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Two Lectures on the Natural History of the Caucasian and Negro Races is published.

1844

SRA
RAC
MED

University of Pennsylvania-trained surgeon and anthropologist Josiah Clark Nott publishes his argument that the two races originate from separate species and therefore have different biological makeups, thus advancing the theory of "polygenesis." His pseudoscientific claims have a political and social motivation to create a scientific basis for white supremacy.