Lefties have never had it easy.
From the dawn of recorded history, being left-handed has often been viewed with fear and suspicion. The Bible contains numerous passages condemning left-handedness. The most famous of these references comes from the Book of Matthew: "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' ... Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."
Everything from handshaking customs (shaking the left hand rather than the right is still considered a deep insult in many Moslem cultures) to language use seemed stacked against the lowly southpaw. In most European languages, "right" has a double meaning conveying justice, lawfulness, and truth (i.e.. righteous, right-minded, etc.). Words for "left", on the other hand, don't fare as well. The French gauche, the Italian sinistra, and the Portuguese canhoto also provide alternative meanings such as "brash", "awkward", and "uncouth". The very word sinister comes from the Latin word for left, and also provides the medical term for left-handedness, sinistrality.
Strangely enough, actual references to right and left-handedness tend to be difficult to find prior to the nineteenth century. While archaeological examination of Stone-age implements tends not to show a clear right-handed preference in those populations, evidence of hemispheric lateralization and presumed hand preference likely predates humanity itself. Despite famous historical figures who were known to be left-handed (including Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and Lewis Carroll), there was little actual evidence that left-handed people were persecuted in ancient times. Of course, prior to the advent of universal literacy, left-handers (who are typically ambidextrous to some extent) had few difficulties in conforming to social norms relating to "proper hand usage".
The earliest known medical reference to left-handedness was by Sir Thomas Browne who published Pseudoxia Epidemica, or Enquiries into Very Many Received Tenets and Commonly Presum'd Truths, Which Examined Prove but Vulgar Errors in 1648. In dismissing prejudice against left-handers as being a "vulgar error", Browne struck the first blow for fairness. A century later, Benjamin Franklin wrote the famous A Petition of the Left Hand directed against right-handed bias in schools. Aside from those two examples, however, there was little else written on the subject prior to the 1800s.
By the mid-19th century however, things began to change. Medical researchers often debated on whether left-handers were born or made, i.e., was it due to heredity or environment? With the discovery of hemispheric lateralization and specialized brain structures linked to language, the question of why right-handedness tended to be predominant in most cultures was inevitably linked to evolutionary factors (Darwinism was all the rage at the time).
Anthropologists reporting on "primitive cultures" such as Hottentots and Bushmen found a greater than expected incidence of left-handedness. Similar findings were made by archaeologists researching prehistoric art which reaffirmed the impression that right-handedness was a mark of evolutionary success while those left-handers who still remained could be seen as "hereditary degenerates". Over the next few decades, researchers linked left-handedness to a range of psychiatric and medical abnormalities including "feeble-mindedness" and psychosis.
The most notorious indictment of left-handedness came from Cesare Lombroso (who was already world-famous for his research linking heredity and crime). In 1903, Lombroso published in Left-Handedness and Left-Sidedness in The North American Review. In this paper, Lombroso reported that a disproportionate number of "criminals and lunatics" were left-handed and that "persons who are more agile with the left hand ... are ordinarily found among women, children, and savages, and they were more numerous in ages past than they are now".
By associating left-handedness with genetic inferiority, new policies designed to weed out left-handedness became another platform in the growing eugenics movements of the time. Almost inevitably, the arguments against left-handedness took on a decidedly racist component. In his 1913 diatribe against left-handedness, Edward Tenney Brewster wrote that "that sinisterity (left handedness) is slightly more common, in the lower strata of society than in the higher, among negroes than among white persons, and among savages than among civilized persons. He added that " the curious thing about the inheritance of left-handedness—which, as we have seen, depends on a peculiarity of the brain—is that it resembles closely the inheritance of two other peculiarities which are also dependent on brain structure—namely, mental ability and moral excellence". Breeding out left-handedness became a sacred duty for eugenics supporters.
In pathologizing left-handers, teachers and child-care authorities in most cultures began to advocate the forced reorientation of left-handed children. Although some early educational psychologists spoke out against the practice (and some even encouraged teaching children to become ambidextrous instead), forcing left-handed children to use their right hands became accepted practice in countries around the world. The methods used ranged from gentle encouragement to physical discipline and the results were often mixed.
While some children made the transition with few problems, the long-term consequences of forced right-handedness remain controversial and often depends on the harshness of the teaching method used. Although stuttering, emotional stunting, and motor impairments have long been reported in hand reorientation cases, research into `converted` left-handers has also shown evidence of neurological changes, increased incidence of schizophrenia, and potential writing problems. Since forced right-handedness continues to be practiced in many countries, the true extent to which it actually occurs likely can't be determined with any accuracy. Countries where active discouragement of left-handedness have been known to occur until relatively recently include China, Japan, Russia, and most Moslem countries.
Given the ongoing biases favoring right-handedness in most settings, left-handed children still face numerous obstacles at school and at home. Still, in recent years, there has been a groundswell of support for left-handers including resources to make living in a right-handed dominant world easier. So, lefties of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your right-handed mugs.
