Freedmen’s Bureau and the McCoy Custody Battle
Millie Christine McCoy were conjoined twins born into slavery in Whiteville, North Carolina. Known as “The Carolina Twins” and the “Two-Headed Nightingale,” the enslaved twins were exhibited before the Civil War as circus and sideshow attractions in parts of the United States and Europe.
In October 1865, Jacob and Monemia McCoy appealed to the Freedmen’s Bureau for help regaining custody of their twin daughters, Millie Christine. Mary A. Smith, the last enslaver of the McCoy family, exhibited the twins as side show attractions and refused to emancipate the twins after the end of slavery – separating them from their family for eight years. Smith coerced the McCoy’s into signing a contract stipulating the twins remain with her for five years, promising the twins’ parents part of the profits from their performances.
Smith, along with local law enforcement, told the McCoys that emancipation “would not last.” The McCoys reported this to the Freedmen’s Bureau, initiating an investigation and trial that would last several months.
Although we speak of ourselves in the plural we feel as but one person . . . although we bear the names Millie and Christina, one thing is certain, we would not wish to be severed, even if science could effect a separation. We are contented with our lot and are happy as the day is long. We have but one heart, one feeling in common, one desire, one purpose.
Millie Christine McCoy, “The History of the Carolina Twins”
In North Carolina, one of the Bureau’s most protracted fights was its effort to end apprenticeship contracts where Black children worked for white families after slavery. It took the enforcement of a new state law in 1867 to end this practice by officially making such contracts null and void.
Jacob and Monemia presented the Bureau with a contract they had drawn up with lawyers from New York City. Under the contract with Ladd & Cartwright, Jacob and Monemia stipulated that the twins should be treated humanely and could not be handled by others. Mary A. Smith frequently subjected Millie Christine to invasive examinations by doctors and scientists. The McCoys appointed a woman named Nancy Hurley to travel and care for the twins while they traveled. They also stipulated regular monthly payments.
The Bureau ordered Mary A. Smith to appear for trial with the twins in November 1865. When she appeared without the girls, Bureau agents suspected Smith planned to smuggle Millie Christine to Europe if the court ruled against her. Smith was promptly arrested.
Bureau agent Clinton Cilley ruled that Millie Christine should be returned to their parents however, the contract Jacob and Monemia signed with Mary A. Smith was legally binding. Before the contract could take effect, Cilley stipulated that by North Carolina law, Jacob McCoy had the right to appoint a guardian for his daughters and enforce fair payments. Noting the twins were 14 years old, Cilley believed them to “able to think for themselves” and should have a say in redrafting the terms of the contract.
The McCoy’s contract with Ladd & Cartwright was deemed unlawful and would not take effect.
Days after his initial ruling, Cilley reversed his decision. He decided that the contract Jacob and Monemia McCoy were coerced into signing was valid under North Carolina law but added a provision that Mary A. Smith pay the McCoys five thousand dollars if she did not fulfill her contractual obligations. His reversal mentions as partial justification that Smith taught Millie Christine to read and write.
Millie Christine remained in Mary A. Smith’s custody and continued to perform. Jacob and Monemia McCoy appear in Freedmen’s Bureau records in 1866—they never stopped trying to regain custody of their daughters.
In 1869, a biography on the twins, titled History and Medical Description of the Two-Headed Girl, was sold during their public appearances. Joanne Fish Martell, former court reporter, discovered a memoir written by the girls at the age of 17 and used that and other sources to create her book Millie-Christine: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, which was published in 2000. The twins’ motto was “As God decreed, we agreed,” and they strove to turn impediments into assets. As toddlers, they were clumsy and fell down quite frequently. They eventually developed a sideways walk that turned into a crowd-pleasing dance style. They were able to master keyboard duets with one soprano and one alto voice, and learned to harmonize.
The McCoy story highlights the limits of freedom in Reconstruction era-America—and highlights the shortcomings of the Freedmen’s Bureau.