Editing Chang and Eng Bunker (section)

===Conflicts on tour===

In summer 1831, Hale took the twins on a retreat in [[Lynnfield, Massachusetts]]. While hunting game, they thought they were being taunted and harassed by over a dozen local men who had approached them, going on to strike a man named Elbridge Gerry<!--Not the same as [[Elbridge Gerry]], as he had been dead for 17 years--> with the butt of their gun. Gerry retaliated, throwing a heavy stone at one twin's head, drawing blood. The twins then fired at Gerry, though the gun was [[blank (cartridge)|blank]]. The men ran off. The following day, one of the men pressed charges, alleging that the twins were at fault. A special court was convened, and the brothers were arrested for disturbing the peace and paid bond for good behavior.{{sfn|Orser|2014|pp=45–46: The bond was $200, {{inflation|US|200|1831|fmt=eq}}}} The ''[[Salem Mercury]]'' portrayed the twins as the victims of the Lynnfield incident; other papers followed suit. Two weeks after the event, Gerry published a letter titled "To the Public", saying that the twins had provoked the violence. Hale was angered that the twins had gotten into a situation in which their public image could be slandered. He resigned as their manager in September 1831 and was replaced by a friend, Charles Harris.{{sfn|Orser|2014|pp= 46–47, 50–51, 53}} Hale counseled Harris; for example, he could avoid paying a Virginia exhibition tax through careful marketing: he was to call the twins' tour a "business", not a "show". In the public eye, Abel Coffin, the man who first brought them to the United States, continued to serve as a [[father figure]] to the twins.{{sfn|Orser|2014|pp=54–55}}

The twins were soon involved in another conflict, during a performance in Alabama. A surgeon in attendance asked to conduct a close examination of the ligature connecting the twins. They refused, having not permitted close inspections for more than two years. Rising in anger, the doctor said, "You are all a set of impostors and pickpockets", and disorder erupted as guests threw objects across the room. The twins fled and later, because they probably were the first ones to disturb the peace, paid a good-behavior bond as ordered by a magistrate.{{sfn|Orser|2014|pp=61–62: The bond was $350, {{inflation|US|350|1831|fmt=eq}}}}

Relations between the twins and the Coffins strained beginning in January 1831 when Abel's wife, Susan Coffin, upset the twins by refusing their requests. Chang and Eng then started asking Harris to send letters pleading their cases. In one instance, Mrs. Coffin refused the twins an additional $3 per week to feed their horse, a refusal the twins compared to clipping a bird's wings and saying, "Now you may fly if you wish". Harris first maintained a distinction between his and the twins' point of view but eventually wrote using their voice and had them sign their names, "Chang Eng".{{sfn|Orser|2014|pp=63–64}}

Abel Coffin left for Asia in late 1831 and planned to return to America by January 1832.{{sfn|Orser|2014|pp=64, 66}} After January passed, the twins' relations with Mrs. Coffin broke down completely, the twins regularly asking when Abel Coffin would return. They hoped to be free from commitment to the Coffins on their 21st birthday (in May 1832), as Abel had once promised. They also worried that, should he never return, they would remain in permanent limbo between contract and freedom. They began also to think that Mrs. Coffin was "deceitful and greedy" as they learned of the Coffins' management practices. For instance, Mrs. Coffin had encouraged them to perform when they were sick. During one trip, the Coffins had paid full fare for themselves but booked the twins into steerage, listing them as servants, and lied then to them when they were questioned. And the twins learned that Mrs. Coffin was willing to pay a higher wage only for a certain attendant, not the one whom the twins preferred. They jointly came to believe that Mrs. Coffin "had misled me".{{sfn|Orser|2014|pp=55, 64–67}}