In the 19th century, many circuses began to offer sensationalist “sideshows” in addition to their more mainstream featured performers and acts. These exhibits usually included people and animals with physical differences, and sometimes historical oddities or wax statues. Often these shows were advertised as “dime museums” where visitors would pay to see a variety of displays, sometimes referred to as “Human Curiosities,” “Odditoriums,” “Human Wonders,” or “Freak Shows.” The highlight of the sideshow was the “freak,” or person who was considered to be physically different. The performers of these “freak shows” were often marginalized by society and had few choices to make a living outside of the circus.
The first documented travelling sideshow in American history was in 1738, in which a woman taken from West Africa was exhibited. A Virginia advertisem*nt described her as 4 feet tall and having the body of a woman but “the face of an ape,” clearly reflecting the extreme racism of the day. Lynchburg residents were used to travelling sideshows, and the Hill City was a touring stop for many of these attractions. In 1821 a “Mammoth Baby” was exhibited at the Bell Tavern. The advertisem*nt claimed the six-year-old child was the largest in the world and weighed 135 lbs. Later sideshows included a living two-headed cow and a person referred to as “The Human Fly.”
In 1840 P.T. Barnum developed the American Museum in New York City, where visitors could pay a dime and see a variety of displays. Many creations on display were fake historical items, created in the imagination of Barnum. Unfortunately, this museum also was home to individuals whose physical differences were deemed worthy of exhibition. Visitors came to see people with dwarfism, albinism, and microcephaly. After two fires in 1865 and 1868, Barnum decided to take his show on the road and began a new American circus tradition.
The “freak show” evolved into one of the most popular attractions at circuses. It featured people and animals who were born different, alongside performers who could do marvelous tricks, like sword swallowing, fire breathing, or “human pincushion” acts. People of different ethnicities or different physical abilities were placed on display, and visitors would pay to see individuals without limbs or struggling with obesity. Giants and little people were displayed alongside conjoined twins or those with cognitive impairments. When Cole’s Circus came to Lynchburg in 1885, it promoted Arabian, Mexican, and Bedouin acts. These performers were often viewed as objects of entertainment and amusem*nt, rather than as human beings, and were fully exploited by their circus employers.
Despite widespread exploitation and abuse, “freak show” performers often formed close relationships and found acceptance among the other entertainers. Sometimes they achieved great celebrity, which in turn meant large salaries. For example, General Tom Thumb (real name Charles Stratton), a performer with dwarfism in Barnum’s travelling circus in the 1840’s, was presented to Queen Victoria and the royal family multiple times. After his wedding reception in 1863, Stratton and his wife were received by President Abraham Lincoln. Although Stratton’s rise to fame was unusual, sideshow performers were often just as well-known as actors and other mainstream entertainers.
“Freak shows” remained popular until the 1940’s, when public opinion began to shift. Throughout the 20th century, several federal laws made discrimination against people with physical disabilities illegal, and the exhibition of “extraordinary bodies” was outlawed in some states. The public no longer looked at the displays with curiosity, but instead began to see the exploitative nature of the freak shows. Today, many “freak shows” are seeing a resurgence, but this time the power is in the hands of the performers. Until recently, there were thriving shows in Venice Beach, California, and Coney Island in New York City. The International Independent Showmen’s Association (IISA) was established in 1966 in Gibsonton Florida. It provides retirement benefits for performers, who are generally highly paid consenting adults.
Ota Benga (Mbye Otabenga)
Lynchburg was home to one particularly famous man who was placed on display as a sideshow. Ota Benga, who was born in the Congo sometime around 1885, was exhibited at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 after being captured from his homeland. His tribe, the Mbuti people, and his family were murdered by the violent Force Publique, the military force of the Belgian government, which sought to exploit local rubber and ivory resources. After being sold by slave traders, he ended up in the hands of businessman and white-supremacist Samuel Phillips Verner, who was under contract to bring back “pygmies” for exhibition at the St. Louis World Fair. In an article later written by Verner, titled “An Untold Chapter of My Adventures While Hunting Pygmies in Africa,” he bragged he was able to obtain Ota Benga by giving his captors only $5 worth of goods. Benga and eight other men were taken to America by Verner for the purposes of display and exploitation.
