The 1842 article “The Mermaid” included in the Penguin Book of mermaids, responds to the sensation of P.T Barnum’s Feejee mermaid, along with accounts throughout history that have proven mermaids to be real through sightings and observations of mermaids. The descriptions of these sightings varied greatly, from 1187 to the present publication in 1842, specifically on descriptions of race and beauty. The article detailing the human treatment of mermaids, as well as perceptions of beauty inform how this era of imperialist expansion, colonization, and enslavement of Africans in the U.S viewed female and ethnic bodies, and justified their subjugation.

Two of the mermaids described are living freakshows, unlike Barnum’s Feejee mermaid mummy. In 1758 a black mermaid was “exhibited at the fair of ST. Germain” and is described as such: “It was female, with ugly negro features. The skin was harsh, the ears very large, and the back parts and the tail were covered with scales(p.243).” Besides this physical description, the mermaid was kept and fed in a tank where it swam with “seeming delight(p.243)” despite its being caged

The second live exhibition described took place in London 1775: “It was therefore an Asiastic mermaid. The description is as follows: –Its face is like that of a young female– its eyes a fine light blue– its nose small and handsome– its mouth small– its lips thin, and the edges of them round like that of the codfish–its teeth are small, regular and white–its chin well shaped, and its neck full (p.243)

The Mermaid editorial, points to a cultural shift in the mermaid’s symbolism in popular culture. This cultural shift occurs in the West as the United States becomes an imperialistic force in the global south, and conversations of slavery and the subjugation of Black people in the southern states come into focus in the years prior to the Civil War. 

The sheer difference in these two descriptions makes a stark comparison between the races of these two creatures. The attempt to comment on this growing fascination with the link between animals and humans, “also comments on the prevalence of racial pseudoscience, such as phrenology, being used to perpetuate racism as a norm in the scientific community. The 19th-century mermaid becomes a vehicle to explore and support the supposed logic in scientific racism and the growing eugenicist movement that will define the century to come.