The showman and the slave
Subtitle: race, death, and memory in Barnum's America
By: Benjamin Reiss.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 267
Subjects: Barnum, P. T. 1810-1891; Heth, Joice, d. 1836; Popular culture -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Women slaves -- United States -- Biography; Freak shows -- Social aspects -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Whites -- Race identity -- United States; African Americans in popular culture -- History -- 19th century; Racism in popular culture -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Death in popular culture -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Northeastern States -- Race relations
Genres: Biography.
Description: "In this compelling story about one of the nineteenth century's most famous Americans, Benjamin Reiss uses P. T. Barnum's Joice Heth hoax to examine the contours of race relations in the antebellum North. Barnum's first exhibit as a showman, Heth was an elderly enslaved woman who was said to be the 161-year-old former nurse of the infant George Washington.

Seizing upon the novelty, the newly emerging commercial press turned her act - and especially her death - into one of the first media spectacles in American history.".

"In placing together the fragmentary and conflicting evidence of the event, Reiss paints a picture of people looking at history, at the human body, at social class, at slavery, at performance, at death, and always - if obliquely - at themselves. At the same time, he reveals how deeply an obsession with race penetrated different facets of American life, from public memory to private fantasy.

Concluding the book is a piece of historical detective work in which Reiss attempts to solve the puzzle of Heth's real identity before she met Barnum. His search yields a tantalizing connection between early mass culture and a slave's subtle mockery of her master."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.