Currencies of Cruelty
Slavery, Freak Shows, and the Performance Archive
Book •
Danielle Bainbridge's 'Currencies of Cruelty' investigates how archival practices and performance economies intertwined to commodify and devalue Black and disabled bodies during the transition from slavery to legal freedom.
Focusing centrally on conjoined twins Millie Christine McCoy and Chang and Eng Bunker, the book traces how performers born into slavery navigated sideshows, legal systems, and public spectacle.
Bainbridge blends historical research and archival theory to argue that performance labor functioned as another form of extraction that shaped futurity and visibility.
The work interrogates autobiographies, medical reports, museum displays, and performance pieces to reveal tensions between agency and exploitation.
Ultimately, the book challenges narratives of labor and human worth, connecting past practices to contemporary understandings of value and visibility.
Focusing centrally on conjoined twins Millie Christine McCoy and Chang and Eng Bunker, the book traces how performers born into slavery navigated sideshows, legal systems, and public spectacle.
Bainbridge blends historical research and archival theory to argue that performance labor functioned as another form of extraction that shaped futurity and visibility.
The work interrogates autobiographies, medical reports, museum displays, and performance pieces to reveal tensions between agency and exploitation.
Ultimately, the book challenges narratives of labor and human worth, connecting past practices to contemporary understandings of value and visibility.
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Danielle Bainbridge, "Currencies of Cruelty: Slavery, Freak Shows, and the Performance Archive" (NYU Press, 2026)
