Humbug! Hoaxes in Literature and Culture.

Making the unbelievable plausible is a quite a challenge, especially when it is our innate nature as human beings to be skeptical of one another. In order to meet this task with success, it is necessary to have relevant historical context, consider the audience that is being “hoaxed,” and finally convey a suitable tone that matches the topic discussed to build credibility. An excellent example is Barnum’s promotion of “Joice Heth,” the 161-year old nurse to George Washington. Barnum tactfully builds credibility throughout the piece before mentioning the nurse’s incredulous age in the last few lines- almost so seamless that the reader often forgets to do a double take and consider the information being presented. Barnum chiefly relies upon verisimilitude and a narrative style to make the reader believe that Joice is truly an honest, pious nurse who was so righteous she could surpass the average life expectancy by at least twofold. He strategically instills hope in the reader, upholding the Christian values of the time- even going so far as to include that the nurse was baptized in the Potomac River before becoming a member of the Baptist Church; however, Barnum had to be acutely aware of the tastes, values, fantasies, and prejudices of his particular audience in order to exert control over the corporate script. During a time when slavery was socially acceptable and George Washington was (and still is) a national hero, Barnum paints Joice as an uneducated yet holy woman who sings hymns and songs straight from the Bible, embodying the people’s image of a good, honorable slave. By including additional sources at the end of the piece, it serves only to build Barnum’s argument, as throughout the work the pity and respect the reader has for the woman overpowers her dubious age.

While people are often ridiculed for creating hoaxes and humbugs, the cooperation from the general public, often allowing these hoaxes to become so well known, must not go unnoticed. The human species tends to be a curious one, searching for evidence to prove that there is something “bigger” than us all. Phineas T. Barnum was chastised after the real age of Joice Heth, a supposed 161-year-old nurse of George Washington, was revealed to be only eighty. However, society had no real reason to believe this absurd claim. Joice may have possessed some unattractive qualities, having shrunk to “mere skin and bone” with fingers that “resemble the claws of a bird of prey,” yet did not differ much from a typical elderly woman. The true convincing came from the people themselves, desperately grasping on to proof that life could be prolonged for extensive quantities of time. Barnum was able to manipulate others by creating hoaxes that people would genuinely want to believe as true. Even with the Feejee Mermaid, which was simply a monkey sewn on to a fish, there was an inevitable hope inside of mankind for this story to hold true. Today, there are still many who search for evidence behind legends with ghosts, aliens, and even Bigfoot. People clench on to these rumors, essentially convincing themselves of the seemingly impossible, only to resort to anger once proven wrong.

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.

Hoaxes, like any other lies, rely predominately on the amount of confidence, detail, and an counter arguements in preparation for scepticism. With regard to hoaxes, which tend to be more far fetched imaginative schemes of deception, certainty of the execusion is vital. Barnum is a genius when it comes to hoaxes. Barnum was very scrupulous in maintain credability to his schemes. With respect to Joice Heth, Barnum utulized newspapers, athoritative appeals, and “certificates” to give the allusion of Joice Heth’s age. Barnum ellaborated a web of elaborate lies through print to validate the fact that Joice was 161 years old. When seen through the print, and numerous newspapers, people would then lose doubt and would be more inclined to believe them. In addition, Barnum calimed to have “certificates” and well known people to vouche for Joice’s existance. For one thing, because Joice was so old, it would have been impossible to encounter anyone that could legitimately validate her age. Everyone she had presumably encountered all those years ago are no longer alive so there is no concrete proof. Those that figured this and doubted Barnum, would then be given the “certificates” that allegidly guaranted everything is valid. If one reads the certifiactes carefully, one can actually notice that the certifiactes are almost nearly identical in the content written to support Joice. Barnum was smart enough to convelute such a lie that there is truly no possible way to confirm its validity. Therefore, with details, confidence, and “proof” that can truly not be confirmed, hoaxes would be very hard to disprove and easy to convince the general public.

