The Muse brothers, George and Will, were African American albinos living in Truevine, Virginia. In 1899, when they were six and nine years old, they were either kidnapped or sold to a circus passing through their hometown. They traveled with various circuses as part of their “freak shows” for more than a decade. They were told that there mother was dead, when, in fact, she spent all that time trying to locate them.
Macy’s narrative is part an historical review of life for Blacks in the Jim Crow South, part biography of the Muse brothers and their mother, and part description of the rise and fall of the American traveling circus. Because Macy tried to cover three different topics, she never gave an in depth rendering of any.