Evan's History Blog: December 2015

Industrilization bought many changes along with the new technology. One being leisure time being seen from a whole new angle. In the past anybody who had leisure time was seen as lazy, and a bum. However with industrilization new technology and approaches made everything much quicker, giving people free time. Having free time caused many recreational activities to form such as sports, amusement parks, and in particular, zoos.

The normal person sees a zoo as a park containing only animals on display due to the laws of today. However back in the time of industrilization it was a little different. In order to make people more interested and make more money, people came up with the idea of putting other humans from foreign lands on display, one of the first being Venus Hottentot. Venus was born into the Khoi people around 1790 in south africa. Later around 1810 upon the arrival of Dutch Farmer Raiders, venus was taken to be sold as a slave. However after being amazed by her physical features such as wider hips a dutch decided to sell her to Sarah Baartman, a scottish animal trainer, who would proceed to tour and display her, and sell her to other people until her death. After her death her organs were put on display in the Museum of Natural History until 1974 when they were transported and buried in africa after a debate.

One other famous human display was Ota Benga. Ota was put on display in a zoo and labeled as the missing link between humans and apes. When put on display he would do things such as shoot arrows and weave twine. People were fascinated by his features such as the teeth that had been sharpened to a point back in africa, which depicted him as the "savage" stereotype put on africans. That stereotype was put on him due to africa not being entirely colonized, unlike the phillipines that the U.S. had colonized. Upon colonizing the phillipines in 1898, the united states made a display of a fillipino school with people on display being peaceful and learning. It was meant to show how colonizing is good, along with the United States. After being on display for a few days and being placed in a cage with apes, Ota Benga was taken down due to people protesting against it, even though many were marvelled by the display. One person against it in particular was Revered James H. Gordon who stated, "Our race, we think, is depressed enough, without exhibiting one of us with the apes. We think we are worthy of being considered human beings, with souls." After his departure from the zoo, Ota was sent to virginia with normal clothes, and caps over his sharpened teeth where he worked at a tobacco factory. Ota was a valuable employee due to his ability to climb to the top of the trees. He would often tell stories about his past to other workers in exchange for food. Ota's goal was to make enough money to get back to africa however, after the start of world war one he wasnt able to. That led him into depressing, and eventually suicide by a african tribal fire, where he removed his teeth caps.

However Ota and Venus werent the first humans put on display. It traces all the way back to ancient egypt where soldiers would parade Sudanese people around the cities after they conquered them. "barbarians" were also paraded around roman streets to show the strength of the roman empire. Ultimately the human zoos in the industrial era had the same objective. The owners of the displays would say it was for science, and to show how its good to take over. Truly meaning that they saw the people on display as lower down on the chain of evolution, which gave countries a good reason to take over others.

The first major human zoo was at the paris fair of 1878. On display were people taken from french colonies in Indochina, Senegal, and Tahiti. The chicago fair of 1893 had even more with people from Jara, Samoa, Dahomey, Egypt, and North American Indians. Another was the Greater Britain Exposition of 1899 which has south african animals and natives. The people were made to do crafts, and dances in their "villages" in order to fit the stereotypes. Stereotypes played a huge role in the humans on display, still having a influence today. Arabs being put on display were labelled as characters from the book Thousand and One Nights while indians were given the label from cowboy and indian books. Native americans stereotypes however changed after wounded knee in 1890. Prior to that event indians werent allowed to be put on display to promote equality, that event however gave the indians savage label. In order to prevent that view on the indians, the government allowed them to be shown and promote a more peaceful view. Indians protested against that as one would expect but shockingly their only goal was to be able to manage the exhibits themselves in order to make more money.

Many immigrants realized that human zoos were a good source of income, and due to being uneducated volunteered to be on display. Many would have to change their clothes, hair, and appearance in order to fit the expectations of audiences. Along with those, many also became victims of racist violence. Not all races were succesful though, a group a aymara bolivians travelled from south america to new york to be told they werent "exotic" enough and sent back home. William Henry Johnson was a african american child who was sold by his desperate for income family at the age of 4. Due to his facial features such as a small cranium he was put on display and forced to wear a hairy suit and grunt while being titled "What is it?"

While human zoos faded away by the mid/early 20th century, more recent ones have shown as late as the 2000s, and while those people were payed and could go home to sleep, it was a topic of debate. Along with being a shameful mark of the past, human zoos also could be blamed as a major source in the history of racism. Industrilization caused the spawn of many good and bad things, and people should be aware of those in order to prevent problems in the future.