Once they arrived at the fair, Benga and four of the other captives were placed on exhibition along with other indigenous people of the Americas and Asia. Visitors were eager to see Ota Benga’s teeth, which had been filed ritualistically into sharp points, and to see his small stature. He was advertised as a “cannibal,” and the group were expected to behave savagely. The men were prisoners and were gawked at, burned with cigars, and taunted. At night they were not given adequate clothing and shelter to protect them from the low temperatures. When the public was not around, the men were measured and studied as scientific specimens by academics of the time who were trying to prove the supremacy of people of European descent.
After the fair ended, Benga briefly got the chance to return to Africa. His tribe and family had been murdered years earlier, and Benga was forced to live with the Batwa people. He remarried, but when his new wife died of a snake bite, Benga agreed to return to America. The situation only got worse when he was placed in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City upon his return to the United States. Again, he was not able to leave the premises and was objectified by audiences. His next destination was the Bronx Zoo in 1906. That September, he was placed on exhibit in the “Monkey House” with an orangutan. The sign on his cage read:
The African Pygmy, Ota Benga
Age, 23 years. Height, 4 feet 11 inches
Weight 103 pound. Brought from the Kasai River,
Congo Free State, South Central Africa,
By Dr Samuel P Verner.
Exhibited each afternoon during September
He was verbally and physically harassed by indifferent white visitors numbering around 500 at a time. When he fought back, he was labelled as mischievous and violent, which only added to his reputation as a “savage.” Eventually Benga was free to roam the grounds, but was chased and abused by crowds that constantly followed him.
His exhibition was supported by anthropologists and was touted as an educational tool. Some believed him to be the missing link and encouraged his exploitation under the guise of science. As more people viewed him on display, the African American community was outraged. Prominent Black leaders pleaded with the mayor and with zoological societies to intervene. So much attention was drawn to Benga that even the New York Times published an editorial about his display. Their opinion firmly came down on the side of white supremacists:
“We do not quite understand all the emotion which others are expressing in the matter… Ota Benga, according to our information, is a normal specimen of his race or tribe, with a brain as much developed as are those of its other members. Whether they are held to be illustrations of arrested development, and really closer to the anthropoid apes than the other African savages, or whether they are viewed as the degenerate descendants of ordinary negroes, they are of equal interest to the student of ethnology, and can be studied with profit… Pygmies are very low in the human scale…”
Eventually, African American clergymen were able to petition for his release. In late September 1906, after 20 days of exhibition, the zoo quietly removed Benga from display. He was released into the custody of Rev. James H. Gordon, who placed him in an orphanage as a grown man in his twenties. Finally in 1910, Benga was brought to Lynchburg, Virginia, where his teeth were capped, he was given European-American clothing, and he attended school at the Virginia Theological Seminary and College (known today as Virginia University of Lynchburg). A family associated with the Seminary brought him into their home, and he was tutored by local poet and librarian Anne Spencer. Here he found camaraderie with the Black community and enjoyed teaching young boys how to hunt and fish.
Ota Benga always dreamed of returning to the Congo but realized it was not possible when World War I began in 1914. His loneliness became unbearable, and those closest to him began to see a shift in his demeanor. On the night of March 20, 1916, Benga removed the caps from his teeth and built a ceremonial fire. His young friends watched as he danced and chanted around the flames in a ritual unknown to them. Later that night Benga took his own life with a pistol shot through the heart. He was only about 30 years old. His body was interred at Old City Cemetery, but may have been moved to White Rock Cemetery at a later date. The exact location of his gravesite remains unknown.
