https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(roadside_attraction) The bodies are the literal “thing” this place is advertising, I think the bodies need to be repatriated, that an autopsy needs to be preformed, people should contact the tribal governments and chinese embassy over this. The bodies are over 100 years old so it’s unlikely that they will ever be identified but with dna testing we might be able to find a relative. It’s not even that I’m outraged over this, just disappointed.

  • FlakesBongler [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    13·
    8 months ago

    Fun Horrifying Fact: P.T. Barnum used to have an old black woman as part of his traveling sideshow

    He claimed she was the oldest living person in the world and was George Washington’s wetnurse

    He even submitted articles in newspapers about how she was clearly just leather stretched over whale bones and gears to get people interested in seeing her

    Then when she died, he performed a public autopsy to prove she was alive

    A crowd of nearly a thousand people paid to see her dismembered

    So yeah, people have been doing this shit for a while now

    • Rom [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      13·
      8 months ago

      He began his career as a showman in 1835 at the age of 25 with the purchase and exhibition of a blind and almost completely paralyzed slave woman named Joice Heth, whom an acquaintance was billing around Philadelphia as George Washington’s 161 year-old former nurse. Slavery was already outlawed in New York, but Barnum exploited a loophole that allowed him to lease Heth for a year for $1,000, borrowing $500 to complete the sale. Barnum forced her to work for 10 to 12 hours per day, and she died in February 1836 at no more than 80 years of age. Barnum hosted a live autopsy of Heth’s body in a New York saloon to demonstrate her actual age before spectators paying 50 cents each.

      jesus-christ