Eugenics and Migration: A Case Study of Salvation Army Literature about Canada and Britain, c.1890–1921

Abstract

The eugenics movement attracted a wide range of supporters. This article explores this theme with relation to literature about the charitable work of the Salvation Army in Britain and Canada c.1890–1921, with a focus upon the emigration scheme outlined in William Booth’s book In Darkest England and the Way Out. These writings indicate the widespread dispersal of eugenic ideology, and demonstrate the flexibility with which these theories were interpreted in this period. It will be shown that the Salvation Army adopted elements of both hereditarian and environmentalist views regarding racial health. These arguments were unified by the claim that the work of the organization made a worthy contribution to public health, both in the present and in the future. This case study sheds new light upon the history of a prominent evangelical Christian organization and upon the development of the international eugenics movement.