By Doug Bardwell

During the 1900’s, this country participated in human trafficking to feed the curiosity of its citizenry.  At the 1904 World’s Fair, “primitive” peoples were brought from the Amazon,  Asia and from Africa, to display their “backwards” customs and tribal dances.

The shameful truth be told

According to this article by Shoshi Parks on Timeline,  the practice was quite widespread and went on for a number of years. Even though there were no bars, the human “specimen’s” didn’t speak our language, and had nowhere else to go, so they were forced to remain together in terrible conditions while fair-goers gawked and watched them perform their rituals.

The article explains:

“At the fair, the indigenous people on display faced a number of challenges over the eight long months of their stay. African tribal members were required to wear traditional clothing intended for the equatorial heat, even in freezing December temperatures, and Filipino villagers were made to perform a seasonal dog-eating ritual over and over to shock the audience. A lack of drinking water and appalling sanitary conditions led to rampant dysentery and other illnesses. Two “performers” died on the fairgrounds that season, Filipinos whose bodies still reside at the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. Others, including kindergartners from Arizona’s Pima Indian tribe, were shipped home at the first sign of sickness — what happened after their return was not the fair’s concern.”

So how did they get here?

In some cases, they were duped into coming by fast-talking “agents” who promised the people travel and money, only to be eventually put on display with no money to help themselves return home.

In the most egregious case, a prominent Protestant minister profited by “acquiring” 12 pygmies for the World’s Fair and later placed one of them in a cage in the Bronx Zoo in the Monkey House.

Believe it or not, while the practice of “human exhibits” started in the 1700’s, reaching its height in the 1800’s, the practice continued until the mid-1900’s, when zoos began to lose people’s interest in general. With the popularity of television and movies, people no longer needed to go to zoos or circuses to see the odd and the unusual.

Questions to ask yourself

Would you have paid to see these “exhibits?”  What’s changed since our grandparent’s time?

Read more about it

Read the entire article by Shoshi Parks.

Photo:  A group of Philippine “Head-Hunters” on display at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. (Jessie Tarbox Beals/Missouri Historical Society)