By the end of the American Civil War in the late 1860s, the argument for “Survival of the Fittest” was applied to the issue of education for the deaf as a result of a Darwinist perspective of Evolution. This movement brought manualists arguing their view that signs were closer to nature because the first thing babies learn to do is gesture, which is akin to sign language. To the Deaf community, manualism was at the time considered a gift from God. During this particular time in the United States, oralism was coming about which gave some a negative view of manualism because, it was argued, it was not a natural language.
