Testimony of Samuel Dudley from Hearing on Appeal of Order to sterilize Carrie Buck
11/18/1924
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This document comes from the case file for
Buck v. Bell, concerning the issue of involuntary sterilization. This statement of Evidence from Hearing on Appeal of Order to sterilize Carrie Buck includes testimony from Samuel Dudley, her mother's uncle from Charlottesville, Virginia. His testimony begins near the bottom of page 60 of this filing.
In his testimony, Samuel (who "never saw [Carrie] before in my life") describes her grandfather Richard Harlow. Samuel testifies that Richard Harlow (who was his sister's husband) was not a "thoroughly educated man," he had "good ordinary sense" who ran his own business.
At 17 years old, Carrie Buck became pregnant (later reported to have been the result of rape, allegedly by a relative of her foster parents). Shortly after the birth of her child, her foster parents had her committed to the “Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded” on the grounds of feeble-mindedness, incorrigible behavior and promiscuity. Buck was declared mentally incompetent and her daughter was taken away from her.
Albert S. Priddy, the superintendent of the “Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded,” used Carrie to test the legality of Virginia’s involuntary sterilization law. John H. Bell replaced Priddy after his death in 1925.
On May 2, 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state’s statute allowing for the sterilization of people who were thought of as “unfit,” including the intellectually disabled. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. delivered the majority opinion of the Court, including: “It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind….Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” (This referenced the fact that Buck’s mother had been committed to a state institution, Buck’s diagnosis, and the assumption in the Court’s opinion that Buck’s children would be “socially inadequate.”)
Bell performed Buck’s sterilization on October 19, 1927. She was the first person involuntarily sterilized under Virginia’s Laws for the sterilization of persons considered “unfit” — an estimated 8,300 Virginians were sterilized under the state law from 1927 to 1972.
Show/Hide TranscriptTranscript
101*
*SAMUEL DUDLEY
a witness of lawful age, having been first duly sworn, testified as follows:
Direct Examination
BY COL. STRODE:
Q Mr. Dudley, where do you live?
A Charlottesville.
64 Carrie Buck vs. Dr. J. H. Bell
Q Do you know Emma Buck, the mother of Carrie?
A Yes, sir.
Q Do you know the father?
A Yes.
Q What was his name?
A Richard Harlow.
Q Richard Harlow was the father of Emma Buck?
A Yes, sir.
Q What did you--what was your opinion of Richard, mentally?
A I suppose Richard had just as good ordinary sense as the generality of the people. Now, Mr. Strode, he wasn't a thorough educated man. He had some little joking ways sometimes, but outside of that he was all right.
Q Did you regard him as at all peculiar in any way?
A No, no more than just in a joking manner, sir.
Q. Didn't you tell Dr. Estabrook yesterday or the day be-]
102*
-fore, that you considered Richard peculiar, or below the average age?
A No, sir, I just told him that he had those peculiar ways. That gentleman there (pointing) asked me Saturday night, and pressed me about a lot of things I didn't know anything about.
Q Didn't you tell him you thought Richard was peculiar or below the average?
A Just in this joking ways and the manner he had. He was a man that tranacted his own business up until his death.
Q But you did tell Dr. Estabrook he was peculiar?
A Well, possibly I did. He kept quizzing me about different things, and I thought I would just let him go.
Q What has become of Richard?
A Oh, he is dead.
Q What was your relationship to him?
A He married my sister.
Q He married your sister?
A Yes.
Q Do you know anything about the brothers of Richard?
A No, I know them when I see them. They live there in Charlottesville.
Carrie Buck vs. Dr. J. H. Bell 65
103*
*Cross Examination
BY MR. WHITEHEAD:
Q What is your name?
A S. J. Dudley.
Q And Richard Dudley that they are talking about married your sister?
A No, he is my brother.
Q Who was it that married your sister?
A Richard Harlow.
Q Richard Dudley was your brother, and Richard Harlow was the father of Emma Buck--he married your sister?
A Yes, sir.
Q So Emma Buck was your sister?
A No, Emma Buck was my niece.
Q Mr. Dudley, where do you live down there?
A 800 Anderson Street, in Charlottesville.
Q You don't live in the neighborhood that Mr. Hopkins does?
A No, sir.
Q Do you know anything about this little girl here?
A No, sir, the only thing that I know, they got her in with a family by the name of Dobbs. I never saw the child before in my life.
104*
*Re-Direct Examination
BY COL. STRODE:
Q Has she any brothers or sisters--this girl?
A I don't know myself. They tell me she has.
Q You are closely related to them, Mr. Dudley? Don't you know Roy and Doris?
A No, I don't know as I have ever seen them.
Q You don't know anything of the children of this niece of yours?
A No.
(Witness stands aside.)This primary source comes from the Records of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Full Citation: Statement of Evidence from Hearing on Appeal of Order to sterilize Carrie Buck: Testimony of Samuel Dudley; 11/18/1924; Buck v. Bell (Case File #31681); Appellate Jurisdiction Case Files, 1792 - 2010; Records of the Supreme Court of the United States, Record Group 267; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/testimony-samuel-dudley-buck-v-bell, April 30, 2024]