r/MorbidReality Special: The History of Human Zoos.

morbid adjective characterized by or appealing to an abnormal and unhealthy interest in disturbing and unpleasant subjects especially death and disease today we will explore the subreddit r slash morbid reality a forum cataloging the deplorable terrifying and depressing aspects of humanity and recently one post was made that is the epitome of what this subreddit curates so join me on this exploration through the history of human zoos i'm sure all of us have been to a zoo either your parents took you or a school field trip did and no matter your age it's always a fun experience to see a giraffe or a lion in its simulated habitat but what's lost in all of the fun is the fact that these creatures are in captivity many of them cannot be released into the wild because they lack the ability to hunt or defend themselves but it's not all doom and gloom zoos function as sanctuaries for endangered creatures and are a living museum for people to learn from they give people a chance to view animals not endemic to their nation and maybe give children the chance to foster an interest in zoology and the protection of endangered species with that all being said how would you feel if you were to encounter a human zoo we'll be back after the break this video has been sponsored by atlas vpn atlas vpn is a tool that encrypts your data and hides your virtual location a virtual private network or vpn hides your ip address and internet activity from your internet service provider giving you complete anonymity online atlas vpn also comes equipped with a data breach scanner this feature tells you whether or not your email address or passwords have been found in any databases where data breaches occurred giving you a chance to change your password or email address to keep your account safe but there's even more that you can do with atlas vpn you can use it to watch streaming content that isn't available in your nation for example let's say you want to watch top gear on netflix but it 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name for this former attraction is ethnological exposition they were public displays of people typically from colonial territories of the host nation they would be kept in villages that were based off of their homeland and information about the people featured in the exposition would be placed on the outside of their village enclosure throughout their existence such exhibitions garnered controversy over their demeaning derogatory and dehumanizing nature they began as part of circuses or freak shows which displayed exotic humans in a manner akin to a caricature which exaggerated their differences over time human zoos developed into independent displays emphasizing the exhibit's inferiority to western culture and in the information provided about the human zoo or village enclosure there would be cultural and scientific information that would bolster or support the justification for its inhabitants subjugation by the host nation but to truly understand why human zoos were so popular in the late 1800s to early 1900s we need to for a moment explain the growth and consumption of freak shows in the western world a freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities referred to in popular culture as freaks of nature people with physical disabilities tattoos piercings or people with strange and death-defying talents would be featured at freak shows during the late 19th century and early 20th century freak shows were at their height of popularity the period beginning in the 1840s through to the 1940s saw the organized for-profit exhibition of people with physical mental or behavioral rarities although not all abnormalities were real some being alleged the exploitation for profit was seen as an accepted part of western culture at the time one of the more infamous events of alleged exploitation was of two siblings maximo and bartola they were billed as the last living aztecs and they suffered from microcephaly a medical condition involving a shorter than normal head they were originally from usolatan el salvador the siblings were given by their mother to a merchant who promised he would take them to granada to be educated and exhibited they began performing in the united states between the ages of 8 and 10 years old their disability wasn't disclosed to the audience and was instead explained as the legitimate features of aztec people the two siblings live with various different managers never once receiving payment for their performances and once they became adults in 1860 they were married to each other by their acting manager and guardian mr morris in order to bolster their act to earn more money the siblings would pass away in 1867 from unknown causes as freak shows gained popularity in the united states they were decreasing in popularity in europe the rapid decrease occurred between the years of 1935 and 1940 and was the direct result of german occupation of european nations across the entire continent many years prior to world war ii the german government declared freak shows to be degenerate and classless and banned them throughout the entire nation and during their occupation of other european nations that rule followed and subsequently stuck after the war ended quickly ethnological expositions or human zoos filled the vacuum they became a type of sensible freak show because these expositions would be pitched as a learning opportunity a lot like going to a museum or a regular zoo today the first records of human zoos being shown to the public were in 1870 these early expositions were so-called exotic populations and became popular throughout european cities in the late 1800s but grew immediately after most freak shows were banned across the entire continent human zoos have been hosted in every major european city and the growing fad would spread to the united states and be found in new york and chicago this is ota benga and his story isn't widely known today we will remedy that and explore the horrors of human zoos not through an outsider's perspective but through the perspective of one of its involuntary inhabitants ota benga born in 1883 was a member of the umbuti people otabenga lived in equatorial forests near the kasai river and what was then known as the congo free state a lot of his life living in the kasai river is unknown many claims have been made about how he entered the united states but one hypothesis that has a lot of support from many historians is that during an attack on his village by the force public a military organization owned by king leopold ii of belgium ota benga's wife and children were killed and during his escape he was captured by bantu slave traders after that he was sold to samuel phillips verner he was a former missionary turned explorer in the congo and trader of exotic wares and animals he was commissioned to parade natives from africa for ethnographic spectacles and in 1904 ota benga encountered him and subsequently purchased because he was a physiological curiosity oda benga being a congo pygmy made him shorter than average at the age of 21 when he entered the saint louis world fair he was 4 foot 11. ota benga and samuel verner would arrive in late june of 1904 at the st louis world fair and when the expositions were set up and otabenga was placed inside immediately his attraction became the most popular many reporters surrounded the exhibition and reported that oda benga had an admirable personality and visitors were eager to see his teeth that had been filed to sharp points in his early youth as ritual decoration over time ota benga learned to charge for photographs and performances one newspaper account promoted benga as the only genuine african cannibal in america and that his teeth were worth five cents as that's how much he would charge to show visitors