Josiah C. Nott | |
|---|---|
 Nott during the 1860s | |
| Born | Josiah Clark Nott (1804-03-31)March 31, 1804 South Carolina, U.S. |
| Died | March 31, 1873(1873-03-31) (aged 69) Mobile, Alabama, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania |
| Occupations | Surgeon,anthropologist |
| Spouse | Sarah Cantey Deas (m. 1832) |
Josiah Clark Nott (March 31, 1804 – March 31, 1873) was an American surgeon,anthropologist andethnologist. He is known for his studies into theetiology ofyellow fever andmalaria, includingthe theory that they are caused by germs, and for his espousal ofscientific racism.
Nott, who owned slaves, used his scientific reputation to defend the institution of slavery. He claimed that "the negro achieves his greatest perfection, physical and moral, and also greatest longevity, in a state of slavery".[1] Nott was influenced by the racial theories ofSamuel George Morton (1799–1851), one of the inspirators ofphysical anthropology. Morton collected hundreds of human skulls from around the world and tried to classify them. Morton had been among the first to claim that he could judge the intellectual capacity of a race by thecranial capacity (the measure of the volume of the interior of the skull). A large skull meant a large brain and high intellectual capacity, and a small skull indicated a small brain and decreased intellectual capacity. By studying these skulls he came to the conclusion ofpolygenism, that each race had a separate origin.
Nott was born on March 31, 1804, in the U.S. state ofSouth Carolina. He was the son of theFederalist politician and judgeAbraham Nott. He received his medical degree from theUniversity of Pennsylvania in 1827 and completed his post-graduate training inParis.[2] He moved toMobile, Alabama in 1833 and began a surgical practice.[2]
Nott took up the theory thatmalaria andyellow fever were caused by parasitic infections with "animalcules" (microorganisms), earlier held byJohn Crawford.[3] In his 1850Yellow Fever Contrasted with Bilious Fever he attacked the prevailingmiasma theory.
He is often credited as being the first to apply theinsect vector theory toyellow fever, then a serious health problem of theAmerican South.[2] However, unlike his contemporaryLouis-Daniel Beauperthuy, he did not actually go so far as to suggest that mosquitos in fact spread the germs. In fact, he explicitly acknowledged that he did not know how the "animalculae might be communicated through the air or directly to individuals".[3]
Nott lost four of his children to yellow fever in one week in September 1853.[4][5]
Nott believed that mixed-race relationships between people of European and African descent would lead to the "probable extermination of the two races" because mulattoes would live shorter lives, be more susceptible to disease, and less fertile — but that more data was needed to prove the claim.[6] Citing Nott's need,Kentucky SenatorJoseph R. Underwood had the racial category of "mulatto" added to the1850 United States census.[7]
Morton's followers, particularly Nott andGeorge Gliddon (1809–1857) in their monumental tribute to Morton's work,Types of Mankind (1854), carried Morton's ideas further and claimed and backed up his findings, which supported the notion ofpolygenism, which claims that humanity originates from different ancestral lineages and is the ancestor of themultiregional hypothesis.
In their book, Nott and Gliddon argued that the races of mankind each occupied distinct zoological provinces and did not originate from a single pair of ancestors; they both believed God had created each race and positioned each race in separate geographic provinces. The doctrine of zoological provinces outlined inTypes of Mankind did not allow for "superiority" of one type of race over another; each type was suited to its own province, and was superior within its own province. Nott claimed that, because the races were created in different provinces, that all races must be of equal antiquity.[8] However, Nott and other polygenists, such as Gliddon, believed that the name of the biblicalAdam meant "to show red in the face" or "blusher" in Hebrew; since supposedly only light-skinned people could blush, the biblical Adam must have been of theCaucasian race.[9]
Nott persistently attacked the scientific basis of theBible[clarification needed] and also rejected thetheory of evolution by claiming that the environment does not change any organism into another, and also rejectingcommon descent. Nott believed monogenism was "absurd" and had no biblical or scientific basis. He pointed to excavations in Egypt that depicted animals and humans as they looked today to refute monogenism and evolution. According to Nott, the monuments and artifacts found in Egypt proved that the "White, Mongolian and Negro existed at least five thousand years ago." Nott claimed that this proved beyond dispute that each race had been created separately.[9]
Nott claimed that the writers of the Bible had no knowledge of any races except themselves and their immediate neighbors and that it did not concern the whole of the earth's population. According to Nott, there were no verses in the Bible that support monogenism and that the only passage used by the monogenists, Acts 17:26, "And [he] hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;"[10] was interpreted by them wrongly since the "one blood" of Paul's sermon included only the nations that he knew existed, which were local.[9]
In 1856, Nott hiredHenry Hotze to translateArthur de Gobineau'sAn Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1853–55), a founding text of "biological racism" that contrasted withBoulainvilliers (1658–1722)'s theory of races, and Nott provided an appendix with his most recent results. Gobineau subsequently complained that Hotze's translation had ignored his comments on "American decay generally and slaveholding in particular".[11]
In 1857, Nott and Gliddon again co-edited a book,Indigenous Races of the Earth.[12] That book built upon the arguments inTypes of Mankind that linked anthropology with "scientific" studies of race to establish a supposed natural hierarchy of the races. The book included chapters fromLouis Ferdinand Alfred Maury,J. Atkin Meigs, and Francis Polszky, letters fromLouis Agassiz, Joseph Leidy, and A.W. Habersham.
