Editing P. T. Barnum (section)

==Career beginnings ==
Barnum ran several businesses, including a general store, a book-auctioning trade, real estate speculation and a statewide lottery network. He started a weekly newspaper in 1831 called ''[[The Herald of Freedom]]'' in [[Bethel, Connecticut]].<ref>{{cite book |last= Barnum |first= Phineas Taylor |title = Barnum's Own Story: The Autobiography of P.T. Barnum |date= 1927 |publisher= Viking Press | location= New York |page= 41|chapter= Chapter V, Brief Editorial Career, Removal to New York |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0CQYAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA41  }}</ref> His editorials against the elders of local churches led to libel suits and prosecution, and he was imprisoned for two months. While incarcerated, Barnum sought the help of [[L.F.W. Andrews|Rev. L.F.W. Andrews]], publisher of the ''Gospel Witness'' from Hartford. Barnum and Andrews then published a joint paper, the ''Herald of Freedom and Gospel Witness.''<ref>{{cite news| title = Gospel Witness, A Card| work= Herald of Freedom and Gospel Witness| location = Bethel, CT| date = October 17, 1832| page= 1| volume= 2| issue = 1| via=Connecticut Digital Archive |url  = https://collections.ctdigitalarchive.org/islandora/object/60002%3A92#page/1/mode/2up }}</ref> They dissolved their partnership a year later in October 1833.<ref>{{cite news| title = Bad News | work= Boston Post| location = Boston, MA| date = October 29, 1883| page= 2| volume= 5| issue = 39| via=Newspapers.com |url  = https://www.newspapers.com/image/56416882/?terms=%22Herald%20of%20freedom%22&match=1 }}</ref> Barnum then moved the publication of the paper to neighboring [[Danbury, Connecticut]].<ref>{{cite book |last= Bailey |first= James Montgomery |title = History of Danbury, Conn. 1684–1896 |date= 1896 |publisher= Burr Printing House | location= New York |page= 197|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=RcbiAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22herald+of+freedom%22+1831&pg=PA197   }}</ref>

In November 1834, after publishing 160 issues of the ''Herald of Freedom'', Barnum passed control of the paper to his brother-in-law, John W. Amerman, who published the paper for another year in [[Norwalk, Connecticut]]. When Amerman sold the paper to Mr. George Taylor, the Barnum family's connection to the ''Herald of Freedom'' ended.<ref>{{cite book |last= Barnum |first= Phineas Taylor |title = Struggles and Triumphs or Forty Years' Recollections of P.T. Barnum |date= 1872 |publisher= Warren, Johnson & Co | location= Buffalo, NY |chapter = Chapter IV Struggles for Livelihood | url= https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/50115/pg50115-images.html#CHAPTER_IV }}</ref> Barnum sold his store in 1834.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}

He began his career as a showman in 1835 at the age of 25 with the purchase and exhibition of a blind and almost completely paralyzed slave woman named [[Joice Heth]], whom an acquaintance was billing around Philadelphia as [[George Washington]]'s 161 year-old former nurse. Slavery was already outlawed in New York, but Barnum exploited a loophole that allowed him to lease Heth for a year for $1,000, borrowing $500 to complete the sale. Barnum forced her to work for 10 to 12 hours per day, and she died in February 1836 at no more than 80 years of age. Barnum hosted a live autopsy of Heth's body in a New York saloon to demonstrate her actual age before spectators paying 50 cents each.<ref name=Mansky>{{citation |url= https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pt-barnum-greatest-humbug-them-all-180967634/ |title= P. T. Barnum Isn't the Hero the 'Greatest Showman' Wants You To Think |last= Mansky |first=Jackie| work = smithsonianmag.com |publisher= Smithsonian |date= December 22, 2017}}</ref><ref name=freed>{{cite web|url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA02/freed/Barnum/joiceheth.html|title=Joice Heth| first=Robin |last=Freed| publisher=MA candidate, [[University of Virginia]] American Studies Department |access-date=April 8, 2007|archive-date=May 18, 2002|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20020518211717/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA02/freed/Barnum/joiceheth.html}}</ref>