Biography

Christine McKoy was born enslaved in 1851 in North Carolina to Jacob and Monemia who were enslaved to Jabez McKay. She was conjoined to her twin sister Millie McKoy. The twins were sold multiple times, as well as kidnapped on two separate occasions by enterprising thieves who wished to profit from their celebrity. Millie and her sister remained in the "guardianship" of their last owner, Mary A. Smith, even after the Civil War. In later years, the twins purchased the home of their previous enslaver from the profits of their international engagements. Frances "Fanny" Seward provides a detailed account of her meeting with the sisters in her 1866 diary while in Washington, DC.