MILLIE CHRISTINE MCCOY

SINGER, DANCER, MULTILINGUALISM, MUSICIAN, PHILANTHROPIST

Article by Jada Hampton

In July of 1851 on the McKay plantation in Welches Creek, North Carolina, a pair of twins, known as Millie-Christine McCoy, were born into slavery.

The twins were born into a relatively normal family of 5 boys and 2 girls but there was one exceptional circumstance-they were conjoined.

They would go on to experience both a turbulent childhood and an adult life that earned them worldwide renown for their many gifts and talents.

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A Chaotic Beginning

Upon their birth, they were subject to the curiosity and fascination of many and were of special interest to their owner who recognized their potential to earn him money.

Within ten months, Jabez McKay separated the McCoy family and leased the twins for one-thousand dollars to John Pervis with the agreement that their mother, Menemia, would travel with them.

They also agreed that if Pervis were to sell the twins, Menemia would be “returned” back to McKay since she was, as a slave, his property.

Sadly, she had no control over what would happen to Millie-Christine and would eventually be separated from the twins for years.

Over the next few years of their early life, the twins were manipulated, kidnapped, and used for the profit of other men.

After Pervis sold the twins to a showman by the name of Brower, they endured a cruel, long cycle of being passed from hand to hand, from owner to owner until they were kidnapped by William Thompson and his business partner who forced them overseas to England.

A merchant, John Pearson Smith, who had previously helped another showman gain ownership of them, made the decision to purchase Millie-Christine’s entire family in order to secure ownership of the twins who had, by this time, gained international attention and fame.

Smith took Thompson to court and Menemia passionately pleaded for the return of Millie-Christine to their family, which the judge granted.

Two Become One

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United with family and on the Smith plantation, the twins started to craft their own identity, something they hadn’t been allowed to do for much of their life.

Though conjoined with two heads, two arms, and two legs, Millie-Christine saw themselves as one person-as she, instead of they.

She became well-educated and developed a variety of talents including dancing, singing, the speaking of foreign languages, and instrumentation.

She also proudly adopted and proclaimed the Christian faith, which she credits to be the result of her time with Mrs. Smith.

Her relationship with the Smiths, though in bondage to them, she claimed was one of gratitude and trust, being that so much of her younger life was filled with horrific abuse and neglect.

When Mr. Smith died and after the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves from their owners, she chose to stay on the plantation and support the Smiths and her family by touring again, at around 14 years of age.

This time, Millie-Christine was able to tour on her own terms, meaning no forced shows or medical exams, and was assisted by the son of Mr. and Mrs. Smith who managed her affairs.

Public Life and Perception

Millie-Christine was referred to as the “Colored Two-Headed Freak” or the “Eighth Wonder of the World” but was most commonly known as the “Carolina Twins” and the “Two- Headed Nightingale”.

She drew a worldwide audience as people marveled at her many talents, especially her ability to sing and harmonize hence the nickname “Nightingale”.

The twins were described as “highly- educated”, “pleasing”, and “bewitching” gaining the reverence and admiration of onlookers, onlookers as high as the royal family, including Queen Victoria, in Buckingham Palace as well as the Osbourne House.

A show with Millie-Christine could include a dazzling entrance, a beautiful duet, a charming conversation in various languages, a dancing duet, or the telling of her own peculiar life history.

Later Years

Millie-Christine McCoy was believed to have amassed a wealth as high as half a million dollars in her life.

In her later years, she went on to buy the plantation on which she was born and built a house of her own for her father, which she and her family inherited when he died.

Around 1900, she retired and sought to help others through community activism.

With a giving heart, in the quiet years of her life, she gave to charities, educational institutions, and founded her own school for black children.

She died in 1912, at 61 years of age and is buried in the Welches Creek Cemetery in Whiteville. The twins never married or fell in love due to the unique and special circumstances of their connectedness.

However, Millie- Christine knew the unbreakable love of twins who, as inscribed on their grave stone, were a “soul with two thoughts- two hearts that beat as one”.

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