The Showman and the Slave: Race, Death, and Memory in Barnum's America

280 Pages·2001·4.319 MB·English

by  Benjamin Reiss

THE SHOWMAN AND THE SLAVE

THE SHOWMAN AND THE SLAVE
RACE, DEATH, AND MEMORY
IN BARNUM'S AMERICA
BENJAMIN REISS
[To view this image, refer to
the print version of this title.]

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Camblidge, Massachusetts, and London, England
Copyri?;ht © 2001 by the President and Fellows of Harvard Colle?;e
All ri?;hts reserved
PJinted in the United States of Amelica
First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2010
Library ,if Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reiss, Benjamin.
The showman and the slave: race, death, and memory in Barllll111'S America/ Benjamin Reiss.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-674-00636-2 (cloth)
ISBN 97S-0-674-0,5,564-3 (pbk.)
1. Popular culture-United States-HistOly-19th centmy. 2. Barnum, P. T. (Phineas Taylor),
1810-1891. :3. Heth, Joice, d. 1836. 4. Women slaves-United States-Bio?;raphy. ,5. Freak
shows-Social aspects-United States-HistOly-19th centmy. 6. Whites-United States
Race identity. 7. Af,ican Amelicans in popular culture-United States-HistOly-19th centmy.
8. Racisim in popL,lar cLlltLlre-United States-History-19th centLIl)·. 9. Death in popL,lar cul
ture-United States-HistOly-19th centmy. 10. Northeastern States-Race relations. I. Title.
E16,5 .R:36 2001
:306'.0973'09034-dc21 200102417:3
CONTENTS
AckrunvZedgments ix
Introduction: The Dark Subject 1
1. DEATH AND DYING
1. Possession 13
2. The Celebrated Curiosity 28
3. Private Acts, Public Memories 52
4. Sacred and Profane 71
5. Culture Wars 90
6. Love, Automata, and India Rubber 106
7. Spectacle 126
II. RESURRECTION
8. Authenticity and Commodity 143
9. Exposure and Mastery 159
10. Erasure 183
III. LIFE
11. A Speculative Biography 211
Note to the 2010 Printing 225
Notes 227
Index 261

FIGURES
1. Portion of the bill of sale for Joice Heth (Boston Public LibrarylRare Books
Department; courtesy of The Trustees) 25
2. Corner of Broadway and Ann Street, New York, 1831 (The Old Broadway
Stages, lithograph: Pendleton, 1831, Museum of the City of New York,
29.100.2185) 31
3. Advertisement for the Joice Heth exhibit (Somers Historical Society, Som
ers, N.Y.) 34
4. Rembrandt Peale, George \Vashington, Patriae Pater (U.S. Senate Collec
tion) 47
5. Christian Gullager, George 'Washington (oil portrait, 1789, Massachusetts
Historical Society, image number 389) 48
6. Phrenological portraits of George \Vashington and an "African" (from O. S.
and L. N. Fowler, The Illustmted Self-Instructor in Phrenology and PhYSiology,
New York: Fowler and Wells, 1849) 49
7. Pamphlet biography of Joice Heth (© Collection of The New-York Histori
cal Society) 80
8. B. J. Harrison, Fair of the American Institute at Niblo's Garden (watercolor
drawing, c. 1845, Museum of the City of New York, .51.119) 108
9. New York Hemld front page, September 24,1836 (© Collection of The New
York Historical Society) 161
10. P. T. Barnum (autographed engraving, 1844, Museum of the City of New
York, Theater Collection/Circus, 44.83.39) 172
viii FIGURES
11. Caricature of "Judy Heath" (from The Autobiography of Petite Bunkum,
The Yankee Showman, New York: P. F. Harris, 1855) 200
12. Diary of William Heth, Saturday, March 2, 1793 (Library of Congress,
Manuscripts Collection) 217
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My thanks go first to Aida Donald, whose faith in this project and steady
hand at the tiller saw me through the publication process.
I also owe special thanks to Mitchell Breitwieser at the University of
California, Berkeley, for his wise suggestions and for helping me see the
potential in what I had found. Also of profound help to me at Berkeley was
Sam Otter, whose encyclopedic knowledge of antebellum culture was
both an inspiration and a great resource. Alexander Saxton generously
agreed to read an early version of this project and gave me terrific feed
back. Janet Adelman provided me encouragement just when I needed it
most, and Frederick Crews offered what turned out to be excellent advice
on publishing. In that regard, Rick Balkin also deserves thanks. David
Zimmerman let me bend his ear out of shape and gave me countless sug
gestions and offerings of moral support. Josh Sens and Andy Cameron
read an early draft of the first few chapters, and helped me find a voice.
The rest of my Bay Area friends are all over the margins of this book, hav
ing given me such a rich life in the present to balance my generally solitary
meditations on the past.
Along the way I had many generous respondents and correspondents
who sent me their manuscripts, pointed me to valuable documents, and
offered thoughtful perspectives on my work. An incomplete list includes
Bluford Adams, Rachel Adams, Robin Bernstein, Russ Castronovo, Jay
Cook, Lucinda MacKethan, Fred Pfening III, Michael Sappol, A. H.