Learn how circus impresario P. T. Barnum’s “Grand Ethnological Congress,” a touring act that showcased people of different races from all over the world, exemplified the troubling “us and them” racist and imperialist mentality of the era, in this video excerpted from The Circus | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. In 1882, Barnum wrote to U.S. consuls in countries around the world hoping to acquire what he referred to as “specimens” from different cultures and races to exhibit to the public. He ultimately contracted with people from Asia, Australia, Europe, the American West, and Africa—some against their will—to be part of the circus’s sideshows exhibited in the animal menagerie.