Germany into a larger historical context, and thus perhaps gain more understanding of how something such as the Holocaust could have happened in a country that had been hailed as one of the most cultured and civilized in the Western world.

In the United States, the eugenics movement began under the notion of social improvement through the use of cutting-edge science. Unfortunately, over 60,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized, and an unknowable multitude were refused the right to marry before war and genocide stripped the credibility of the eugenics movement and put a halt to America’s crusade to forge a master race.

Sno

Endnotes:

I would like to thank Dr. Charles Johnson of Valdosta State University for his substantial contribution to this work. The countless hours of discussion in his office introduced me to the existence of the American eugenics movement and provided me with the introductory readings for this research. I am also grateful to Dr. Christopher Meyers, also of VSU, whose class provided the impetus for the first draft of this article. I would also like to thank those who read and edited subsequent drafts, namely Dr. Michael Rembis of the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York. Finally, I extend my appreciation to the library staff at VSU’s Odum Library; their help in collecting these sources made this work possible.

¹    Daniel J. Kevles, “Eugenics and human rights." British Medical Journal 319 (Aug. 14, 1999): 435.

²    Charles Davenport as quoted in: Henry Friedlander, The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1995), 4.

³    Richard Weikart, From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004; Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 89.

⁴    Edwin Black, War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2003; Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2004), 17.

⁵    Kevles, “Eugenics and human rights," 435-36.

⁶    Friedlander, 7.

⁷    Robert J. Cynkar, “Buck v. Bell: “Felt Necessities" v. Fundamental Values?" Columbia Law Review 81 (November 1981): 1425.

⁸    Willibald Hentschel to Christian von Ehrenfels, n.d., in Christian von Ehrenfels papers, Forschungsstelle und Dokumentationszentrum fur Oesterreichische Philosophie, Graz. Quoted in Weikart, 43.

⁹    Barry Mehler, “Eliminating the Inferior: American and Nazi Sterilization Programs." Science for the People (Nov. - Dec. 1987): 14-18.

¹⁰    Weikart, 227.

¹¹T. U. H. Ellinger, “On the Breeding of Aryans and Other Genetic Problems of War-Time Germany," Journal of Heredity 33 (1942): 141-43. Quoted in: Stefan Kuhl, The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994; Oxford University Press, 2002), 60.

¹² Barbara A. Kimmelman, “The American Breeders’ Association: Genetics and Eugenics in an Agricultural Context, 1903-13," Social Studies of Science 13 (May 1983):163.

¹³    Black, 39.

¹⁴    Charles Davenport as quoted in Black, 38.

¹⁵    According to http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

¹⁶    Black, 40.

¹⁷    According to http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

¹⁸    Harry Bruinius, Better for All the World: The Secret History of Forced Sterilization and America's Quest for Racial Purity (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2006; Vintage Books, 2007), 13.

¹⁹    Black, 40.

²⁰    Black, 43.

²¹    Kevles, 436.

²²    Charles Woodruff, “Climate and Eugenics," American Breeders Association Proceedings of Annual Meetings, 6 (1910): 122. Quoted in Kuhl, 17.

²³    Derryn E. Moten, “Racial Integrity or ‘Race Suicide’: Virginia’s Eugenic Movement, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the Work of Walter A. Plecker," Negro History Bulletin 62 (April-Spet. 1999): 6

²⁴    Black, 55.

²⁵    Black, 58.

²⁶    Black 78.

²⁷    Black, 75.

²⁸    Mehler, 14-18.

²⁹    Harry H. Laughlin, Eugenical Sterilization in the United States. Chicago: Psychopathic Laboratory of the Municipal Court of Chicago, 1922.

³⁰    Black, 52.

³¹    Black, 58.

³²    Katherine Castles, “Quiet Eugenics: Sterilization in North Carolina’s Institutions for the Mentally Retarded, 1945-1965," The Journal of Southern History 68 (Nov. 2002): 865.

³³    Black, 107.

³⁴    W. Feilchenfeld, “Die Bestrebungen der Eugenik in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika und ihre Ubertragung auf deutsche Verhalt-nisse." Halbmonatsschrift fur Soziale Hygiene und Praktische Medizin, 20 (1913): 480.

³⁵    Heinrich Krieger, Das Rassenrecht in den Vereinigten Staaten, vol 6, Neue Deutsche Forschungen: Abteilung Staats-, Verwaltungs-, Kirchen-, Volkerrecht und Staatstheorie ed. Ulrich Scheuner (Berlin: Junker und Dunnhaupt Verlag, 1936): 177.

³⁶    Frances Oswald, “Eugenical Sterilization in the United States," The American Journal of Sociology 36 (1930): 71.

³⁷    Feilchenfeld, 480.

³⁸    “Nearsightedness Could Be Wiped out by Eugenics," The Science

News-Letter 41 (Jun. 20, 1942): 387.

