Left-handedness not only held the stigma of degeneracy, it actually was considered evil! Certain scientists of these times even "correlated left-handedness with deviant behaviors and inferior abilities, such as a genetic defect, or a form of atavism." (Halttunen/Perry 86) The stigma linking left-handedness to evil was believed to have developed by either the Latin term of left, which is "sinistra"(sinister), and can be translated as evil, threatening, unlucky, or menacing, or the French term, "gauche", which means left, awkward, and clumsy. The English language was also believed to contribute to the negative stigma, considering the direction "right" also means "proper" or "correct", which translate as positive words, while the term left only seems to translate to negative words. The Bible even contains some unfavorable references to the left hand, and the Catholic Church once declared those who were left-handed to be servants of the devil.
There were also many punishments and repercussions to being left-handed. In Catholic schools, students were forced to write with their right hands, even if they were left-handed. Students who were caught writing with their left hand would be disciplined, and parents even reprimanded their children at home if they caught them using their left hand, in hopes of ridding them of the evil curse of being left-handed. Children would be spanked; their left hands would be beaten with rulers, and their left hands even tied behind their back so they had no other choice but to use their right hand. .
If a family had a left-handed child, other parents would warn their children to stay away from the left-handed child, since the child was believed to be, and therefore labeled as, evil, menacing, and even threatening. When considering the labeling theory, the parents of the left-handed children most likely believed their own child was evil, with no other facts or symptoms, other than their child was left-handed.