Joice Heth was an enslaved African American woman whom P. T. Barnum marketed as George Washington’s 161-year-old nurse. Historians do not agree on her actual birth date, although most believe that she was born in 1756, which would have made her around 80 years old at the time of her death in 1836 in New York City.

Dec 2, 2015 · P. T. Barnum’s career as a Kentucky show man began with his ownership and exploitation of African American slave Joice Heth.

The anatomical examination of the body of Joice Heth yesterday at the City Saloon, resulted in the exposure of one of the most precious humbugs that ever was imposed upon a credulous community.

Dec 22, 2017 · Growing up in the antebellum North, Barnum took his first real dip into showmanship at age 25 when he purchased the right to “rent” an aged black woman by the name of Joice Heth, whom an...

In late 1835 and the first weeks of 1836, Americans in cities and towns across the northeast might have seen this poster advertising the exhibit of Joice Heth, an elderly African-American woman.

Mar 11, 2021 · Joice Heth, a real human being, experienced slavery’s dehumanization in both life and in death in a unique way. Historians can only learn so much about Joice because her enslavers – Barnum, Lindsay, and others – took great lengths to hide her actual identity and history in order to exploit her.

The story of Joice Heth begins unclearly, but her legacy is undeniable: she was believed to be the oldest woman who ever lived, or so some thought. Some historians believe she was born around 1756, but one thing that is certain is that she was born into slavery.

Joice Heth was an elderly black woman whom a young P.T. Barnum put on display in 1835, advertising that she was the 161-year-old former nurse of George Washington. When the public's interest in her waned, Barnum rekindled its curiosity by spreading a rumor that Joice Heth was actually not a person at all, but instead a mechanical automaton.

993: Joice Heth. PT Barnum’s First Human Display. Born: c.1756, Possibly Madagascar. Died: 19 February 1836, New York, United States of America. Joice was already elderly when she first came across the man now associated with the moniker “The Greatest Showman.”

Joice Heth (c. 1754-1836) was a slave purchased for $1000 and exhibited in 1835 by showman P.T. Barnum. Claiming that she was 161 years old and once the nurse of George Washington, Barnum took her from New York across the North, charging admission to see her and promoting her as a national treasure and a natural wonder.