The Original Siamese Twins Were Even Slave Owners

Why does history insist on breaking your heart?

There was more to Chang and Eng's story than white's ever let on, when I was a child, probably because white's thought it so normal:

"North Carolina was a slave state but under U.S. law, the [original Siamese] twins counted as white,... 

Canny and industrious businessmen,...the twins who had been leased out as teenagers themselves became slave-owners, buying dozens to work their new plantation.”

And why not? They "counted as white" - just as whites "count" today - so what else was there to do?

Certainly not their own damned "canny and industrious" work,...