The Lives of Chang and Eng
Siam’s Twins in Nineteenth-Century America
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
The Lives of Chang and Eng
Buy Now for £18.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Stephen Hoye
About this listen
Connected at the chest by a band of flesh, Chang and Eng Bunker toured the United States and the world from the 1820s to the 1870s, placing themselves and their extraordinary bodies on exhibit as "freaks of nature" and "Oriental curiosities". More famously known as the Siamese twins, they eventually settled in rural North Carolina, married two white sisters, became slave owners, and fathered 21 children between them. Though the brothers constantly professed their normality, they occupied a strange space in 19th-century America. They spoke English, attended church, became American citizens, and backed the Confederacy during the Civil War. Yet in life and death, the brothers were seen by most Americans as "monstrosities", an affront they were unable to escape.
Joseph Andrew Orser chronicles the twins' history, their sometimes raucous journey through antebellum America, their domestic lives in North Carolina, and what their fame revealed about the changing racial and cultural landscape of the United States. More than a biography of the twins, the result is a study of 19th-century American culture and society through the prism of Chang and Eng that reveals how Americans projected onto the twins their own hopes and fears.
©2014 The University of North Carolina Press (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
Great story, boring narration
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.