History of Sorts

Throughout history, we have gone through several eras, and I believe we have now arrived at the era of hypocrisy. If we ever need a prominent example, it is the continuous praise of the merits of the musical The Greatest Showman. Some people often use the song “This is Me” to validate an inclusive society.

They are often also the same people who demand that statues of historical figures with a checkered past be removed or books like “A Little House of the Prairie” be removed from the school curriculum.
Yet they praise a man like PT Barnum.

P.T. Barnum, whose full name was Phineas Taylor Barnum, was a complex and controversial figure in American history. Born on July 5, 1810, in Bethel, Connecticut, he became one of the most famous showmen of the 19th century. Barnum was a master of promotion and public relations, known for his ability to captivate the public’s imagination and turn spectacle into profit. However, his legacy is also marred by his exploitation of people for entertainment, as well as his manipulative business practices.

Barnum’s career in entertainment began on August 10, 1835, when he purchased an elderly enslaved African American woman named Joyce Heth, whom he falsely advertised as being 161 years old and the former nurse of George Washington. This was Barnum’s first significant foray into show business, and it set the tone for his future endeavors—blurring the lines between truth and fiction to create compelling, if often exploitative, entertainment.

Before fully committing to show business, Barnum had tried various other ventures. He worked as a storekeeper and lottery operator and even started a newspaper. However, it was in the realm of entertainment and spectacle that he found his true calling.

In 1841, Barnum purchased Scudder’s American Museum in New York City, which he transformed into Barnum’s American Museum. The museum was a mix of curiosities, oddities, and live performances, featuring everything from natural history exhibits to “freak shows” and theatrical productions. Some of his most famous exhibits included the Fiji Mermaid (a grotesque hoax combining the torso of a monkey with the tail of a fish) and General Tom Thumb, a little person whom Barnum promoted as “The Smallest Person that Ever Walked Alone.”
The museum was a massive success and became a cultural landmark in New York, attracting millions of visitors over the years. Barnum used sensationalism, advertising, and clever publicity stunts to draw crowds, and he mastered the art of creating buzz around his exhibits.

While Barnum is often celebrated as a marketing genius and a pioneer of the entertainment industry, his methods were frequently unethical. He exploited people with physical disabilities and other differences for profit, often presenting them as “freaks” for public amusement. His exhibits sometimes involved outright deception, and he was not above manipulating the truth to enhance the appeal of his attractions.
In addition to his treatment of people like Joyce Heth and General Tom Thumb, Barnum was also known for his sensational hoaxes. He famously said, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” a phrase that, although he may not have actually coined it, is often attributed to him because it encapsulates his view on the gullibility of the public.

Joice Heth was an African-American woman who became widely known in the early 19th century due to her association with P.T. Barnum, the famous showman. Her story is a fascinating and troubling example of how people were exploited and dehumanized for profit during this era.

Joice Heth was born into slavery around 1756, according to some sources. Little is known about her early life, but she lived during a time when slavery was widespread in the United States. She was likely enslaved for most of her life and, like many others, faced the brutal realities of this institution.

In 1835, P.T. Barnum, who would later become famous for his circus, purchased Joice Heth for $1,000 from R.W. Lindsay, a man who claimed that Heth was 161 years old and had been the nursemaid to George Washington. Barnum saw an opportunity to capitalize on this story and began exhibiting Heth as the “oldest woman alive,” supposedly a living link to the Revolutionary War and American history.

Barnum’s promotion of Joice Heth was a significant event in his early career. He took her on a tour across the northeastern United States, displaying her to curious audiences for 50 cents a ticket. Heth was described as being frail, blind, and toothless, with her hands twisted with age. Barnum concocted elaborate stories about her life, claiming she had personal anecdotes about George Washington’s childhood.

The public was fascinated by Heth, partly because of the stories Barnum told and partly because of her supposed age. Newspapers of the time published articles about her, and many people flocked to see this “human curiosity.“ However, as with many of Barnum’s exhibits, there was also skepticism. Some people doubted that she was as old as Barnum claimed, and rumors began to circulate that she might be a fraud.

Joice Heth died on February 19, 1836. Her death led to even more public interest, as Barnum arranged for an autopsy to be conducted in public, charging admission to those who wanted to witness it. The autopsy was performed by Dr. David L. Rogers, who concluded that Heth was no more than 80 years old—far younger than the 161 years claimed by Barnum.

The revelation that Heth was not as old as advertised did little to harm Barnum’s career; if anything, it helped solidify his reputation as a master showman who knew how to manipulate public interest. For Joice Heth, however, her life ended as it had been lived—used and exploited by others.

Her treatment by Barnum is a reminder of the dehumanizing practices that were common at the time, where people were often exhibited as curiosities for profit. Today, she is remembered as a symbol of the darker side of early American show business and the exploitation that occurred under the guise of entertainment.

Sources

https://listverse.com/2018/01/04/top-10-curious-humans-exhibited-in-p-t-barnums-circus

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pt-barnum-greatest-humbug-them-all-180967634/

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/12/greatest-showman-hugh-jackman-p-t-barnum-jenny-lind