*WARNING: This post contains spoilers. If you haven't watched yet, and want to be surprised, do not read this blog post!*

 Crossing the creek and losing Jack:

Those who have read the story are familiar with the tale of the river crossing.

In the book, Laura wishes that Jack could join them on the wagon, but Caroline says he can swim on his own. Jack gets washed away, and when they cross over, Charles goes searching for him to no avail. That night, Jack returns under the cover of darkness. At first he is mistaken for a wolf.

 In the TV show, Charles agrees to let Jack join them in the wagon. Halfway through the creek, Jack jumps off to "help" Charles, and gets swept away. When they cross the creek, the girls go looking for him. Charles does not. Jack does not find them until they're already settled at their homestead. Laura does mistake him for a wolf, but it happens in the middle of the day.

 After crossing the creek, Dr. Tam also appears to treat's Ma's hands, which were wounded from holding the reins so tightly, and give advice. He does not appear at this stage of the book.

Pa goes out hunting:

In the book, Pa leaves Ma and the girls alone and heads out hunting. They do laundry and explore. He returns late in the evening with a bunch of game.

 In the TV show, Pa leaves to go check out a homestead. He leaves his gun behind for Caroline. She and the girls do laundry. Pa does not return that night, and Laura gets surrounded by wolves. Charles returns in the morning, saying he lost track of time. Caroline is mad at him for leaving them when it was dangerous.

Ma's foot:

While building the cabin, a log slips and breaks Ma's foot. Pa bandages it.

In the show, the building of the cabin and site is quite accurate! However, after Ma's foot is broken, Pa leaves and goes to Independence to fetch Doctor Tam. He treat's Ma's foot and discusses her pregnancy. Once again, he had never appeared at this stage of the book.

Independence:

In the books, only Pa visits Independence. It is 40 miles from their claim.

In the first episode, the Ingalls stop in Independence on the way to their claim. They purchase food, and Mary meets a boy at the store. Pa meets Mr. Edwards in the saloon, where he is inquiring about land claims. Pa also travels back and forth to get the doctor.

 Mr. Edwards:

In the books, Mr. Edwards is stated to be a bachelor. Historical records hint that he was based on a 35 yr old a bachelor who lived nearby the Ingalls.

In the show, he faces Pa down at gunpoint, because of an emotional reaction to a discussion about his family. He had two daughters and a wife who passed away.

The Native Americans:

In the books, Native Americans play a big role. The series introduces them a lot sooner, having a girl Laura's age interact with her several times. There is a dual POV between the Ingalls and an Indigenous family. This is not book accurate, but so far it does fit the references in the book—including Laura's fascination with them and questioning why her mother wouldn't want to see "Indians" when they've come to "Indian territory".

Music:

The family does sing and Pa plays his fiddle a lot in both the book and the series. 

Carrie:

In the book, Carrie is already born when they leave the big woods. In the TV show (and real life), Caroline is only pregnant with her. I'll be honest, I don't have a big problem with this change.

Leaving the big woods:

One thing that I noticed was that there were frequent mentions in the show to there not being a goodbye before they left the big woods. Laura and Mary question why none of their family came to say goodbye. It's clearly setting the story up for a reveal.

In the books, there is a big going away.

But in the east the sky was pale and through the gray
woods came lanterns with wagons and horses,
bringing Grandpa and Grandma and aunts and
uncles and cousins.
Mary and Laura clung tight to their rag dolls
and did not say anything. The cousins stood
around and looked at them. Grandma and all the
aunts hugged and kissed them and hugged and
kissed them again, saying good-by. 

 So far, I am not impressed with the book accuracy. It seems like a mix between the book, history, new fictional narrative, and things pulled from the old TV show (for example, Mr. Edward's family.)

 “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Winston Churchill

Churchill’s words have been repeated many times. We have learned about history so we can avoid those same mistakes. We have progressed from the mistakes of the past. We don’t have to be concerned about society accepting eugenics today, right?

