The amazing story of the oldest Siamese twins in the world: they married, had children and worked without separating them
With a total of 21 children, the name of the brothers Chang and Eng Banker is still registered in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest number of unseparated twin births in history.
And this number will remain unbreakable, not only because of the large number of children, but also because of the medical progress that made separating conjoined twins possible after it was impossible in the nineteenth century AD, which was highlighted by the official website of the World Encyclopedia, pointing to a black and mysterious history for months. Conjoined twins through the ages.
The Banker brothers were the first to be called the "Siamese twins", as they were born in 1811 in Siam (now Thailand), and they lived together for 63 years without separation, and their fame spread globally after they immigrated to the United States of America, and each conjoined twin later became described as a "Siamese". .
After a Scottish businessman named Robert Hunter saw the two brothers at the age of 13 (in 1824), he sought to invest their condition to make money, and persuaded the twins to come to the United States. But taking the step of emigration took about 5 years because they were not convinced of the idea, in addition to circulating news at the time that the then King of Siam prevented the two brothers from leaving the country.
However, Chang and Eng finally arrived in America in 1829, at the age of 17, and made a name and a small fortune by touring the United States. These performances saw him perform coordinated body movements, such as somersaults and swimming, which were the source of great wealth for Hunter.
But after the Banker brothers toured the British Isles and learned English, they ended their contract with Hunter and took the reins on their own, and began to perform for audiences in a more formal setting than their previous shows, through conferences in which they delivered speeches and answered questions from the audience.
The first Siamese twins eventually settled in North Carolina and became naturalized, and each bought a farm to settle for "their own children", as they were both supporters of slavery.
Here, the Guinness Book of Records indicates that the Banker twins' possession of slaves is a stigma that negatively affected the way the public viewed them when they returned to performing after the American Civil War.
The twins married sisters Adelaide and Sarah Yates, and the two families had separate homes, but their lives were not separated, even for an hour, given that the Banker brothers remained conjoined until their death. The four couples spent 3 days in each house separately, and Chang and Adelaide had 10 children, while Ng and Sarah had 11 children.
Guinness notes that documentation of how the Banker twins act in their intimate relationship with their wives has been faltering, but it points out that the difference between each two children in the same age group does not exceed 4 or 5 days only, which indicates "some coordination" ruling the process of giving birth to the two brothers and their wives.
In 1850, more than half of the Bunker Twins' slaves were under the age of seven, and these children would either grow up to be sold for profit, or work on plantations owned by the brothers. The American press described the Bunker twins' treatment of slave children as cruel, but Chang and Eng rejected these accusations.
In his late fifties, Zhang suffered a stroke, which did not kill him, but left him severely exhausted, requiring his brother Eng to help him with most daily tasks.
On January 17, 1874, Chang died in his sleep, and Ng woke up to find his brother dead, and he knew that he would die soon, which happened after only about two hours.
The final autopsy stated that Zhang most likely died of a blood clot in his brain, while the cause of Ng's death remained unclear.
The prevailing explanation is that Eng died of shock after discovering the death of his conjoined twin, while other explanations indicate that he died of blood loss, after the failure of the continuation of his blood circulation, related to his deceased brother.
Today, Chang and Eng have thousands of grandchildren, and each May their extended family gathers together to celebrate the legacy of their famous grandparents...albeit a legacy tainted by the darkness of slavery and exploitation.