Nathaniel Southgate Shaler

Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, a Harvard University paleontologist and thought-leader/purveyor of social myths in the late nineteenth century, was associated with “scientific racism. Shaler subscribed to the theory of black regression, which the historian Ibram X. Kendi unsparingly describes as follows: Freed from the condition of slavery, blacks were regressing to the “‘African type,’ leading to ‘bold and forward’ Black women advancing on White men, Black male criminals raping White women (compelling White men to lynch them), and Black parents producing children who were ‘less inclined to work.’” In other words, Shaler promoted a view of chattel slavery as a civilizing influence. His ideas belonged to a climate of opinion in the North that regarded African Americans as a declining race unworthy of social, health, and education services.