“All who have seen this extraordinary woman are satisfied of the truth of the account of her age. The evidence of the Bowling family, which is respectable, is strong, but the original bill of sale of Augustine Washington, in his own handwriting, and other evidence which the proprietor has in his possession, will satisfy even the most incredulous. “A lady will attend at the hall during the afternoon and evening for the accommodation of those ladies who may call.” Mr. Coley Bartram told Barnum that this extraordinary slave was now owned by R. W. Lindsay, who was exhibiting her in Philadelphia, but who did not have much ability as a showman and was therefore anxious to sell his purchase and return to his home in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Barnum was excited. He had read short paragraphs about this negress in the New York newspapers, and he had been interested, but this detailed description of her superb qualifications for his purposes enthralled him. He hurried to Philadelphia to look at Joice Heth, and he was “favorably impressed with the appearance of the old woman,” who “might almost as well have been called a thousand years old as any other age.” She was lying on a lounge, her lower extremities doubled up. She could move one of her arms, but the other was stiffly clasped to her breast, and both legs were completely beyond her control and could not be straightened. She was blind, and she had no teeth. Thick, bushy, savage gray hair added to her value as a monstrosity. The nails of her left hand, which lay immovable across her breast, were four inches long, and as the fingers were helplessly turned down, the nails extended above the wrist; her toe nails were equally large. Joice Heth was sociable, and she could talk intelligibly with any one who would talk with her. She referred to George Washington as “dear little George,” swore that she was present at his birth, and that she was the first person to put clothes on the future father of his country. “In fact,” she told Barnum, and it was one of her favorite expressions, “I raised him.” Mr. Lindsay showed Barnum the bill of sale from Augustine Washington, George Washington’s father, dated February 5, 1727, by which Augustine Washington deeded to his sister-in-law and neighbor, Elizabeth Atwood, “one negro woman, named Joice Heth, aged fifty-four years, for and in consideration of the sum of thirty-three pounds lawful money of Virginia.” Five years later, when George Washington was born, Joice Heth, being an old family nurse, was called in to assist at his arrival and in his subsequent education, according to her story.