Powderly: Chapter Analysis

With the founding of germ theory at the turn of the 20th century, society adapted it to pre-existing assumptions about ethnicity, race, and class. “The new discipline of bacteriology amassed persuasive evidence identifying particular microbes as responsible for such deadly diseases as cholera, tuberculosis, gonorrhea, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, and diphtheria (p. 234. Chapter introduction). This quote shows how bacteriology was giving a scientific reason for the worst diseases plaguing society. One would think that because “contagion could cross class and race lines” that pre-existing notions about disease in relation to class and race would vanish (p. 234, Chapter introduction). However, the opposite would occur when germ theory actually …show more content…
Powderly is the Commissioner-General of Immigration when he writes this document in 1902 (p.241, Powderly, document 3). In his writing, he warns about the “menace to the nation’s health of the new immigrants” (p.241). The general view of society about immigrants was that they were dirty and carried disease. In the document, Powderly talks about immigration prior to his term and how people of pure and strong lineage dominated the people coming to America. The reason why he is warning about the new immigrant pool is not just because there is more disease. Bacteriology has explained given concrete proof to the spreading of disease and therefore, any diseased immigrant is a huge threat in his mind. “If we remain indifferent simply because these diseases do not prove fatal to life, we evade our duty; for the health of the nation is imperiled while one man is diseased” (p.244, Powderly, document 3). Since the spreading of a disease now has scientific support, it makes sense that he sees the importance of one diseased immigrant. The important tone of this document is that the assumption that immigrants carried the threat of disease is even more emphasized after germ …show more content…
In this document, Hunter is encouraging the Antituberculosis Activists to recognize that black and whites must treat the disease as a common enemy (p.245, Hunter, document 4). He is addressing a societal prejudice that people of color have poor hygiene which causes them to be threats of disease to whites. Hunter is battling this perception through the use of scientific evidence. “Tuberculosis in the negro is caused by the same tubercle bacilli that infect other races” (p.245, Hunter, document 4). Hunter is using bacteriology to prove that colored people experience the same cause of infection as other races. As a result, he says that the disease should be fought as a community rather than by race. In this situation, germ theory has helped Hunter prove his case but has also made it simultaneously harder. Since the whites already perceived colored people to be of poor hygiene, once germ theory was prominent, it served to them as confirmation of their beliefs that their lackluster hygiene made them carriers of