# Joice Heth — Struggles and Triumphs character guide

> Joice Heth in Struggles and Triumphs by P. T. Barnum.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Joyce Heth

**First appearance:** 0007-v-my-start-as-a-showman

## Snapshot

An elderly enslaved woman exhibited as George Washington's 161-year-old nurse, the human curiosity on which Barnum stakes his first thousand dollars.

## Who they are

Joice Heth is the exhibition that transforms Barnum from shopkeeper into showman, purchased for a thousand dollars on the strength of a Virginia bill of sale and a story no one can verify. Advertised as Washington's nurse, she draws throngs in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia while her true age remains a mystery even after her death and postmortem. Her brief, troubling celebrity is the founding transaction of Barnum's career—and the book's earliest test of where amusement ends and exploitation begins.

## In the story

### [My Start as a Showman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/struggles_and_triumphs_se/chapters/v-my-start-as-a-showman)

Exhibited as the 161-year-old nurse of George Washington; her death and postmortem examination are noted.

### [XI: General Tom Thumb in England](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/struggles_and_triumphs_se/chapters/xi-general-tom-thumb-in-england)

Not mentioned in this chapter.

### [The Art of Money Getting](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/struggles_and_triumphs_se/chapters/xxxi-the-art-of-money-getting)

Referenced by a Cambridge undergraduate; Barnum responds humorously, calling the student one of her 'posterity'.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/struggles_and_triumphs_se/characters/joice_heth
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/struggles_and_triumphs_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/struggles_and_triumphs_se/characters