Unique Black bodies fascinated Philadelphians of the past

Joice Heth

Joice Heth, whom her exhibitors would later claim had been born in the 1750s, stands out among documented performers whose anatomies drew curious Philadelphians. On display at the Masonic Hall here in 1835, Heth, born into slavery in Virginia, claimed to be the 161-year-old former nursemaid of George Washington. P.T. Barnum, who according to the Bethel Historical Society purchased Heth in Philadelphia in 1835, wrote at length about her in his 1855 autobiography.

The claims of Heth’s history hinged on her appearance. “She looked as if she might have been far older than her advertised age,” Barnum wrote, adding that she was “apparently in good health and spirits” despite being mostly paralyzed, her legs fixed in position, due to disease or old age. She could move one arm, but “she was totally blind, and her eyes were so deeply sunken in their sockets that the eyeballs seemed to have disappeared altogether.”

But Heth had a limber tongue. She sang hymns and told stories about “dear little George.” Barnum bought Heth for $1,000 and began exhibiting her in the Northeast, especially New York. His $1,000 investment brought him, on average, $1500 a week, less expenses. Heth, who was enslaved, gained little beyond food, clothes, and a caretaker.

Barnum even cashed in on Heth’s corpse. When she died in 1836 in Bethel, Connecticut, he staged a public autopsy and charged onlookers 50 cents per person. The surgeon who performed it declared that Heth had been no more than 80 years old.

Millie-Christine McKoy

The lives of conjoined twins Millie-Christine McKoy (sometimes spelled McCoy), a favorite with Philadelphians, stretched from slavery to freedom. Their decades as free women made all the difference. Born in Columbus County, North Carolina in 1851, Millie-Christine, joined at the tailbone, shared a single pelvis. Joanne Martell explores their life in her 2000 book Millie-Christine: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made.

Aware of the twins’ commercial potential thanks to people who flocked to see them, enslaver Jabez McKay, a blacksmith, sold them for $1000. According to Martell, the lively toddlers changed hands several times and fell into the clutches of a kidnapper. The man dragged them from one secret showing to another. The venues included “a small museum in Chestnut Street near Sixth, under the management of Col Wood, who is, we believe, somewhat known as a showman,” the twins wrote in History and Medical Description of the Two-Headed, an autobiographical booklet sold at their shows for 25 cents. McKay hired a detective and eventually tracked down Millie-Christine.

The Civil War freed the twins and left their former enslavers, as well as the twins’ parents and 12 siblings, in straits. Millie-Christine, both of generous spirit, realized that exhibiting themselves would bring in much-needed money. Martell details their post-war life. Their visits to Philadelphia included at least two guest appearances at teaching clinics led by William Pancoast, MD, a professor of anatomy at Jefferson Medical College. Millie-Chirstine intrigued the medical community because, unlike most conjoined twins, they enjoyed robust health. The lectures sometimes segued into impromptu performances by the twins.

By 1882, Millie-Chirstine, who sang for Queen Victora and also performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, commanded $25,000 a season—a small fortune—from circuses. They bought the land where they had been enslaved, built a church, organized a school for Black children, and donated to several historically Black colleges and universities. They died in 1912 of tuberculosis.

Ella Williams

Ella Williams, aka Madame Abomah, the “Tallest Woman in the World”, was born in South Carolina in 1865, just months after the Civil War ended. She got a late start in show business. Williams had to decide whether to remain a familiar oddity in Columbia, South Carolina, where she had lived for many years, or take a chance by joining the circus.

Williams probably stood between 6’9” and 7’4”, though no documented measurement exists. In 1869, English entrepreneur and animal trainer Frank Bostock made Williams such a juicy offer to tour the British Isles that she accepted, according to an April 1905 edition of The Thames Star, a newspaper in New Zealand, one of the countries where Williams sang.

Williams, whose career spanned some 30 years, also toured the Caribbean and South America. She performed in US cities, probably including Philadelphia, says local Black circus historian Rob Houston. A 1925 photo of Williams shows her with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Congress of Freaks. It is her last known appearance, and we don’t have reliable info about the rest of her life.

Bodies, hearts, and minds

Historical records don’t show if the public opposed performances by Heth, Millie-Christine, or Williams. Perhaps, like Otis Jordan (1926-1991), they sometimes faced opposition. Born in Barnesville, Georgia, with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, Jordan had small, ossified limbs. He reached a height of 27 inches. He was good at repairing small appliances, but he couldn’t find steady work until 1963, when he began performing in carnivals. He developed an act where he rolled and lit cigarettes using only his mouth.

One woman, Barbara Baskin-Bogdan, saw him perform at a New York State Fair and went to court to try to block his appearances. She lost. “How can she say that I’m being taken advantage of,” Jordan reportedly said. “Hell, what does she want? For me to be on welfare?” As disability activist Imani Barbarin notes, “ugly laws” barred disabled people who were not performers from appearing in public in some US states as late as 1974.

Philadelphia celebrates conventionally beautiful bodies with the Miss Philadelphia pageant, but it also honors a range of anatomies with events like the exuberant Philly Naked Bike Ride and Philly FatCon (mounting its third annual conference this year). Disability Pride Philadelphia will hold its 2025 Party on the Parkway on June 7, kicking off with a parade of disabled participants. In the past, as now, we are reminded not just of the body but of the heart and mind it contains, and the importance of a society that accepts diverse bodies.

At top: a promotional photo of Ella Williams, c. 1900. (Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.)