by Adam Cohen
The English who arrived: K. Edward Lay, The Architecture of Jefferson Country: Charlottesville and Albemarle County (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2000), 26; Cooper, Guide to Historic Albemarle County, 26–28; Federal Writers’ Project, Virginia: A Guide to the Old Dominion (Washington, DC: U.S. History Publishers, 1952), 204; Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 54.
one gratified settler: Federal Writers’ Project, Virginia, 44.
Thomas Jefferson: Lay, Architecture of Jefferson Country, 11.
They and James Monroe: Gerald Lee Gutek, Plantations and Outdoor Museums in America’s Historic South (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996), 305, 309, 350.
“the proudest achievement”: Garry Wills, Mr. Jefferson’s University (Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2002), 7.
When Jefferson was a student: Ibid., 25.
Jefferson resolved to infuse: Natalie Bober, Thomas Jefferson: Draftsman of a Nation (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008), 290.
It was now primarily: Gregory Michael Dorr, Segregation’s Science: Eugenics and Society in Virginia (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008), 48–49; “Edwin A. Alderman,” in Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, ed. William S. Powell (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979); Federal Writers’ Project, Virginia, 205.
“southern poor white caste”: Wayne Flynt, Dixie’s Forgotten People (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009), 38.
In the post–Civil War South: Ibid., 62.
Carrie’s paternal grandfather: 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), 26; “History and Clinical Notes,” June 4, 1924, box 11, Carrie Buck file, Library of Virginia.
Carrie Buck’s mother: Bruinius, Better for All the World, 6; Lombardo, Three Generations, 105.
Her father, Richard Harlowe: Lombardo, Three Generations, 105–6; Bruinius, Better for All the World, 26–27; “History and Clinical Notes,” June 4, 1924.
Records at the Colony: “History and Clinical Notes,” June 4, 1924; Petition in the Matter of the Commitment of Carrie E. Buck; Lombardo, Three Generations,105–6.
Whatever the reason: Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 1–2; “History and Clinical Notes,” June 4, 1924.
a single woman: Edward L. Ayers, Southern Crossing: A History of the American South, 1877–1906 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 44.
The people who would: Bruinius, Better for All the World, 28; Lombardo, Three Generations, 105–6; Courtney Beale, “Brothels Shaped Charlottesville’s History,” Charlottesville Tomorrow, June 1, 2012.
Anne Harris, a nurse: “Carrie Buck Trial Transcript, 51–100,” 43.
Emma and her baby: Ibid.
In the absence of a husband: Bruinius, Better for All the World, 26–27; Lombardo, Three Generations, 105–6.
Harris recalled: “Carrie Buck Trial Transcript, 51–100,” 43.
There was growing sentiment: Anthony Platt, The Child Savers: The Invention of Delinquency (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), 3; Marilyn Irvin Holt, “Adoption Reform, Orphan Trains, and Child-Saving, 1851–” in Children and Youth in Adoption, Orphanages, and Foster Care: A Historical Handbook and Guide, ed. Lori Askeland (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006); Tim Hacsi, “From Indenture to Family Foster Care,” in A History of Child Welfare, ed. Eve P. Smith and Lisa A. Merkel-Holguin (New York: Child Welfare League of America 1996), 164.
Reformers had pushed: Hacsi, “From Indenture to Family Foster Care,” 165.
When the municipal court: Bruinius, Better for All the World, 40–41; Edwin Black, War Against the Weak (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003), 109.
Carrie called her foster parents: Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 2.
Carrie’s school records: Ibid.; Lombardo, Three Generations, 105.
Her last teacher: Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 3; “Carrie Buck Trial Transcript, 51–100,” 46; Black, War Against the Weak, 109.
In some southern states: William J. Cooper Jr. and Thomas E. Terill, The American South: A History (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2009), 616.
John Spargo: John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of the Children (1906; repr., New York: Macmillan, 1915), 147–48; Richard Hofstadter, The Progressive Movement, 1900–1915 (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963), 39.
Parents “should be left alone”: Ayers, Southern Crossing, 176.
She was also now available: Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 3; Lombardo, Three Generations 103; Bruinius, Better for All the World, 51.
Carrie’s day-to-day existence: Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 2–3.
