The Siamese Twins, the Bunker Family, and Nineteenth-Century U.S
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American Family, Oriental Curiosity: The Siamese Twins, the Bunker Family, and Nineteenth-Century U.S. Society Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Joseph Andrew Orser Graduate Program in History The Ohio State University 2010 Dissertation Committee: Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Adviser John Brooke Alan Gallay Copyright by Joseph Andrew Orser 2010 Abstract This dissertation examines the cultural and social spaces that conjoined brothers Chang and Eng Bunker occupied, interrogating the insights their lives offer into nineteenth-century ideas of race, class, gender, and respectability. Chang and Eng were conjoined twins of Chinese descent whose stage name, the Siamese Twins, derived from the country of their birth. The brothers toured the United States as “Oriental” curiosities from 1829 to 1839, and then settled in North Carolina as farmers, becoming slaveholders, marrying white sisters, and eventually fathering twenty-one children between them. In 1849, the twins returned to touring, this time taking two daughters along with them; until their deaths in 1874, Chang and Eng exhibited themselves and their offspring, touring as the Siamese Twins and Children. Through promotional literature, personal correspondence, visual images and newspaper reports, this work traces the evolution of public discourse about the twins and their families, contributing to other considerations of the twins and the course of American Orientalism. This dissertation goes further, however, by introducing early Asian Americans to considerations of the turbulent terrain of class and respectability in the 1830s and 1840s; the increasingly divisive debates over slavery, nativism, and sectionalism; and the tensions of national reunion in the years following the Civil War. I supplement this cultural analysis with an exploration of the social world of the rural ii North Carolina communities they settled in, using census data, government records, and family papers to explain the strategies the twins used to form connections with local residents and thus forge a space for themselves in these southern communities. Chang’s and Eng’s claims to normative whiteness and southern middle-class respectability succeeded, to some extent. But the very process of claiming this space undermined their efforts. Placing the children on exhibit served as much to highlight the family’s difference as it did to display the children’s proper upbringing and the twins’ virility. Additionally, the twins’ embrace of a southern culture of slavery and their support of the Confederacy further alienated them in the eyes of many northerners. And, outside of the twins’ control, their Asian origins carried increasingly negative connotations as a virulent anti-Chinese movement grabbed hold of Americans. Ultimately, shifting landscapes of race, class, gender, and respectability in the United States proved exceedingly tumultuous, undermining the twins’ attempts at negotiation. iii Dedication For my parents, Frank and Lawan; my wife, Nick; and my son, Will. iv Acknowledgments I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge those who supported and encouraged me as I undertook this project. First, I must express my utmost appreciation to Judy Wu for everything she has done to help me develop as a researcher, teacher, and person. Like all good advisers, she gave me enough rope to hang myself but never let me actually reach that point. Her curiosity, compassion, and activist spirit will continue to serve as models in my own career. Alan Gallay has been involved in this project since its inception. His enthusiasm for the work was integral to its completion. John Brooke’s passionate and insightful criticism led this dissertation to places that I never imagined it would go. Kevin Boyle was a wonderful teacher who offered wise counsel at numerous stages of my graduate career. Mytheli Sreenivas has been an important influence on my intellectual growth. In every paragraph I aspire to meet the high standards of analytical writing introduced to me by Angel Kwolek-Folland, though I undoubtedly fall short more often than not. I worked closely with Robert McMahon early in my graduate career, and although my interests ultimately followed another path, I remember fondly our discussions about the history of America in the world. I received financial support from the History Departments at the University of Florida and Ohio State University. I am especially grateful for research fellowships awarded by Ohio State, namely the College of Humanities Summer Research Award and v the Henry H. Simms Award. A U.S. Department of Education grant allowed me to spend a summer in Thailand engaging in