Ep. 134 the Witch of Pungo: How Grace Sherwood Became the Only Convicted Witch In Virginia and What Her Story Has to Teach Us Now
As it sometimes does, this week's topic presented itself to me. Determined to find out why the little known story of a woman most people have never heard of needed to be told so badly, I dug in. Join me to uncover the story of Grace Sherwood for yourself, the only woman ever to be convicted of witchcraft in Virginia. We'll examine the factors that led to Grace's conviction and the "recipe" for witch hunts that has plagued our past and potentially (but hopefully not!) our future. Support the show! Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)Buy some merchBuy Me a CoffeeVenmo @Shea-LaFountaineSources:Transcripts of Grace Sherwood's trial for witchcraft"A Place In Time: The Age of the Witch of Pungo" by Belinda Nash and Danielle SheetsSalem Witch Museum "Grace Sherwood: the 'Witch' of Pungo"Ferry Plantation "Trial of Grace Sherwood - the Witch of Pungo"Virginia Museum of History and Culture "Grace Sherwood: the 'Witch of Pungo'"The Washington Post "Va. Gov. Gives Informal Pardon to Witch"Wikipedia "Grace Sherwood"Shoot me a message!
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Ep. 133 Axeman of New Orleans: How a Serial Killer Terrorizing New Orleans Acquired a Reputation as a Jazz Enthusiast
Welcome to Spooktober! It's my favorite month on History Fix because I get to bust out all of the spooky stories I've been saving. This week, we're talking about the notorious serial killer who operated in New Orleans in the nineteen teens known as the Axeman. The Axeman attacked strictly Italian grocers, breaking into their houses with stolen axes to bludgeon them to death. This guy has been embraced by popular culture, appearing on television shows like American Horror Story, not because of his brutal acts or the fact that we still have no idea who he was today. He's been embraced mostly because of a letter that was published in the local newspaper purporting that he loved jazz music and would spare anyone listening to jazz on a particular night in the spring of 1919. But who was the Axeman? And what does any of this have to do with jazz? Let's fix that. Support the show! Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)Buy some merchBuy Me a CoffeeVenmo @Shea-LaFountaineSources: "The Axeman of New Orleans: The True Story" by Miriam DavisCountry Roads Magazine "The Axeman of New Orleans"Smithsonian Magazine "The Axeman of New Orleans Preyed on Italian Immigrants"The Historic New Orleans Collection "The Mysterious Axeman's Jazz"Wikipedia "Axeman of New Orleans"Shoot me a message!
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Ep. 132 Lost Cities Part 2: How Ancient Metropolises Have Been Forgotten to Some and Rediscovered
I'm back again this week with four more "lost cities" for you. First we'll explore the Egyptian city of Thonis-Heracleion that literally sank beneath the Mediterranean Sea and was rediscovered some 1,200 years later. Next, we'll hop over to Jordan to discover the ancient Nabataean city of Petra with it's grand facades etched into the red rock landscape. After that it's off to Cambodia to learn about the not actually lost at all Khmer city of Angkor. And finally the mountains of Peru where majestic and little understood Machu Picchu looms among the picturesque peaks. But, while it's fun to think about "lost cities," the obvious lesson of this week's episode is: be careful what you call "lost" and be careful how easily you throw out the term "discovered." These words carry weight and they've already caused a lot of damage. Let's fix that. Support the show! Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)Buy some merchBuy Me a CoffeeVenmo @Shea-LaFountaineSources: The Guardian "Lost Cities #6: how Thonis-Heracleion resurfaced after 1,000 years under water"The British Museum "Timeline of Ancient Egypt"Franckgoddio.org "Sunken Civilizations"National Geographic "Who built the 'lost city' of Petra and why did they leave?"Natural History Museum of Utah "Angkor: The 'Lost City' That Never Needed to be Discovered"Wikipedia "Angkor"Wikipedia "Machu Picchu"Shoot me a message!
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Ep. 131 Lost Cities Part 1: How Ancient Metropolises Have Been Forgotten to Some and Rediscovered
We'll be visiting 8 lost cities over the next couple of weeks! This week we'll journey to an ancient city of mythic proportions that most thought to be fictional until it was actually discovered in the mid 1800s: Troy of Homer's Iliad fame. Next we'll make our way to southern Pakistan to explore the ruins of the completely unknown and yet stunningly advanced city of Mohenjo Daro. Then we'll hop the pond to the jungles of Guatemala to get lost in the sprawling Maya capital city of El Mirador. And finally, we'll revisit Pompeii, an ancient Roman time capsule completely preserved in volcanic ash. Support the show! Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)Buy some merchBuy Me a CoffeeVenmo @Shea-LaFountaineSources: The British Museum "The search for the lost city of Troy"BBC "Did the Trojan War actually happen?BBC "Pakistan's lost city of 40,000 people"National Geographic "Recovering the lost city of Mohenjo Daro"Smithsonian Magazine "El Mirador, the Lost City of the Maya"Wikipedia "El Mirador"History Fix Episode 18 "Pompeii"Shoot me a message!
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Ep. 130 Shakespeare: How An Uneducated Nobody Penned the Greatest Collection of Literary Works Ever Written... or Did He?
William Shakespeare is undoubtedly one of the greatest literary geniuses of all time. Author of over 30 plays and over 150 poems, he masterfully knit together over 20,000 English words, all out inventing some 1,700 of them, to beautifully capture full ranges of complex emotions and subtle nuances of human nature that still capture audiences over 400 years later. Pretty impressive for a 16th century man from a modest family with only a grammar school education, illiterate parents, illiterate children, who never left the country, didn’t seem to own any books, and has no surviving handwritten letters or documents of any kind today. So impressive, in fact, it actually raises some pretty big questions. How exactly did a man like William Shakespeare write such an impressive collection of literary masterpieces? Or didn’t he? Let’s fix that. Support the show! Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)Buy some merchBuy Me a CoffeeVenmo @Shea-LaFountaineSources: poets.org "About William Shakespeare"Shakespeare Birthplace Trust "William Shakespeare Biography"shakespeareauthorship.com "How Do We Know That Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare?"History Extra "The Globe Theatre Fire of 1613"Book Brunch "The British and Reading: a Short History"Shakespeare Birthplace Trust "Shakespeare's Words"History.com "10 Things You Didn't Know About William Shakespeare"Encyclopedia Britannica "William Shakespeare"biography.com "Was Shakespeare the Real Author of His Plays?"EBSCO "Shakespeare Authorship Question"Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship "How Wrote Shakespeare? Shakespeare Authorship 101"Shoot me a message!
In each episode of History Fix, I discuss lesser known stories from history that you won't be able to stop thinking about. Need your history fix? You've come to the right place.Support the show at buymeacoffee.com/historyfix or Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine. Your donations make it possible for me to continue creating great episodes. Plus, I'll love you forever! Find more at historyfixpodcast.com
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