P.T. Barnum, Race, and the Coming of the Civil War

The issue of race and racial equality divided the United States in 1860. That year Republican Abraham Lincoln ran for president on an anti-slavery platform, promising to stop the expansion of slavery into the American territories. This troubled southerners who depended on slaves for their economic well being. The people of the South feared that Lincoln was a secret abolitionist who if elected would end slavery everywhere and give blacks equal rights under the Constitution.

This prospect troubled southerners because they viewed those of African descent as an uncivilized subset of the human animal, less intelligent than whites, and incapable of self-reliance. This belief had justified enslaving blacks over the past 200 years, a time in which slavery had become the backbone of southern economy. If Lincoln were truly looking to grant freedom and equality to blacks, as southerners feared, he 'd overturn the entire social and economic structure of the South. To most, secession was a better option than black equality and Lincoln as president.

Before the late 1850s, most northerners gave little thought to the topic of race. They believed that whites were superior to blacks, but they didn’t spend much time thinking about the subject. Blacks, after all, made up a small percentage of the northern population and slavery was a southern thing. Northerners were against the expansion of slavery, but this owed more to their fear of slave laborers taking their jobs than abhorrence to the treatment of enslaved blacks. Instead of worrying about slavery, northerners were more interested in issues like Irish immigration and political corruption.

When it began to look like Lincoln may win the election in 1860, which would bring about a Civil War, northerners finally began to ask questions about race that they’d so long ignored.

For years abolitionists had sought to win northerners over to their belief in racial equality, but few would listen until the Election of 1860. Now that they had an audience, abolitionists attempted to show that blacks were the equal of whites by passing out literature written by persons of African descent. They had intelligent, well-spoken black individuals like Frederick Douglas make impassioned speeches. Abolitionists brought black parishioners to church to show that persons of African descent wanted the same things from life as whites: to protect their families and worship God.

Unfortunately, these arguments weren’t flashy enough for most northerners. Instead of analyzing race in a logical, intellectual manner, most in the North looked to pseudo-science to explain racial differences. Phrenologists used variations in facial structure and skull size to explain why those of European stock had come to dominant the world while many in Africa remained hunter-gatherers. Zoologists argued that blacks had been the bi-product of primates and humans. By 1860, some had even begun to use Charles Darwin 's new theory of evolution to explicate the differences between whites and blacks. Although these explanations of race were ridiculous, their sensational nature brought attention.

Into this racial debate stepped P.T. Barnum, showman and purveyor of the weird and fantastic. Famous in the United States for his traveling shows, Barnum charged customers to see curiosities such as little person Tom Thumb and Siamese twins Chang and Eng. Barnum was uninterested in fact. He 'd make up elaborate back stories for his performers and fake curiosities for profit. Once, he claimed to be in possession of a mermaid corpse, but it was just a monkey sewed to a fish. His Woolley Horse was a horse with a hairy blanket on it.

On a personal level, Barnum, like most northerners going into the presidential election of 1860, opposed the expansion of African slavery. Unlike most northerners, he was vocal about his opposition and even used his shows to challenge southern slaveholders. For example, he put on performances of Uncle Tom 's Cabin, which gave sympathetic portrayals of African slaves. Barnum 's shows railed against the unjust Dred Scott case, which had ruled that slave owners could bring their bondsmen to free northern states. And as a Republican, the showman supported Lincoln in the coming election.

Like most northerners, however, Barnum 's antislavery stance didn’t mean that he accepted blacks as the equal of whites. His minstrel shows featured white performers in black face perpetuating racial stereotypes, and Barnum once claimed that an elderly black woman was George Washington’s 160-year-old slave nurse (In fact, she was an 80-year-old woman who’d never met Washington). Barnum also had an elaborate comedy routine where he fooled audiences with a weed that would supposedly turn black people white. Barnum used race as a punch line.

He would continue to do so throughout the Presidential Election of 1860. In order to exploit the North’s new curiosity over race and to make a few dollars while doing so, Barnum decided to put on an exhibition of racial oddities. He would house his new show on Broadway. New York was a hot bed of both racism and abolitionist thought, meaning that his exhibits would generate plenty of controversy. Controversy meant customers. After hiring his performers, Barnum took out ads in local newspapers claiming that he would be able to explain the differences between whites and blacks. The ads promised to introduce New Yorkers to the 'White Negros ' the 'Aztec Children, and 'What is it. '

The ads peaked curiosity and people lined up along Broadway to attend Barnum 's new show. Upon entering the exhibit hall, audience members first walked past the 'White Negros, ' white-skinned, light-haired twins with African phenotypical facial features. Barnum stationed the twins beside what he claimed were their dark-skinned parents. Crowds 'especially those who believed African inferiority originated with skin color 'couldn 't figure out the twins. They described them as intelligent and playful, and as having skin as white as the 'fairest belles of Upper Tendom. ' But some couldn’t get past the fact that the children had kinky hair and African facial features. One reporter who witnessed Barnum 's show proclaimed the children to be of an 'entirely original and curious race. '

The second set of performers in Barnum 's exhibit were the Aztec Children, a dark-skinned brother and sister duo with protruding noses, long necks, and small, skinny heads. Barnum claimed that the two performers had been worshipped in Mexico as idols. Because the children seemed incapable of communicating with others, audience members regarded them as less than human and questioned the intelligence of those who worshiped the pair.