Emma was taken: Bruinius, Better for All the World, 40; Black, War Against the Weak, 108; Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 7.
Emma could have been accused: Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 8–9.
Emma’s life history: Ibid., 10–12.
After hearing all the evidence: Ibid., 12; Bruinius, Better for All the World, 40.
The court directed: Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 15; Bruinius, Better for All the World, 41.
On her arrival: Bruinius, Better for All the World, 41.
She was found to be suffering: Lombardo, Three Generations, 105–6; Black, War Against the Weak, 108.
The examiner observed: Lombardo, Three Generations, 106.
The records included a list: Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 15.
intelligence test: Bruinius, Better for All the World, 41–42.
On the basis: Lombardo, Three Generations, 106.
The Commission of Feeblemindedness: Buck v. Priddy, Argument and Submission and Order, Nov. 18, 1924, “Carrie Buck Trial Transcript, 1–50” (2009), Buck v. Bell Documents, Paper 31; Lombardo, Three Generations, 104.
Though it should not have been relevant: Petition in the Matter of the Commitment of Carrie E. Buck.
The Dobbses said Carrie: Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck 3; Black, War Against the Weak, 109.
Years later: John Bell to Mrs. Allen T. Newberry, Feb. 22, 1928, Carrie Buck file, Library of Virginia.
During the visit: Lombardo, Three Generations, 140–41.
“I didn’t run around”: Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 3–5.
Carrie said that after Clarence: Lombardo, Three Generations, 140; interview of Paul Lombardo, DNA Learning Center, http://www.dnalc.org/view/15234-The-rape-of-Carrie-Buck-Paul-Lombardo.html.
These problems: Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 5; Lombardo, Three Generations, 141.
The Survey: Steven Noll, Feeble-Minded in Our Midst (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), 1, 5.
In 1904, 17.3 feebleminded people: Ibid., 4, 25–26.
The medical establishment: Leuchtenburg, The Supreme Court Reborn, 7.
Hastings Hart: Noll, Feeble-Minded in Our Midst, 15–16.
Henry Goddard: Melissa A. Bray and Thomas J. Kehle, eds., The Oxford Handbook of School Psychology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 27.
Because of these concerns: Noll, Feeble-Minded in Our Midst, 16.
She was in her seventh month: Findings and Adjudication of the Commission, Special Board of Directors of State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded, Jan. 23, 1924, “Carrie Buck Trial Transcript, 1–50” (2009), Buck v. Bell Documents, Paper 31, http://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/buckvbell/31, 18-19; “Carrie Buck Adjudged ‘Feeble-minded or Epileptic,’” Jan. 23, 1924, http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Carrie_Buck_Adjudged_Feeble-minded_or_Epileptic _January_23_1924.
Dr. J. C. Coulter: Lombardo, Three Generations, 104.
Emma, who was by now: Warrant
, J. T. Dobbs, Special Constable of the City of Charlottesville, Jan. 23, 1924, “Carrie Buck Trial Transcript, 1–50” (2009), Buck v. Bell Documents, Paper 31, http://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/buckvbell/31, 21.
In brief written findings: Findings and Adjudication of the Commission, “Carrie Buck Trial Transcript, 1–50.”
Judge Shackelford then ordered “Order of Commitment, Special Board of Directors of State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded,” Jan. 23, 1924, “Carrie Buck Trial Transcript, 1–50” (2009), Buck v. Bell Documents, Paper 31, http://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/buckvbell/31.
Mrs. Dobbs wanted: Caroline Wilhelm to Albert Priddy, Mar. 11, 1924, Carrie Buck file, Library of Virginia; Lombardo, Three Generations, 104; “Carrie Buck Trial Transcript, 51–100,” 59.
It was long past time: Richey to Priddy, Mar. 10, 1924.
Caroline Wilhelm: Bruinius, Better for All the World, 52; Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 105; “Carrie Buck Trial Transcript, 51–100,” 57.
Carrie was due to give birth: Wilhelm to Priddy, Mar. 11, 1924; Lombardo, Three Generations, 104.
The superintendent, Dr. Albert Priddy: Albert Priddy to Caroline Wilhelm, Mar. 14, 1924, Carrie Buck file, Library of Virginia.
On March 28: Lombardo, Three Generations, 104.