The recipe to a successful hoax requires several important elements, as exemplified by Barnum’s short story, The Life of Joice Heth, the Nurse of George Washington. Although the line between a believable hoax and an unreasonable tale can be ambiguous, Barnum toes this line and masters the art of deception by crafting his story to fascinate his readers while keeping it relatively realistic. His success can be attributed to the ignorance of his audience, among other convenient coincidences and artful techniques. Around 1835, when this story was published, many people weren’t as informed about medical and health concerns as they are today. Thus, the idea of a living 161-year-old woman might have seemed probable and even miraculous to many. Additionally, Barnum used reputable sources like the New York Evening Star and Providence Daily Journal to support his arguments, which only boosted his credibility. Mainly, Barnum used details regarding Joice Heth’s life and a real certification that she was George Washington’s slave to convince his audience that she really existed. Furthermore, he offered to let others see her in a circus, which appealed those who did and did not believe in the tale because the believers wanted to see the real deal and the non-believers wanted to see proof that it was all a hoax. In the end, Barnum effectively creates a successful hoax by teetering along the line between a conceivable story and ridiculous myth to craft a convincing argument that appealed to the general public. However, falling too far over this line with a tale too ridiculous could discredit the author and fatally reduce his/her reputation.

There are many different tactics that are used to convince the general public of a hoax, however it is how these tactics are carried out that dictate their level of persuasion. In the case of Barnum’s ‘The Life of Joice Heth’, he is able to make the hoax convincing through setting a backdrop of actual historical backgrounds. Barnum correlates his fabricated story to historical events, so that people can identify with the time period. An example of this is that he mentions how Joice was taken as a slave from Madagascar to America, which in those days was common. Barnum sets a convincing, serious tone in which he seems to be recounting the life of Joice Heth. Along with intricate details, hoaxes can be made successful, as our minds take in the written information such as Barnum’s “…year seventeen hundred and twenty…” and we immediately assume that it is factual. Barnum continuously throughout the text mentions years and details of Joice’s health and food patterns, making the story seem more realistic. Furthermore another tactic to creating a successful hoax is making the public believe that you have multiple sources to backup your story. In this case, Barnum fabricates numerous newspaper articles such as “…The New York Sunday News…”  and certificates, about Joice to solidify his story. People tend to fall into the trap of believing anything if they are under the impression that a reliable source such as the news or officials are supporting the story, even without checking the credibility of those sources. I guess one could say that it is the way society has programmed us to function in an ordered world. A tactic commonly used in hoaxes is the idea that the story is firsthand. In the case of Barnum, he creates dialogue for Joice “…Oh! That the Lord would…home quickly…” Through this method Barnum is able to give a more realistic insight into who Joice Heth was and allows the readers to delve into conversation with a fictitious character, forming a fanciful relationship with Joice and the text.

People commonly rely on a myriad of ways to convince people of their hoax being true. Often, these attempts of persuasion attack one’s uncertainty, opening up an entire realm of possibilities. For example, the ocean has not been entirely explored since ships only follow exact trade routes; therefore, in some lurking corner of the vast ocean, in not only its wide but unfathomably deep dimensions, the existence of Mermaids does not seem entirely far fetched. Furthermore, Barnum, in his promotion of The FeeJee Mermaid, claims that “faith is sustained by the testimony of travelers and others in all ages of the world, and that is as good an authority as we have for the existence of many of the wonders that we constantly hear of”, and thus attacks one’s gullibility and lack of ability to disprove it (Cook 109). In the modern world, the same is true for potential alien life on other planets. To the uninformed listener, an enormous, relatively unexplored realm, such as the solar system or universe, is boundless as the ocean was to the now frowned upon mermaid myth. Barnum also quotes a “Professor of History in the City of New York”, who says: “I have wondered that its existence should so long have been doubted” (Cook 110). While using an authoritative figure such as a history professor is already convincing, the acknowledgement of the professors conversion from skeptic to believer and newfound bewilderment for non believers attacks the doubtfs of the skeptic. Furthermore, Barnum uses hypothetical but ‘plausible’ propositions through flawed logic. If the “sea-lion, sea-horse, sea-wolf, and sea-dog” all exist, then, by conventional logic, there must also be sea people, mimicking a marine-themed mirror image of the world above the sea (Cook 109). If Barnum’s flawed logic and attacks on uncertainty are believable and intriguing enough, respectively, for the majority of the population, then the hoax will prosper.