Charles Darwin opposed Nott and Gliddon's polygenist andcreationist arguments in his 1871The Descent of Man, arguing for a monogenism of the human species. Darwin conceived the common origin of all humans (akasingle-origin hypothesis) as essential forevolutionary theory. Darwin cited Nott and Gliddon's arguments as an example of those classing the races of man as separate species; Darwin disagreed and he concluded that humanity is one species.[13]
Nott was a founder of theMedical College of Alabama, established in Mobile in 1859,[14] and served as its professor of surgery. In 1860 he successfully appealed to thestate legislature for a monetary appropriation and a state charter for the school. During theAmerican Civil War, he served as aConfederate surgeon andstaff officer. During the early years of the war, he served as director of the Confederate General Army Hospital in Mobile; later, he served in the field as medical director on the staffs of Brig. Gen.Daniel Ruggles and Gen.Braxton Bragg, and as hospital inspector. He lost both of his remaining sons to the war. Upon his own death in 1873, he was interred atMagnolia Cemetery in Mobile.
A building at theUniversity of Alabama was named Nott Hall in honor of Nott for his work at the predecessor Medical College of Alabama. It attracted controversy in 2016, with several student groups petitioning the building to be renamed or an educational plaque to be added because of Nott's open racism even by the standards of his era.[15][16] On August 5, 2020, his name was removed from the building, which was renamed Honors Hall.[17]
While originally believing that the Egyptians were purely Caucasian, the authors ofTypes of Mankind (1854) modified their views based on excavations from earlier dynasties. In their view, the earliest Egyptians were neither Caucasian or Negro but an intermediate Negroid type.[18] However, they still believed that pure Negroes existed in Egypt only as slaves:
"But, while it must be conceded that Negroes, at no time within the reach even of monumental history, have inhabited any of Egypt, save as captives; it may, on the other hand, be equally true, that the ancient Egyptians did present a type intermediate between other African and Asiatic races; and, should such be proved to have been the case, the autocthones of Egypt must cease to be designated by the misnomer of "Caucasian."[19]
Specifically, in 1854, Nott and George R. Gliddon noted that according to majority of ethnographers and Samuel George Morton's own anthropological works, "the Fellahs of Upper and Middle Egypt, at the present day, continue to be an unmistakable race, and are regarded by most travelled authorities as the best living representatives of the ancient population of Egypt." They would also take the position that, "the iconographic monuments of the IVth, Vth, and VIth dynasties, is closely analogous to the predominant type of that day; which fact serves to strengthen our view that the Egyptians of the early dynasties were rather of an African or Negroid type-resembling theBishari in some respects, and in others themodern Fellah, or peasantry of Upper Egypt."[20]
In the 19th century, the word "Negro" was intended to be only used for people who displayed the highest degree of stereotypical black African characteristics, with the suffixoid in "Negroid" making the word literally mean "Negro like".[21] From the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica: "It is most convenient, however, to refer to the dark-skinned inhabitants of this zone by the collective term of Negroids, and to reserve the word Negro for the tribes which are considered to exhibit in the highest degree the characteristics taken as typical of the variety."[22]
Samuel Morton addressed several letters toGeorge Gliddon and stated that he modified many of his old views on ancient Egypt, believing their origins to be similar toBarabra populations, but not Negroes.[23]
Notes
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