Joseph Goebbels once said, “This is the secret of propaganda: Those who are to be persuaded by it should be completely immersed in the ideas of the propaganda, without ever noticing that they are being immersed in it.” 

What if I told you that society has already embraced eugenics, and we don’t even know it? Our view of the past is narrow, and we can’t fight what we don’t recognize. We watched for cold-hearted, stone-faced figures, stereotypical villains from history. While we watched, evil slipped past us with smiles and reassuring words.

The word eugenics conjures up images of the Nazi party. They embraced the so-called science, and it ended in the genocide of millions of Jews, Poles, Roma, and disabled people – the ‘undesirable’. Or perhaps we think of controversial figures like the somber Margaret Sanger, or Sir Francis Galton. Rightly so, as these were all proponents of the theory. Nazism portrayed the rotten core of eugenics to the entire world, horrifying everyone with its ugliness. But nothing so evil gains power by showing its true colours from the start. It begins with charm and lies that sell the idea.

When you think of the heroes of the past, Helen Keller might come to mind. Many of us read the influential play, ‘The Miracle Worker’ in school. Helen Keller persevered when many would have given up. Both deaf and blind, she learned to write, read braille and speak. She was at the forefront of the movement fighting for the rights of disabled people.

No one could have the good of others in mind more than an advocate like Keller, right? Perhaps when she wrote - “If many of those that object to... (infanticide) would take the trouble to analyze their idea of ‘life,’ I think they would find that it means just to breathe. Surely they must admit that such an existence is not worthwhile. It is the possibilities of happiness, intelligence and power that give life its sanctity, and they are absent in the case of a poor, misshapen, paralyzed, unthinking creature.” - she was saying it from a place of compassion. Perhaps her support of eugenics was to avoid suffering. 

Alexander Graham Bell was someone who had compassion for the hearing-impaired. His mother was deaf, as was his wife. He knew and used sign language, and advocated for the education of deaf children. He clearly cared for the community, right? Bell was a eugenicist, who believed that sign language should be avoided, and that the deaf should not marry each other or socialize together – so that they could better thrive and function in a hearing world. 

The list is endless. The suffragette, Nellie McClung supported eugenics, as did President Theodore Roosevelt. The beloved Winston Churchill was an honorary vice president of the British Eugenics Society. Human, compassionate, progressive figures, even those who cared for people with disabilities – even disabled people themselves supported the theory.

Eugenics says that ‘the fit’ deserve a higher place in society than ‘the unfit’. This could be through rationed care and encouraged or limited breeding. Those with disabilities or mental illnesses were some of the main targeted groups. Those who were poor or weak were considered carriers of disease and cut off from the rest of society. This idea was falsely called compassion, science, logic and rational thought. It was not unpopular, or the radical belief of a minority. It was accepted science, agreed and taken up by politicians, doctors, activists and churches. 

Yes, Churches even sponsored a competition for Pastors, on who could preach the best eugenic sermon. Leaders of the American Eugenics Society included Priests, Bishops and Ministers.

One of the leaders of the movement wrote, “Had Jesus been among us, he would have been president of the First Eugenics Congress … He would have cried: “A new commandment I give unto you -the biological Golden Rule, the completed Golden Rule of Science. “Do unto both the born and the unborn as you would have both the born and unborn do unto you”… And eugenics, which is simply conscious, intelligent organic evolution, furnishes the final program for the completed Christianization of mankind.”

Why shouldn’t the people have trusted all these scientists, religious figures, politicians and social reformers when it came to Eugenics? Eugenics was not a belief held only by dictatorships like Nazi Germany. In 1937, 66% of Americans supported sterilizing mental defectives and 63% supported sterilizing criminals. The fringe minority, 15% opposed both. What demographic would you have fit into?

What happened to the Eugenics movement? The American Eugenics Society changed its name after the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. It became The Society for the Study of Social Biology, then later The Society for Biodemography and Social Biology, disbanding in 2019.

Let’s compare some definitions.

Eugenics:

1. the study of how to arrange reproduction within a human population to increase the occurrence of inheritable characteristics regarded as desirable.