The ''Miscegenation''

hoax A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...

, taking the form of a

pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a hard cover or binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' or it may consist of a ...

subtitled ''The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro'', was published by ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publi ...

'' staff in December 1863 as part of an anti-Lincoln

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campaign leading up to the 1864 presidential election. The 72-page piece coined the term ''

miscegenation Miscegenation ( ) is the interbreeding of people who are considered to be members of different races. The word, now usually considered pejorative, is derived from a combination of the Latin terms ''miscere'' ("to mix") and ''genus'' ("race") ...

'' (from the Latin ''miscere'' "to mix" + ''genus'' "kind") and was put together by ''World'' managing editor

David Goodman Croly David Goodman Croly (November 3, 1829 – April 29, 1889) was an American journalist, born in New York City and educated at New York University. He was associated with the '' Evening Post'' and the ''Herald'' (1854–58), and then became an edito ...

and reporter George Wakeman. The work purports to be a sincere advocacy of the virtues of racial mixing, but it is a

literary forgery Literary forgery (also known as literary mystification, literary fraud or literary hoax) is writing, such as a manuscript or a literary work, which is either deliberately misattributed to a historical or invented author, or is a purported memoir ...

intended to prompt opposition to racial equality, and to blame the Lincoln administration for allegedly supporting this goal. The authors unsuccessfully attempted to trick Lincoln into endorsing the work. The ''World'' also featured a hoax about a "Miscegenation Ball" with interracial dancing alleged to have been held at a Republican function in New York City during the campaign.

References

External links

Library of Congress scanThe Miscegenation Hoax
at the

Museum of Hoaxes The Museum of Hoaxes is a website created by Alex Boese in 1997 in San Diego, California as a resource for reporting and discussing hoaxes and urban legends, both past and present. In 2004, PC Magazine included the site as one of the "Top 100 Si ...

{{Authority control 1863 non-fiction books 19th-century hoaxes Literary forgeries Multiracial affairs in the United States New York World Racial hoaxes Pamphlets Political forgery Anti-black racism in the United States 1864 United States presidential election Conspiracy theories involving race and ethnicity Presidency of Abraham Lincoln