Frederick Ludwig Hoffman (May 2, 1865 – February 23, 1946) was an American statistician whose work in some areas was biased by his scientific racist views. He did show some foresight on public health issues, but his problematic and dangerous beliefs still negatively effect health care in the United States today.[1]
Biography
Hoffman was born Friedrich Ludwig Hoffmann in Varel in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg on May 2, 1865, the son of the merchant Augustus Franziskus Hoffmann and his wife Antonette.[2][3] His father died when Frederick was 11 years old. He was educated in the common and private schools in Germany. His school days, marked by failures, ended in 1880 without a degree. At the request of his single mother, who was now living in difficult financial circumstances, Frederick began a four-year commercial apprenticeship with various merchants in north-west Germany. The apprenticeship ended in 1884 also without a degree. Since Frederick saw no further professional and personal future for himself in Germany, he emigrated to the United States at the end of 1884.[4] He became statistician for the Prudential Insurance Company of America in 1891. Hoffman was a racist against African Americans in his studies of incarceration. He was employed as statistician by many organizations and did research in ethnology and kindred subjects. He also served as President of the American Statistical Association in 1911.
Hoffman's first book, The Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro (1896), characterized African Americans as exceptionally disease-prone. The work was motivated by a concern about issues of race,[citation needed] and also the need of insurance companies to justify the higher life insurance premiums charged to African Americans.[citation needed] An 1897 critique of this work by Kelly Miller in occasional papers of the American Negro Academy of Washington, D.C., pointed out sampling problems with the 1890 census, which was the statistical basis of the work, and that there were insufficient adjustments for environmental factors.[citation needed] Hoffman found, contrary to common rhetoric at the time, that the population of African Americans was not increasing at a substantially more rapid pace than the White population.[5][6] He found that while African Americans had a higher birth rate, they had an even higher mortality rate, which meant that the population of Whites increased at a higher pace than African Americans.[5]
He married Ella G. Hay on July 15, 1891, and they had seven children.[3]
^On Hoffman's childhood and youth in Varel and the surrounding area see: Hans Sauer: From school dropout to recognized publicist, Friedrich Ludwig Hoffmann - a biographical sketch, in: Dirk Oltmanns (Ed.), Emigration from the Oldenburg Land to the USA. Individual Fates with Backgrounds, Letters and Photos, Oldenburg (Germany) 2023, p. 90-105 (contact: www.hollwege.com).
^"Frederick L. Hoffman". The Boston Globe. San Diego, California (published February 25, 1946). AP. February 24, 1946. p. 15. Retrieved July 4, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
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