³⁹    Oswald, 71.

⁴⁰    E. B. Sherlock, The Feeble-minded: A Guide to Study and Practice (New York: Macmillan, 1911), 267. Quoted in Black, 250.

⁴¹    Black, 258.

⁴²    Letter, Charles B. Davenport to Madison Grant, 3 May 1920: APS B-D27 Grant, Madison #3. Quoted in Black, 37.

⁴³    “Danger in Race Mixture," The Science News-Letter 12 (Sep. 24, 1927): 205-206.

⁴⁴    Bruinius, 13.

⁴⁵    Oswald, 70-71.

⁴⁶    Kuhl, 26.

⁴⁷    Black, 66-67.

⁴⁸    Feilchenfeld, 480.

⁴⁹    Mehler, 14-18.

⁵⁰    Paul A. Lombardo, “Facing Carrie Buck," The Hastings Center Report

33 (Mar.-April 2003): 14-16.

⁵¹    Mehler, 14-18, emphasis added.

⁵²    Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200, 207 (1927). Quoted in Robert J. Cynkar, “Buck v. Bell: “Felt Necessities" v. Fundamental Values?" Columbia Law Review 81 (Nov. 1981): 1419.

⁵³    J.C. Baskerville, “See Remedy for Imbecility in Recent Virginia Decision," Gastonia (NC) Daily Gazette, May 6, 1927, 11; and editorial, “To Protect the World against the Morons," Davenport (IA) Democrat and Leader, May 3, 1927, 4. Quoted in Lombardo, Three Generations, 175.

⁵⁴    “Super-Race Seen following Court Sterilization OK," Waterloo (IA) Evening Courier, May 3, 1927, 17. Quoted in Lombardo, Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell. “Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 175.

⁵⁵    Castles, 851.

⁵⁶    Black, 122.

⁵⁷    Black, 123.

⁵⁸    Castles, 850.

⁵⁹    Friedlander, 1.

⁶⁰    Alexandra Minna Stern, “Sterilized in the Name of Public Health: Rce, Immigration, and Reproductive Control in Modern California," American Journal of Public Health 95 (July 2005): 1129. Emphasis added.

⁶¹    Lombardo, Three Generations, 186. Emphasis added.

⁶²    Lombardo, “Facing Carrie Buck," 16.

⁶³    Castles, 853.

⁶⁴    Castles, 860.

⁶⁵    Oswald, 65.

⁶⁶    Geza von Hoffmann, Die Rassenhygiene in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika.

(Munich: J.F. Lehmanns Verlag, 1913), 106.

⁶⁷    Black, xvi.

⁶⁸    Stern, 1128-1130.

⁶⁹    Editorial, “Eugenics" Richmond Times-Dispatch, 8 May 2002, A12. Quoted in Lombardo, “Facing Carrie Buck," 16.

⁷⁰    Lombardo, Three Generations, 175.

⁷¹    Kuhl, 46.

⁷²    Oswald, 69.

⁷³    Kuhl, 13.

⁷⁴    von Hoffmann, ix.

⁷⁵    von Hoffmann, 14.

⁷⁶    Reinhold Muller, “Geschichtliches uber die Beziehungen von Vererbungslehre und Rassenkunde," Ziel und Weg 2 (1934). Quoted in Kuhl, 20.

⁷⁷    Gerhard Boeters, “Die Unfruchtbarmachung der geistig Minderwerti-gen," Sachsische Staatszeitung (July 9-11, 1923). Quoted in Kuhl, 23.

⁷⁸    Feilchenfeld, 481.

⁷⁹    Otto Wagener, Hitler aus nachster Nahe: Aufzeichnungen eines Ver-trauten 1929-1932, ed. Henry A. Turner (Frankfurt a.M.: Ullstein, 1978): 264. Quoted in Kuhl, 37.

⁸⁰    Black, 302.

⁸¹    According to http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

⁸²    According to http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

⁸³    Kuhl, 20.

⁸⁴    Bruinius, 17.

⁸⁵    Kuhl, 101.

⁸⁶    Black, 294.

Bibliography Primary Book Sources

von Hoffmann, Geza. Die Rassenhygiene in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika. Munich: J.F. Lehmanns Verlag, 1913.

Krieger, Heinrich. Das Rassenrecht in den Vereinigten Staaten, vol. 6, Neue Deutsche Forschungen: Abteilung Staats-, Verwaltungs-, Kirchen-, Volkerrecht und Staatstheorie, ed. Ulrich Scheuner. Berlin: Junker und Dunnhaupt Verlag, 1936.

Laughlin, Harry H. Eugenical Sterilization in the United States. Chicago: PsychopathicLaboratory of the Municipal Court of Chicago, 1922.

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“Danger in Race Mixture," The Science News-Letter 12 (Sep. 24, 1927): 205-206.

