Conjoined twins from NC who escaped slavery, performed for royalty died 109 years ago
Millie and Christine McKoy had a tumultuous introduction to the world.
Apart from being conjoined, the twins were born into slavery on a blacksmith’s farm in Columbus County near the coast of North Carolina. Historical records suggest they were sold to profiteers for entertainment, kidnapped and smuggled into England all before the ages of 10.
But Millie-Christine, as the twins became known, found fame when they finally returned home. The pair died hours apart on this day 109 years ago, a success in their own right and — as they believed themselves — more one person than two.
“A soul with two thoughts,” their headstone reads. “Two hearts that beat as one.”
Abducted by profiteers
Millie and Christine were born in 1851, connected at the lower spine and sharing one pelvis, according to the North American Slave Narratives at UNC Chapel Hill. In an undated biographical pamphlet purportedly written by one of the twins, they described a nurse as being unsure as to whether they were babies or “something else” at birth.
Their parents, Jacob and Monemia, were owned by Jabez McKay, who sold Millie and Christine for $1,000 when they were 10 months old to a showman interested in exhibiting them, according to the Slave Narratives.
The twins later modified his last name and adopted it as their own.
Millie-Christine eventually ended up with a man named Joseph Pearson Smith, according to NCPedia. Historical accounts differ as to what Smith paid for them — anywhere from $6,000 to $30,000 — but he was described as their “last manager and legal owner.”
Billed as “The Carolina Twins,” Smith hired Millie and Christine out to different shows, including P.T. Barnum’s American Museum in New York City, according to the Slave Narratives.
It was during this time that one of the showmen exhibiting the twins reportedly kidnapped them.
“Taking advantage of the absence of our kind master and guardian, the man absolutely kidnapped us, stole us from our mother, and bore us far away from friends, kindred, or any one who had a right to feel an interest in us,” the biographical pamphlet states.
By the twins’ account, they were kept from the public eye for two years and instead offered on loan to “scientific bodies” before being passed off to another owner who took them to England.
Smith tracked them down and, with the help of the twin’s mother, sued to regain custody, according to the Slave Narratives. He won, and Millie and Christine were returned to Wadesboro, North Carolina.
‘We have but one heart’
The twins came back to the U.S. around 1860, according to NCPedia, and Smith “hid them in the countryside” during the Civil War. His wife taught them to read, write, sing, dance, play the piano and speak different languages, the Slave Narratives states.
They reportedly opted to stay with the Smiths after they were freed.
Millie and Christine were “prosperous after emancipation,” according to the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Billed as the “Carolina Nightingale” or the “Two Headed Nightingale,” the twins became renowned singers and dancers with Millie singing alto and Christine singing soprano, NCPedia said.
Millie-Christine performed publicly for 30 years — including for England’s Queen Victoria, who “wrote about them in her journal and even gave them jewelry,” according to the Brighton Museums.
The visit was also mentioned in the twins’ pamphlet.
“We can say that ‘Victoria was a woman’ for she talked tenderly to us, and to our mother, and when we left we bore away abundant tokens of her good feeling and queenly liberality,” the pamphlet states.
According to NCPedia, the twins eventually bought the property where they were born and built a 10-bedroom house on it, although a descendant of the McKay family disputes that it wasn’t actually a nearby farm they purchased.
That house reportedly burned down in 1909 and Millie died of tuberculosis three years later on Oct. 8, 1912.
It’s said her sister, who was given morphine to dull the pain, lived for another 17 hours.
The twins, who were regarded so much as one person that the railroad lines reportedly issued them a single ticket on their journeys, were buried together in a remote cemetery about 120 miles south of Raleigh.
“Although we speak of ourselves in the plural we feel as but one person; in fact as such we have ever been regarded, although we bear the names Millie and Christina,” the pamphlet reportedly penned by one of them reads. “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.”
