Galton was the cousin of Charles Darwin and the son of a wealthy, influential family. In 1869 Galton wrote a book called Heredity Genius in which he followed the lives of several accomplished men from, what he considered good families. These good families, Galton claimed, were more likely to produce intelligent and talented offspring.

Galton concluded that it was possible to produce "a highly gifted race of men" by the process of selective breeding, which he later termed "positive" eugenics. Discouraging the reproduction of "undesirables" was subsequently termed "negative" eugenics. (Dolan)

The “negative” eugenics movement was much stronger than the “positive” eugenics and swept across the U.S.