Deception At Its Finest

When it comes to convincing the general public that a hoax is real, con-men would go through anything to ensure a profit that kept the people coming back. Many people would create anything that looks even remotely real to persuade their audience that it is the real deal. Barnum did this with Joice Heth, who he presented to the world as an 160 year old woman who once served as a nurse to our first president of the United States, George Washington. To further convince his audience that the poor, blind, old woman was George’s nurse, he falsified many certificates and records written by people of no importance, most of which stated that Joice was the greatest of all nurses and servants and slaves, ever since she was first brought over to America in the late 1800s. Joice’s deformities also played a large role in the belief of her age. Her condition that caused her to be almost sickly and frail in appearance riled the crowd further into Barnum’s deception. He even had a fake birth certificate made for her. So many people were quite curious to the age of Joice Heth, and in her death thousands gathered to witness the autopsy that proved she was merely and 80 year old woman. That is what makes for a successful hoax. It must be so unbelievable that it cannot be proven real or otherwise. Some may also say a hoax is successful if a profit is made off of the product or event, but the really successful hoaxes are the ones that are still mysteries to this day. They’ve got everyone skeptical, but no one will ever know for sure, sometimes not even the person who brought the event to life.