The highlight of Barnum 's new show was 'What is it To visitors, What is it? appeared humanoid, but was much shorter than an average man and had an animalistic appearance. It had black-skin, hairy arms and legs, a narrow head, and an unusual gait, lumbering in front of audiences with hands dragging on the floor. What is it? also spoke in an indecipherable language. Barnum claimed that he had discovered What is it? in Central Africa and that he was a product of primates and blacks mating. Many audience members took Barnum at face value.

In reality, What is it? and the rest of the performers were all fully human. Their unusual physical and mental characteristics had nothing to do with race, but were instead medical abnormalities. Barnum had taken blacks with disabilities and given them elaborate back-stories to tease the imagination of race-obsessed New Yorkers.

The 'White Negros ' were albinos. Most northerners had seen whites with the condition, but the region 's low black population made African albinos very rare. The Aztec Children were mentally handicapped Indians with deformed heads. Their mother had given them to a man who’d claimed that he would cure the pair 's condition, but instead sold them to Barnum. What is it? was not a primate-human hybrid, but a black man suffering from Microcephaly. Persons with Microcephaly have deformed, conical skulls and are usually much shorter than average humans. They also have difficulty walking and are mentally handicapped. As for What is it s unusual language, Barnum had taught him to speak gibberish in order to fool customers into thinking he was part animal. He’d also dressed What is it? in a ridiculous suit that was meant to look like animal fur.

In spite of what would seem to be easily explained forgeries, many people bought into Barnum 's new act with its silly back-stories. What is it?, the Aztec Children, and the White Negroes fascinated New Yorkers and Barnum sold out most of his shows in 1860. Many walked away believing that What is it not a lack of access to education 'explained why blacks didn 't display the same level of intelligence as whites. Although some people realized that the show was a gag, it didn 't help the abolitionist cause when the only persons of color many white people ever met were mentally handicapped sideshows.

Barnum 's hoax, as well as the pseudo-scientists ' ridiculous claims, drew attention away from those with legitimate deliberations on race. They overshadowed the poems of freed person of color Phillis Wheatley. They took away audience members from abolitionists. They stopped people from reading abolitionist literature. People believed Barnum 's ostentatious nonsense, instead of less-flashy, but factual evidence.

In addition to watering down the public discourse, Barnum 's curiosities overshadowed a truly fantastic exhibit on Broadway. Just a few doors down from Barnum 's show, a man named Paul Du Chaillu was exhibiting the embalmed bodies of creatures never before seen in North America. An explorer of mixed European and African ancestry, Du Chaillu had recently traveled through the interior of Africa where he’d become the first non-native to view gorillas in the wild. To prove their existence to the outside world, Du Chaillu shot over twenty gorillas, stuffed them, and brought their bodies to put on display in the United States.

Hoping to fund a follow up expedition to Africa to capture a live gorilla, Du Chaillu rented a space on Broadway and charged customers a small fee to view the stuffed primates. Few people came. They were at Barnum 's looking at What is it?.

A man of mixed race ancestry exhibiting one of the greatest zoological discoveries of all time stood on one end of Broadway, while Barnum, who used racism and morbid curiosity for profit, stood on the other. The people of New York chose to attend Barnum 's show. Not long after he’d set up, Du Chaillu realized he’d been beat, packed up his gorillas, and traveled to England, where he became an instant celebrity.

In spite of Barnum’s show and the ridiculous debates over race, the American public elected Abraham Lincoln on an anti-slavery platform. States across the South seceded shortly thereafter, leading to the American Civil War.

Something happened to northerners during the war: they started to see the idea of blacks as equals under the law. Whether is was black soldiers dying on the battlefield under the American flag or abolitionists like Frederick Douglas finally finding a broader audience, northerners started to accept the idea of integrating persons of African descent into U.S. society.

These same things forced Barnum to have a change of heart, as well. Although he continued to host his show of oddities throughout the war 'once visiting Lincoln in the White House 'he stopped exploiting black performers as a way to stir up racist sentiment. By the end of the Civil War, Barnum wanted equality for blacks.

In 1865, the people of Fairfield, Connecticut elected Barnum to the state senate, where he pushed for the approval of the 13^th amendment abolishing slavery. In a speech, Barnum remarked, “A human soul, 'that God has created and Christ died for, ' is not to be trifled with. It may tenant the body of a Chinaman, a Turk, an Arab or a Hottentot ' it is still an immortal spirit. ' In 1860, Barnum had put on an exhibit that trivialized and humiliated blacks for profit, but by 1865, the showman had realized the error in his ways.

Late in life, Barnum entered the circus business. In 1881, he merged his circus with that of James Bailey, creating Barnum and Bailey’s, the largest, most profitable circus on the planet. Barnum’s success made him a celebrity, and his autobiography sold so well that it rivaled Uncle Tom’s Cabin in number of copies sold. Barnum died in 1891 a successful and rich man.

Paul Du Chaillu made a second expedition to Africa and was the first outsider to record meeting the Pygmy people. Today he is considered one of history’s greatest explorers.

The Aztec children spent the rest of their lives working the vaudeville circuit. When their act grew stale, one promoter had the brother and sister marry, claiming the practice had been allowed in Aztec culture. What is it? lived until 1926, working in show business under the name “Zip the Pinhead.” He is said to have entertained 100 million people. The fate of the albino children is unknown.

 

Brad Folsom