language study and research. I am especially indebted to my friends and family. A number of graduate-school colleagues read drafts of my work. Special thanks go to Robert Bennett, Erin Greenwald, Andrew Kennett, Alicia Lengvarsky, Mitsu Narui, Lindsay Pieper, and Christianna Thomas. I spent many hours in thoughtful discussion with Jeff Dow and Jieun Kang. Colleen Flannery, Erin Greenwald, and Gary and Wipha Risser opened their homes to me on research trips, as did my dear cousins Jennifer and B.L. Morris. I hope that I missed some important document in your respective necks of the woods so that I have an excuse to drop in on you again. My parents, Frank and Lawan Orser, have always been supportive of my graduate-school dreams and more than ready to share their opinions on the direction my thinking should take. Even though we disagreed more often than not, I am forever grateful and profoundly touched by their commitment to my success. Conversely, the lack of interest that my wife, Nick, and my son, Will, have shown in my research—other than that I finish, and soon!—has also been much appreciated. Leaving my work behind and entering a world where discussions revolve around soccer, chores, food, and Yu-Gi-Oh! has been my greatest pleasure. Thank you for sticking with me through all of this. Your love, laughter, and encouragement have been my greatest inspirations. vi Vita 1993………………………………………....B.A., History, University of Virginia 1994-1996…………………………………..Copy Editor, Nation Junior Magazine, Bangkok, Thailand 1998………………………………………....M.Ed., Social Foundations of Education, University of Florida 1999-2000…………………………………..Education Desk Editor, The Nation, Bangkok, Thailand 2000-2005…………………………………..Copy Editor, The Gainesville Sun, Gainesville, Florida 2005………………………………………....Consortium for the Advanced Study of Thai, Chiang Mai University, Thailand 2005-2010…………………………………..Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of History, The Ohio State University 2007………………………………………....M.A., History, The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: History vii Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………ii Dedication………………………………………………………………………………...iv Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………………v Vita………………………………………………………………………………………vii Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 2: In and Chun: Naming the Worlds of Two Chinese Boys from Siam………...19 Chapter 3: “Under Their Own Direction”: Battling to Position Themselves in an American World……………………………………………………………………….....74 Chapter 4: The Connected Twins: Community Networks and the Weddings of the Siamese Twins………………………………………………………………………….140 Chapter 5: Asiatic, American: The Bunker Family on Display………………………...194 Chapter 6: Southern Curiosities: The Bunkers in War and Peace, At Home and Abroad…………………………………………………………………………………..260 Chapter 7: “The Monster Now Before Us”: After Chang and Eng…………………….306 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………....327 viii Chapter 1 Introduction Chang and Eng were born in Siam in 1811, in a village 60 miles southwest of Bangkok. Their father was a migrant from China; their mother likely had a Chinese father and Siamese mother. Joined from birth at the chest by a band of flesh and cartilage, the twins attracted attention from near and far. In the mid-1820s, a British merchant named Robert Hunter saw them playing in a river, at first thought they were some sort of creature, and then realized he might make a fortune exhibiting them and what he considered their monstrous bodies. In 1829, when the brothers were 18, he teamed with an American sea captain named Abel Coffin to contract their services to travel to the United States and to Europe and place their physical anomaly on display. The brothers believed they would be gone for a short while; instead, they spent the rest of their lives in the West, in the public eye, as part of a larger trade in Oriental curiosities and freaks of nature. In the 1830s, they toured across the United States, into Canada and Cuba, and in England and Europe. They became celebrated as the united Siamese twins, otherwise known as Chang and Eng. In 1839, at the age of 28, they withdrew from public performance, settling in North Carolina as farmers, becoming American citizens, adopting the last name of Bunker, marrying white sisters, becoming slaveholders, and, over the course of time, 1 fathering at least twenty-one children between them. By 1849, with rising expenses to support two growing families, the 38-year-old twins returned to show business. For the next 25 years, until their deaths in 1874 at the age of 63, Chang and Eng toured off and on, almost always taking along a pair of their offspring, touting themselves as the Siamese Twins and Children. This dissertation examines the social and cultural spaces