page_title: Josiah C. Nott
hierarchical_section_title: Josiah C. Nott
caption_attribution_description: English: Dr. Josiah Clarke Nott was an author, physician, and surgeon. He founded the Medical College of Alabama in Mobile. He wrote several papers and books regarding yellow fever and race theories. Born 1804, Died 1873.
context_page_description: Josiah Clark Nott was an American surgeon and anthropologist. He is known for his studies into the etiology of yellow fever.
  Nott, a slaveowner himself, used his scientific reputation to defend the institution of enslavement. He claimed that "the negro achieves his greatest perfection, physical and moral, and also greatest longevity, in a state of slavery". Nott was influenced by the racial theories of Samuel George Morton, one of the inspirators of physical anthropology. Morton collected hundreds of human skulls from around the world and tried to classify them. Morton had been among the first to claim that he could judge the intellectual capacity of a race by the cranial capacity. A large skull meant a large brain and high intellectual capacity, and a small skull indicated a small brain and decreased intellectual capacity. By studying these skulls he came to the conclusion of polygenism, that each race had a separate origin.
context_section_description: Josiah Clark Nott  (March 31, 1804 – March 31, 1873) was an American surgeon and anthropologist. He is known for his studies into the etiology of yellow fever.
  Nott, a slaveowner himself, used his scientific reputation to defend the institution of enslavement. He claimed that "the negro achieves his greatest perfection, physical and moral, and also greatest longevity, in a state of slavery". Nott was influenced by the racial theories of Samuel George Morton (1799–1851), one of the inspirators of physical anthropology. Morton collected hundreds of human skulls from around the world and tried to classify them. Morton had been among the first to claim that he could judge the intellectual capacity of a race by the cranial capacity (the measure of the volume of the interior of the skull). A large skull meant a large brain and high intellectual capacity, and a small skull indicated a small brain and decreased intellectual capacity. By studying these skulls he came to the conclusion of polygenism, that each race had a separate origin.
caption: Nott during the 1860s
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