Season 2, Episode 2: Skull Guy - Samuel Morton and Race Science

Join us as we discuss Philadelphian Samuel Morton who set out to prove racial inferiority based on skull sizes.  Guest Co-Host Nathaniel Miller joins Michiko as we look at Morton's skull measuring methods, a little bit about the potential origins of black-face mummers, and a smattering of Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Dumas, and repatriation of the remains of enslaved people.

References:  

Take Action: Change.org petition https://www.change.org/p/president-of-university-of-penn-and-board-of-trustees-university-of-penn-to-return-enslaved-crania 

Samuel Morton  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_George_Morton

Crania Americana https://archive.org/details/Craniaamericana00Mort/page/261/mode/2up

Catalogue of human crania in the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia

Penn Museum Morton Cranial Collection https://www.penn.museum/sites/morton/index.php

Racism in Jacksonian America + reference to the Fancy Balls Lapsansky, Emma Jones. “‘Since They Got Those Separate Churches’: Afro-Americans and Racism in Jacksonian Philadelphia.” American Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 1, 1980, pp. 54–78. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2712496. Accessed 2 Mar. 2020.

Edward Clay’s Racist Political Cartoons about Rich Black Philadelphians http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/gallclayf.html

DNA can’t tell your race https://www.popsci.com/story/science/dna-tests-myth-ancestry-race/

Dr. Sarah Tishkoff https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/10/05/sarah-tishkoff-penn-race-genetics/

Thomas Jefferson and his Slave Profit Calculations https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-thomas-jefferson-35976004/

The Mismeasure of Man https://www.amazon.com/Mismeasure-Man-Revised-Expanded/dp/0393314251/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+mismeasure+of+man&qid=1583186691&s=books&sr=1-1

 Superior: the Return of Race Science https://www.amazon.com/Superior-Return-Science-Angela-Saini/dp/0807076910