She wrote Dr. Priddy: Caroline Wilhelm to Albert Priddy, May 5, 1924, Carrie Buck file, Library of Virginia.
They emphasized, however: Ibid.; Lombardo, Three Generations, 104–5.
Dr. Priddy did not care: Albert Priddy to Caroline Wilhelm, May 7, 1924, Carrie Buck file, Library of Virginia; Bruinius, Better for all the World, 53.
On June 4: Caroline Wilhelm to Albert Priddy, May 25, 1924, box 11, Central Virginia Training Center Papers, Library of Virginia; Albert Priddy to Caroline Wilhelm, May 27, 1924, box 11, Central Virginia Training Center Papers, Library of Virginia; Bruinius, Better for all the World, 53.
Wilhelm escorted Carrie: Caroline Wilhelm to Dr. Priddy, May 30, 1924, box 11, Central Virginia Training Center Papers, Library of Virginia.
Lynchburg, which was then: Clifton W. Potter and Dorothy Bundy Turner Potter, Lynchburg: A City Set on Seven Hills (Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia, 2004), 124–26.
After disembarking at Union Station: Caroline Wilhelm to Albert Priddy, May 30, 1924, box 11, Central Virginia Training Center Papers, Library of Virginia; Lombardo, Three Generations, 104–5.
Despite its somber mission: State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded: Second Biennial Report, 15-16, box 7, Central Virginia Training Center Papers; Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 39–41.
The rustic surroundings: Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 40.
Out in the country: Noll, Feeble-Minded in Our Midst, 25–26.
Inmates were able: Dorr, Segregation’s Science, 120.
When states throughout the South: Edward J. Larson, Sex, Race, and Science: Eugenics in the Deep South (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), 94–95.
The “History and Clinical Notes” drawn up: “History and Clinical Notes,” June 4, 1924.
The next day, Dr. John Bell: “Physical Examination of a Patient on Admission to the State Colony,” June 5, 1924, Carrie Buck file, Library of Virginia.
Carrie’s admissions records: “History and Clinical Notes,” June 4, 1924.
In evaluating Carrie’s intellect: Ibid.
Based on it: Ibid.; Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 44.
It had been invented: Stephen J. Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981), 149.
Binet and another psychologist: George Domino and Maria L. Domino, Psychological Testing: An Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 100.
“One might almost say”: Gould, Mismeasure of Man, 149.
They established a scale: Anna Cianciolo and Robert J. Sternberg, Intelligence: A Brief History (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2008), 34; Domino and Domino, Psychological Testing, 101; Daniel J. Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985), 77.
“to identify in order to help and improve”: Gould, Mismeasure of Man, 152.
“They have neither sympathy”: Ibid., 183.
The man who launched: Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics, 77.
“The tests”: John Carson, The Measure of Merit: Talents, Intelligence, and Inequality in the French and American Republics, 1750–1940 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007) 178.
“hierarchical, unidimensional vision of intelligence”: Ibid., 179.
“Each human being”: Leila Zenderland, Measuring Minds: Henry Herbert Goddard and the Origins of American Intelligence Testing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 301.
Goddard redefined the field: Michael L. Wehmeyer, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology and Disability (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 5.
At the bottom of Goddard’s pyramid: William Estabrook Chancellor, “The Measurement of Human Ability,” Journal of Education 77, no. 16 (April 17, 1913): 425–26; Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics, 78; Henry Herbert Goddard, The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness (New York: Macmillan, 1919), 101–2; Wehmeyer, Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology and Disability, 5.
“Morons are often”: Henry Herbert Goddard, Feeble-Mindedness: Its Causes and Consequences (New York: Macmillan, 1926), 4.
Intellectual deficiencies, he insisted: Goddard, The Kallikak Family, 53; Gould, Mismeasure of Man, 159.
Terman added new questions: Nicholas Mackintosh, IQ and Human Intelligence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 16.
Terman also introduced: Mackintosh, IQ and Human Intelligence, 16.
The Binet-Simon was presented: Stephen Jay Gould, “A Nation of Morons,” New Scientist (May 6 1982): 349.
According to the “Record Sheet”: “Record Sheet for the Standard Revision of the Binet Simon Tests,” Carrie Buck and Doris Buck Figgins Sterilization, ca. 1920s–1980s file, Central Virginia Training Center Papers.
