“Is the seed-bed of the nation being kept up to former excellence? Will the breeding stock of the future be as virile as it has been? If not, is the seed deteriorating in quality or are Vermonters neglecting to keep the soil of their seed-bed—the physical and social environment of their children—rich, mellow and weed-free?”
– Dr. Henry F. Perkins, director, Eugenics Survey of Vermont (1930)
In 1925, the University of Vermont’s Dr. Henry F. Perkins founded the Eugenics Survey of Vermont, a nominally private organization intended to make the case for further eugenical policies in the state. The advisory board included leaders from Vermont’s academic, public, and private sectors. From the beginning, the organization had determined its purpose—heavily influencing its research and leading to major issues in data that remain apparent today.
What did the Eugenics Survey do?
By its closure in 1936, the Eugenics Survey published five annual reports and a book, as well as founded the Vermont Commission on Country Life (VCCL), which published the positive eugenics tract Rural Vermont: A Program for the Future.
Its main contribution to Vermont’s second eugenics campaign was sixty-two family studies, as well as the reports covering topics such as eugenical sterilization, the methodology of the Survey, English corruptions of French names, and studies of rural towns and institutions.
The Eugenics Survey followed a standardized research process from the prominent Eugenics Record Office to make its case. These same primary resources demonstrate how the Eugenic Survey’s own data did not back up their public conclusions—a common issue in eugenics. Most importantly, they did not change their arguments when they saw their own data. This issue is an important factor in determining culpability: That is, was this only “the science of their time,” or should they have reasonably known they were promoting pseudoscience?
What impact did the Eugenics Survey have?
The Eugenics Survey of Vermont was a major influence in eugenics expanding in the state, but state leaders were already in favor of the movement. Perkins had the opportunity to lead the organization because state leaders were too overworked to do so.
The Survey had several major successes. It helped pass a 1931 law that allowed "voluntary" sterilization, though records suggest issues with consent, and expanded institutionalization. The organization also created the Vermont Commission on Country Life. This group focused on positive eugenics by publishing a book called Rural Vermont: A Program for the Future.
State institutions gave the Survey's researchers access to medical records and family histories; many of these records only had basic information about why someone was institutionalized. The researchers then added to these records using gossip. Because of these simplistic records, it is often difficult to determine whether the Survey was the cause of someone falling under eugenicists’ scrutiny.
Who did the Eugenics Survey target?
Eugenics’s fundamental tenet is the “betterment of the race”—not the human race overall, but that of the “superior” race. Today, we often think of race in terms of skin color or religion. But eugenicists envisioned race much more broadly, spanning a complex social web that included ability, race, ethnicity, and religion as well as subjective judgements on behavior, morals, and values. Factors that might be overlooked in certain groups—such as lack of religious conformity, alcohol use, or academic difficulty—would be counted as a black mark against others.
In particular, one of eugenicists’ driving fears was people “passing” as members of the “superior” race. On racial grounds, this included people who changed their name—think of the Eugenic Survey of Vermont’s list of English corruptions of French names—and mixed-race couples with White ancestry. This fear also explains why eugenicists so heavily targeted the “feeble-minded.” Unlike “idiots” or “imbeciles,” the “feeble-minded” were purported to be able to live in society, where the “normal” might unknowingly marry and procreate with them.
The Survey focused especially on two groups they called the "Gypsy" and "Pirate" families to push for more eugenics. These weren't actually single families—they were communities of different families who had sometimes married into each other's families. Many of these people had mixed-race ancestry that included Native American, French Canadian, Black, and White backgrounds. The Survey twisted its findings to create fear-mongering stories about these communities while ignoring major problems with its research. Today, a number of descendants have come forward to state that this Native American ancestry was Abenaki.