Macy, Beth. Truevine: Two Brothers, a Kidnapping, and a Mother's Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South. New York: Little, Brown. 2016. Print.
First Sentences:
Description:
Dean, Jensen. Queen of the Air: A True Story of Love & Tragedy at the Circus.
The story seemed so crazy, many didn't believe it at first, black or white.But for a century, it was whispered and handed down in the segregated black communities of Roanoke, the regional city hub about thirty miles from Truevine. Worried parents would tell their children to stick together when they left home to see a circus, festival, or fair.
Description:
With the recently-announced closing of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, it was coincidental that I had just finished Beth Macy's fascinating Truevine: Two Brothers, a Kidnapping, and a Mother's Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South. And what a story she uncovered about the circus and the people who were part of them.
In 1914, George and Willie Muse, age 6 and 9, were albino black children with ashy white skin and blue eyes. They spent their days working with their sharecropper family picking tobacco on a plantation in Truevine, Virginia. Their skin burned easily and their eyes constantly watered in the bright sunlight, so they were forced to squint and look down throughout the day. Their working hours were nicknamed, "Can see to can't see" - daylight to dark.
But in 1914, under mysterious circumstances, George and Willie were taken from the tobacco fields by a carnival man and transported away. Told that their Momma was dead, they were put on exhibition as part of the freak show where they stood on a platform to let small town locals stare at them. They were billed at Eko and Iko, the Ecuadorian Savages, wearing huge dreadlocks (unusual in that era) and various costumes, not speaking or looking up. When it was accidentally discovered one day that they were natural musicians able to play any tune on any instrument, music was added to their sideshow performance.
Their "agent" (who had taken them from the fields) kept their meager pay for himself, giving them only food and clothes for years. He moved them to different carnivals and finally, after eight years, they became part of the biggest show on earth, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
Their mother, Harriett Muse, after realizing her boys were gone, spent years waiting for the carnival to return to her town and for her to reclaim her children. If that happened, she also planned to extract her revenge on the carnival for taking her boys and not returning them. And that day did finally come.
Author Macy did extensive research on George and Willie Muse, as well as any relatives and townspeople in Truevine who might have known them. It took her years to get Nancy Saunders, to open up to tell her story. Nancy was Willie and George's great niece and primary caregiver for Willie, who was still living when Muse started her research. Macy was never able to interview Willie (prevented by Nancy), but many people did share their stories. Macy also interviewed circus memorabilia collectors and "freak authorities" who knew of the Muses through articles, posters, and a few photos shared in this book.
It's a gripping book as Macy painstakingly paints the world of circuses, the life of performers like George and Willie, and the hardscrabble existence of people living in small towns and working on plantations during that era.
And hanging over the entire book is the uncomfortable situation where the illiterate Willie and George were forcibly separated from their families and their slave-like existence of picking tobacco in desperate poverty with little prospect for change, but with their loving mother.
While they probably enjoyed the luxuries of traveling the world with food, clothing, shelter with a new family of similar people, highly respected albeit exhibited as freaks, they were lied to about their mother who never stopped looking for them. And once reunited with her, they were able to arrange to continue their carnival life, but with the approval of their mother and financial compensation for their families, a much more positive conclusion for all.
Thoroughly informative, fascinating, and often disturbing to revisit that world of carnivals, circuses, and performers in the early twentieth century through the story of Willie and George, two albino black children/men.
In 1914, George and Willie Muse, age 6 and 9, were albino black children with ashy white skin and blue eyes. They spent their days working with their sharecropper family picking tobacco on a plantation in Truevine, Virginia. Their skin burned easily and their eyes constantly watered in the bright sunlight, so they were forced to squint and look down throughout the day. Their working hours were nicknamed, "Can see to can't see" - daylight to dark.
But in 1914, under mysterious circumstances, George and Willie were taken from the tobacco fields by a carnival man and transported away. Told that their Momma was dead, they were put on exhibition as part of the freak show where they stood on a platform to let small town locals stare at them. They were billed at Eko and Iko, the Ecuadorian Savages, wearing huge dreadlocks (unusual in that era) and various costumes, not speaking or looking up. When it was accidentally discovered one day that they were natural musicians able to play any tune on any instrument, music was added to their sideshow performance.
Their "agent" (who had taken them from the fields) kept their meager pay for himself, giving them only food and clothes for years. He moved them to different carnivals and finally, after eight years, they became part of the biggest show on earth, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
Their mother, Harriett Muse, after realizing her boys were gone, spent years waiting for the carnival to return to her town and for her to reclaim her children. If that happened, she also planned to extract her revenge on the carnival for taking her boys and not returning them. And that day did finally come.
Author Macy did extensive research on George and Willie Muse, as well as any relatives and townspeople in Truevine who might have known them. It took her years to get Nancy Saunders, to open up to tell her story. Nancy was Willie and George's great niece and primary caregiver for Willie, who was still living when Muse started her research. Macy was never able to interview Willie (prevented by Nancy), but many people did share their stories. Macy also interviewed circus memorabilia collectors and "freak authorities" who knew of the Muses through articles, posters, and a few photos shared in this book.
It's a gripping book as Macy painstakingly paints the world of circuses, the life of performers like George and Willie, and the hardscrabble existence of people living in small towns and working on plantations during that era.
And hanging over the entire book is the uncomfortable situation where the illiterate Willie and George were forcibly separated from their families and their slave-like existence of picking tobacco in desperate poverty with little prospect for change, but with their loving mother.
While they probably enjoyed the luxuries of traveling the world with food, clothing, shelter with a new family of similar people, highly respected albeit exhibited as freaks, they were lied to about their mother who never stopped looking for them. And once reunited with her, they were able to arrange to continue their carnival life, but with the approval of their mother and financial compensation for their families, a much more positive conclusion for all.
Thoroughly informative, fascinating, and often disturbing to revisit that world of carnivals, circuses, and performers in the early twentieth century through the story of Willie and George, two albino black children/men.
Happy reading.
Fred
(See more recommended books)
________________________________________
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
________________________________________
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Dean, Jensen. Queen of the Air: A True Story of Love & Tragedy at the Circus.
Life and era of Leitzel, the internationally famous trapeze artist of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus at the same time the Muse brothers were sideshow act with the same circus. Brilliantly written about the true life of a girl with a talent that brought her to the pinnacle of fame and fortune throughout the world. (previously reviewed here)