over time ota benga realized how much of a prisoner he was inside the world fair he would share his grievances with samuel verner about not being able to be left alone between performances people would gawk at him shout requests for him to perform and it became very tiring for him after the fair concluded oda benga would be sent back to the congo he would live there for a short period of time get married and unfortunately lose his second wife to a snake bite of course samuel verner accompanied him to the congo and asked him if he wanted to live in the american museum of natural history in new york city otabenga agreed once he was told that he would be paid 175 dollars a month to stay inside the museum and act as a living exhibit but like the saint louis world fair ota benga would soon become very disinterested with his work he realized how little people cared about him and how many people assumed that he was a savage simply because his teeth were filed and that he came from an african nation lots of reporters picked up on otabenga's feelings writing about how he looked homesick and generally unhappy whilst working at the american history museum bradford and bloom a local newspaper in new york published a few stories about what potentially otabenga had been feeling while working at the american museum of natural history what at first held his attention now made him want to flee it was maddening to be inside to be swallowed whole so long he had an image of himself stuffed behind glass but somehow still alive crouching over fake campfire feeding meat to a lifeless child museum's silence became a source of torment a kind of noise he needed birdsong breezes trees after a while the curator of the american museum of natural history henry brumpas noticed ota benga's change in attitude brumpus then contacted samuel verner and pitched that ota benga should be sent to the bronx zoo samuel verner took advantage of this opportunity and sent oda benga to the bronx zoo in 1906. at the beginning otabenga was given the task to maintain animal habitats however william hornday the director of the zoo noticed that people took more notice of benga than the animals at the zoo and he eventually created an exhibition to feature benga he was given a costume in an orangutan named dohan oda benga spent most of his time inside the monkey house exhibit and was even encouraged to move his bed there and the sign outside of the monkey house exhibit said this african pygmy oda benga aged 23 years height 4 feet 11 inches weight 103 pounds brought from the kasai river congo free state south central africa by dr samuel p verner william hornday considered the exhibit a valuable spectacle for visitors and his decision to have ota benga inside the monkey house was supported by madison grant the secretary of the new york zoological society though many people at the time found otabenga's exhibition to be entertaining many in the african-american community didn't many protests were made to stop the exhibition while also calling for the immediate release of ota benga into regular society the protests continued and the bronx zoo responded by letting otabenga roam the zoo instead of staying inside the monkey house oda benga was very receptive to the protesting he wanted to be free of this job and to live a normal life so when the bronx zoo chose to just let him walk outside of the monkey house instead of remaining inside it for the entire duration of a work day he chose to become more mischievous and violent towards the crowd and other workers that were at the zoo over time the jeering enchanting and taunts from the crowd and the actions of otabenga became too much for the bronx zoo to handle and the zoo finally removed benga from the grounds samuel werner at this time encouraged oda benga to remain in the united states and to gain an education african-american newspapers before and after he left the zoo published editorials strongly opposing benga's treatment his story was widely circulated among african-american communities but remained widely unknown to the vast majority of americans for a very long time four years after leaving the zoo ota benga learned how to read and was working at a tobacco factory in lynchburg virginia he had his sharpened teeth capped so that he could assimilate into society and he saved as much money as he could so he could return back to africa but with the outbreak of world war 1 in 1914 all passenger ship travel stopped forever keeping otabenga from returning to his homeland this reality devastated him he knew that it was impossible to return home he developed depression and on march 20th 1916 at the age of 32 or 33 oda benga built a ceremonial fire chopped off the caps of his teeth and shot himself in the heart with a barreled pistol he was buried in an unmarked grave in the black section of the old city cemetery located in lynchburg virginia unfortunately according to local history his body was quickly moved after he was buried and his bones are lost the story of oda benga really puts into perspective how dark human zoos were and how the exposition of a human was viewed by wider society this was normal these events were not seen as exploitation these were spectacles and there's human tragedies connected to every single one of them and it's particularly easy for humans now for civilizations now to point out the degeneracy of a human zoo but put yourself into the shoes of someone living in the early 1900s and ask yourself honestly if you were to encounter a human zoo how would you feel hello hello everyone it's your boy aleris aka panda daddy and this is what i've been working on for the past two weeks a lot of you guys wanted a morbid reality special so i went on my way to find one post that i really could just do a good deep dive on and it was uh the post about ota benga and learning about human zoos and ethnological expositions have been very enlightening i've really didn't know about all the details about this stuff i remember hearing something like this in high school but that's neither here or there i hope you guys enjoyed and if you want more long-form morbid reality videos uh just let me know in the comments down below or leave a like to let me know that you guys really you know like the video and if you're new to my channel if this is the first video that you saw what you doing watching videos and not subscribing come on join the community watch more of these videos and if you're old make sure that bells to get these notifications every time a big thank you to atlas vpn for sponsoring this video please go ahead and check out that link show them some love because they made this video possible and we also got to thank the patreon supporters because they always come in clutch a big thank you to cynon harrison mr muffles ethan cameron pumpkin pie name to me xavier the meme dealer kyrie the sloth jackson yos lady lapse a lot meena the swift isuku destroyer trey muppy luhu noah vermont john robinson eva catherine taylor hannah will billy and dustin thank you so much for your support it is greatly appreciated and if you want to help support the channel there's two links in the description one of my merch store and one of my patreon both funds go directly into the channel so we can maintain what's happening here and as always stay zesty [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Ailurus

Views: 438,225

Keywords: r/, reddit, reddit posts, #1 reddit posts, Top posts, top, posts, top posts of all time, reddit reading, Ailurus reddit, Ailurus, r/iamatotalpieceofshit, mlm, make your own business, sales, online sales, r/Kidsarestupid, Ailurus kids, Ailurus Fatlogic, r/Fatlogic, ailurus panda, ailurus kidsarestupid, true crime, history, images, r/MorbidReality

Id: YM7EtmjwD7s

Length: 16min 27sec (987 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 12 2021