And yet...are they connected?
Read a more thorough narrative of Joice Heth's story in this article from Historic Kenmore and George Washington's Ferry Farm: "The Greatest Natural & National Curiosity in the World". | At left is a primary source that advertises a human "curiosity", Joice Heth. The owner and producer of this human display was R.W. Lindsay, a contemporary of Barnum's. Born in Madagascar in 1674, Heth (according to the advertisement) would have been 161 years old at the time of Lindsay's exploitation. Seeing any red flags yet? Heth is said to have been taken from the island when she was 15. Augustine Washington, George's father, owned her as a slave. Her biggest claim to fame was to have "raised" George Washington from an infant. Historians, however, would like to debunk this primary source. Joice Heth, they say, was really born around 1756, making the future president about 24 years older than she. Those facts don't negate her status as an enslaved woman. They also do not stop P.T.Barnum from R.W. Lindsay in 1835. A "staunch abolitionist" later in his life, Barnum claimed to have purchased the rights to her story, and not to have purchased Heth herself. He even allowed customers to pay 50 cents to watch her autopsy after death. Even if her story was a hoax (and it partially was), her life must have been fascinating. She must have been a riveting storyteller. Her meek, yet not weak, appearance would have contributed to the aura. Still, even today, Joice Heth is a figure worthy of our consideration. What an interesting example, not only of oppression, discrimination, and exploitation, but also of survival, endurance, and a whole lot of creative license. |