Successful hoaxes manage to convince the audience that, despite all of their doubts, the story is believable and true. This is often accomplished by a stretching facts and making comparisons to real events and creatures, using supposed eye-witness testimonies, and even writing as if the debate is about the details of the hoax rather than it’s true or not. The story about the Feejee mermaid is a prime example of these methods. The second paragraph of the Feejee mermaid story begins with “At all events our faith is sustained by the testimony of travelers and all others…” (109). The writer immediately suggests that we believe many things based off of other people’s accounts, and that there is no reason that the “evidence” of the reality of mermaids is any different. The writer subtly convinces the reader that if they don’t want to doubt their entire reality that comes from others’ testimonies, they ought to at least entertain the possibility of mermaids. The writer then argues that creatures such as sea lions and sea dogs exist (109).  After mentioning these creatures which people believe are factual, the author argues that the reader can easily “infer” that mermaids might exist since humans are animals just like dogs or lions.  Although this argument sounds ridiculous to modern readers because the names such as sea lions don’t imply a half lion half fish creature, the writer attempts to make this into a completely logical argument by stretching common truths and beliefs. The writer later states “perhaps the wonder is that they [mer-people] are seen so often as they are- or not at all” (109).  The argument quickly shifts from whether or not mer-people exist to why they are seen as much as they are. The debate over reality of their existence has more or less ended, at least for the moment, and the author soon proceeds to discredit counter-arguments. At the end of the story, the writer acts completely convinced of the mermaid’s existence, and asks the disbelievers why mermaids’ existence has been doubted for so long. The reality of mer-people is only logical according to the author, but in reality there is really no factual or logical backing for the arguments presented.  The stretching of facts, supposed eye-witness evidence, and the author’s tone of confidence attempt to create a highly believable story.

People try to persuade others that hoaxes are real and among us by relating them to objects or creatures in our world that we know exist. The first strategy they us is to bring up the many different times where others claimed to see the creature. They also attempt to make the hoax sound like a conventional thing, using phrases like “why not”, they try to make it sound so normal to try to make the hoax seem plausible. In Barnum’s promo for the Feejee Mermaid he brings up other animals such as the sea lion, sea horses, and sea dogs; in order to make the point if other sea animals can exist why wouldn’t there be a sea man and sea woman. They also try to find explanations in arguments against its existence, as seen in Barnum’s promo for the Feejee Mermaid he brings up the argument that man hasn’t traveled or seen vast areas of the ocean, and therefore only very few of us were capable of seeing the creature. In order for a hoax to be successful it can’t be too out of this world; if those creating the hoax make it seem too unrealistic almost no one will believe it. However, if it is presented in a way that it can be related to other objects or creatures and in a way that it can be imagined, it will have a higher chance of success.

Barnum’s use of mass media advertising attracted people from all kinds of backgrounds. He got people talking about his newest spectacle and as we would say today Barnum’s spectacles went viral. James Cook quotes Barnum in an interview: “[…] for I knew that every dollar sworn in advertising would return in tens, and perhaps hundreds in a future harvest.” A hoax needs to reach a large amount of people and those people must believe in it in order to make the hoax successful. Barnum’s Feejee mermaid exhibit fed off people’s wonder and imaginations. For example, even today 95 percent of the underwater world remains unexplored according to the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association). Barnum also does a great job of acknowledging the doubts that naturalists have against the existence of mer-people. By doing so, Barnum in a way gained my confidence that he knows what he is talking about. When Barnum writes about different animals “merging”, for example the flying fish, he gives some sort of anatomical evidence. The people are now more likely to believe him.