On this #Juneteenth , I'd like to remember Joice Heth, the woman who launched P.T. Barnum's career. In 1835 Heth, an elderly slave, claimed to be 161 years old and the former caretaker of the infant George Washington.

In Heth's act she sang hymns and told stories of Washington.

Though Barnum didn't come up with Heth's act, he skillfully promoted it. He exhibited Joice Heth in taverns, inns, museums, and concert halls in cities and towns across the northeast for seven months. People flocked to see this supposed living link to George Washington.

Today, Barnum has a reputation as the "Prince of Humbugs," someone who knew how to dupe his audiences with entertaining hoaxes.

But according to his autobiography, it was Heth (and others) who duped Barnum. He claims he "honestly believed" Heth's fictional backstory.

Even after she died, Joice Heth proved profitable for her exhibitor. On February 25, 1836, 1500 people watched Dr. David Rogers dissect Heth's corpse. Barnum charged 50 cents for admission. The doctor concluded that the elderly woman was, at most, eighty years old.

P.T. Barnum, of course, built on the success he had promoting Joice Heth, became one of the most famous men of the 19th Century, and got into the circus business at age 60. His impact on American pop culture (and politics) is still felt today.

Despite the fact that Joice Heth was the start of P.T. Barnum's showman career, and arguably helped launch U.S. pop culture, she's been largely erased from his public story. In the 2017 film "The Greatest Showman" starring Hugh Jackman, Heth is absent. https://www.biography.com/news/joice-heth-pt-barnum-george-washington-nurse

I don't know if I have a point beyond fascination of her story. But I think it's an interesting case study in the breadth what was stolen by slavery and its legacy. Even after it stole its victims' lives, it stole their stories and consequently our understanding of U.S. history.

So to celebrate the abolition of slavery in the U.S., I'm just going to remember how Joice Heth, a black woman who never lived to see emancipation, managed to dupe the most famous huckster in history, and helped launch his career in the process.