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Davenport, Charles B. “Eugenische Forschungen und ihre praktische

Anwendung in den Vereinigten Staaten," der Erbartz, 29 (1936): 97-98.

Feilchenfeld, Dr. W. “Die Bestrebungen der Eugenik in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika und ihre Ubertragung auf deutsche Verhaltnisse." Halbmonatsschrift fur Soziale Hygiene und Prak tische Medizin, 20 (1913): 479-482.

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Nebraska Press, 2004.

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Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.

Weikart, Richard. From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004; Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

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Institutions for the Mentally Retarded, 1945-1965," The Journal of Southern History 68 (Nov. 2002): 849-878.

Cynkar, Robert J. “Buck v. Bell: “Felt Necessities" v. Fundamental Values?" Columbia Law Review 81 (Nov. 1981): 1418-1461.

Kevles, Daniel J. “Eugenics and human rights," British Medical Journal 319 (Aug. 14,1999): 435-438.

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Genetics and Eugenics in an Agricultural Context, 1903-13," Social Studies of Science 13 (May 1983): 163-204.

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Moten, Derryn E. “Racial Integrity or ‘Race Suicide’: Virginia’s Eugenic Movement, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the Work of Walter A. Plecker," Negro History Bulletin 62 (April-Spet. 1999): 6-17.

Stern, Alexandra Minna. “Sterilized in the Name of Public Health: Race, Immigration, and Reproductive Control in Modern California," American Journal of Public Health 95 (July 2005): 1128-1137.

Contributor’s Notes

Emily Conheady graduated Magna cum Laude in May of 2006, with a Bachelor's degree in English. In August she will attend the College of Charleston to begin a course of study for her Master's in English. "The Sublime in Frankenstein" is her first piece of research to be published, but she is hopeful that it will not be her last.

William Gay: will graduate in the spring of 2012 with a B.A. in History. He plans on attending graduate school in the fall of 2012. Currently, he is working on a project which will examine the unique experiences of American Expeditionary Force surgeons working in Base Hospitals during World War I.

Bruce A. George Jr. received his degree in Political Science from Valdosta State University. This is his first publication as well. In the near future, he hopes to become a Diplomat for the United States State Department.

Kenneth Chase Kelly graduated from Tift County High School in 2010 with superior honors. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor degree in history and is considering a minor in creative writing. He is a frequent writer and is considering publishing his own novel in the future. This is his first published essay and it looking forward to writing more in the future.

Sara Lynn McCall completed her B.A. in English with a concentration in Journalism in 2011 at Valdosta State University. She has published articles in The Spectator, On Tap, VSU Alumni Voice Magazine and South Magazine. She will begin pursuing her M.Ed. in School Counseling at VSU in August 2011.

Tyler Moore completed his B.A. in Political Science at Valdosta State University in 2011, and is currently serving as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. He has presented papers at the Valdosta State University Undergraduate Research Symposium and the 2010 annual conference of the Southern Political Science Association.

W. Jake Newsome graduated Summa Cum Laude from Valdosta State University in December 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and minors in International Studies and German. During his time at VSU, Newsome participated in a number of study abroad programs, including a month in Schwabisch Gmund, Germany, a month in Blue Creek Village, Belize, and one year attending Philipps-Universitat Marburg in central Germany. Newsome is currently working on his Ph.D. in modern German history at the

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State University of New York at Buffalo. His latest research, which contests the idea that the Nazis enacted a systematic "Homocaust" against homosexuals during the Second World War, has been accepted for presentation at the annual conference of the New York State Association of European Historians.

Chelsie Norton is currently pursuing a Bachelor's of Arts degree in Mathematics and a Bachelor's of Science degree in Middle Grades Education at Valdosta State University. Upon completion of undergraduate school, she will begin graduate school to obtain a Master's degree in Mathematics.

Dallas Suttles is a history undergraduate currently attending Valdosta State University. He is pursuing a career in archives and digital preservation and will enter Valdosta State University’s MLIS program for his graduate degree in 2012. Mr. Suttles has focused much of his historical research on Native American history. He gave an oral presentation on Cherokee miscegenation law at the 2010 undergraduate symposium at Valdosta State University and won the Lamar Pearson Award for his research on Puritan captivity narratives in colonial New England. He intends to help future Native American historians as an archivist by digitizing primary source documents in order to facilitate research and increase public access to these materials.

Katherine M. Wagnon is currently a senior at Valdosta State University working towards a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Philosophy. She is continuing to research and write other articles about Federal Spending; and her professional goals are to attain a J.D. and Ph. D. in Political Science after graduating May 2012.

Kaci West graduated from Valdosta State University with a Bachelor of Arts in English in May of 2010. She will continue her studies as an English graduate student and graduate assistant at VSU in the Fall of 2011. Kaci will go on to pursue her doctorate, specifically focusing on Medieval Literature, and will later teach at the university level.

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