Cyril Burt: Cyril Burt, Mental and Scholastic Tests (London: P. S. King and Son, 1922), 175, 198–99; Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics, 337–38.
“Intelligence,” an article in Mental Hygiene: Maurice B. Hexter and Abraham Myerson, “13.77 Versus 12.05: A Study in Probable Error; A Critical Review of Brigham’s American Intelligence,” Mental Hygiene 8 (1924), quoted in James Trent, Who Shall Say Who Is a Useful Person? (Dearborn, MI: Alpha Academic Press, 2001), 42.
“Not a single one of these persons”: Noll, Feeble-Minded in Our Midst, 31–32.
Goddard administered the Binet-Simon: Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981), 165–66.
“We cannot escape”: Ibid., 166–67.
Yerkes worked with Terman: Ibid., 194–95.
Yerkes found: Victoria Nourse, In Reckless Hands: Skinner v. Oklahoma and the Near Triumph of American Eugenics (New York: W. W. Norton, 2008), 25.
Yerkes’s results: Ibid., 25.
“a nation of morons”: Gould, “A Nation of Morons,” 349.
Carrie was assigned: Smith and Nelson, Sterilization of Carrie Buck, 40.
Carrie was reunited: Ibid., 41.
Carrie also kept in touch: Ibid.; Lombardo, Three Generations 106.
CHAPTER TWO: ALBERT PRIDDY
Albert Sidney Priddy was born: Transactions of the Forty-Third Annual Session of the Medical Society of Virginia (Richmond, VA: The Richmond Press, 1913), 393.
The Civil War had ended: “Draft Resolutions to Honor A. S. Priddy,” enclosed with letter of Aubrey Strode to S. L. Ferguson, May 5, 1925, box 90, Aubrey Strode Papers, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia (hereafter cited as Strode Papers); Cheryl A. Veselik, Superintendents and Directors of Southwestern Virg
inia Mental Health Institute (Marion, VA: Southwestern Virginia Mental Health Institute, 2012).
The Priddys soon moved: “Tribute to Albert Sidney Priddy,” in “16th Annual Report of the State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded, 1924–1925,” box 17, Central Virginia Training Center Papers, Library of Virginia.
Young Albert began: “Charlotte County, Virginia: Historical Notes of Town of Keysville,” http://genealogytrails.com/vir/charlotte/hist_keysville_historicalnotes.html; “Tribute to Albert Sidney Priddy”; J. David Smith and K. Ray Nelson, The Sterilization of Carrie Buck: Was She Feebleminded or Society’s Pawn? (Far Hills, NJ: New Horizon Press, 1989).
He graduated in 1886: “Charlotte County, Virginia: Historical Notes of Town of Keysville.”
Dr. Priddy integrated the latest procedures: “Tribute to Albert Sidney Priddy.”
He was elected: “Draft Resolutions to Honor A. S. Priddy”; “Tribute to Albert Sidney Priddy”; Veselik, Superintendents and Directors, 4.
He helped draft a law: “Draft Resolutions to Honor A. S. Priddy”; Veselik, Superintendents and Directors, 4; Thomas Johnson Michie et al., Virginia Reports: Jefferson–33 Grattan, 1730–1880 (Charlottesville, VA: Michie, 1901), 102.
The progressives had faith: John Q. LaFond and Mary L. Durham, Back to the Asylum: The Future of Mental Health Law and Policy in the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 5.
As a legislator: Veselik, Superintendents and Directors, 4.
Dr. Priddy closed up: Ibid.
Francis Fauquier: Harry Groom, Fauquier During the Proprietorship (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2009); “Francis Fauquier,” Encyclopedia Virginia, http://www.encyclope diavirginia.org/Fauquier_Francis_bap_1703-1768; Julian C. Houseman, “Department History: 1766 to 1968,” in Board of the Department of Mental Hygiene and Hospitals of the Commonwealth of Virginia, special edition, Mental Health in Virginia 18, no. 2 (Winter 1968): 5, box 7, Central Virginia Training Center Papers.
It was the first hospital: Gregory Michael Dorr, Segregation’s Science: Eugenics and Society in Virginia (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008), 120; Houseman, “Department History: 1766 to 1968,” 5.
