May 30, 2019 • 9 mins
Sometimes history vanishes beneath a layer of dirt and needs to be rediscovered. Other times, though, history is alive right in front of you. We'll explore both types of history on today's tour.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of curiosities. Our time on this
(00:28):
earth is often short. Disease and unforeseen circumstances can make
it even shorter. Compared to the Red Sea urchin, which
is known to live for as long as two hundred years,
our lives can be seen as a blip, a gust
of wind coming in and blowing out in an instant.
It's rare for a person to live past ninety years
(00:48):
of age, even rarer for and one hundred is reserved
for only the most special people. Less than one percent
of the American population lives to be one hundred, and
that entage goes down from there as their ages go up.
But one man beat the odds. If someone had written
a novel about him, readers would have called it science fiction.
(01:10):
He was a man out of time, with firsthand knowledge
of experiences that the rest of us could only read
about in books. And his name was Sylvester. His story
is one of a kind. Born on a North Carolina
plantation in eighteen forty one. Sylvester's younger years were tough.
He was a slave, as were his parents, and he
(01:32):
worked alongside them until he turned nineteen. That's when his
owner sold him to another plantation in Mississippi. When the
Civil War started, he assisted the owner in securing guns
for the Confederate Army, which automatically made the young slave
a Confederate soldier. Yeah, Sylvester had unknowingly been enlisted to
the side trying to keep him a slave. It's not
(01:55):
like he had a choice, but he eventually got the
upper hand a few years later when he escaped north
and joined the Union Army. Once away from his old life,
Sylvester soon found himself alongside almost scores of other soldiers
as part of General Grant's Vicksburg's Campaign and the Battle
of Champion Hill. He had no fighting experience and he'd
never been in a war before, but he held on
(02:16):
to his faith, which helped him calm some of the
more frightened soldiers around him. Sylvester was freed after the
war and went back to Mississippi, where he found work
on a farm, eventually settling down to work at a
local sawmill, and that's where his story ended well, ended
is the wrong word. Paused is more like it. You see,
(02:37):
many years later, the people of Collins, Mississippi held a
birthday party for him. A five layer cake was brought
in adorned with a lot of candles. That's because this
party was held in nineteen sixty five. Yes, the Civil
War veteran had lived to the unheard age of one
hundred twenty four and naturally his story reached the historian
(02:58):
named Alfred Andrews, who helped get so investor classified officially
as a veteran of the Civil War, despite there being
no record of his ever having served. But Sylvester didn't
need a piece of paper saying he'd been a soldier.
He told Andrews stories about the war, about specific battles
no one else would have known. He spoke in exceptional
detail about his experiences, establishing himself as the oldest and
(03:21):
last surviving former American slave. When you think about a
life as long as Sylvester McGee's, you realize he didn't
just survive one war. He also lived through two World wars,
the Korean War and Vietnam, until finally passing away in
nineteen seventy one. And what makes his story even more
powerful is what else he witnessed. He began his life
(03:45):
in servitude, only to see the end of the Civil
War and the end of slavery in the United States.
One years later, he saw the signing of the Civil
Rights Act of nineteen sixty four, a law that prohibited
discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
He watched the first black woman win an Academy award.
(04:06):
He saw schools desegregate, and sadly, he lived to see
the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King. Despite the bad
news he witnessed, though there was a lot of good too.
And one thing is certain, Sylvester McGhee lived a full life,
perhaps more than any other American citizen. Time is a
(04:28):
funny thing, after all, But if we managed to stick
around long enough, there's no telling the kinds of stories
we'll be able to tell. Sylvester McGee knew that better
than anyone else. Benjamin Franklin is best known as one
(04:55):
of America's founding fathers, partly responsible for our independence from
great Written a politician, inventor, author, and Polly Maath, Franklin
was a man with an insatiable curiosity. However, behind his
striking wit and boundless intellect beat the heart of someone
with more than a few secrets. Remember, Franklin's work took
(05:17):
him all over the world. In seventeen sixty four, he
traveled to London to advocate on behalf of the American
colonists against new taxes being imposed on them. For ten years,
he tried to make the case for lower taxes on
his people back home, but found himself blocked at every turn. However,
while living in England during this period of time, Franklin
(05:37):
needed to occupy his days with other pursuits. He was
used to expanding his mind with scientific and artistic endeavors
back in Philadelphia, so he continued to invent and write.
But it was inside his London home that evidence of
some of his more questionable work would be discovered. Over
two hundred years later, in a group calling them selves
(06:00):
the Friends of Benjamin Franklin, House had started turning Franklin's
former London abode into a museum all about him. A
worthy pursuit and a noble cause, for sure. A few
weeks into the process, though, one of the construction workers
who had been renovating the basement came across a pit
in the floor, big enough to hold a person. It
was in the middle of a room devoid of windows
(06:22):
and positioned far from the street, a room that was
for all intents and purposes hidden and soundproof. And down
in the pit, sticking straight out like a weed, was
a human bone. The worker called the police, who allowed
the team to continue their work. Bit by bit, a
team of workers carefully uncovered over one thousand bone fragments
(06:44):
in Franklin's basement, some of which had been carved into,
while others had been sawed straight through, and there was
evidence someone had drilled into several of the skulls. They found.
The shards belonged to ten victims, six of whom were children,
all of which were over two hundred years old. Perhaps
the charming diplomat who had invented bifocals and the glass
(07:05):
armonica also pursued a career as a serial killer. The police,
upon learning of the age of the bones, chose not
to pursue an investigation. After all, how do you prosecute
a founding father. But historians were curious. They documented all
the fragments and began running tests. It was clear something
heinous had gone down in Franklin's home well heinous by
(07:29):
today's standards. No, Benjamin Franklin was not a serial killer.
He didn't cut up people in his basement. He let
his friend William Houston do that. Houston was a medical
student with a passion for studying the internal workings of
the human body. However, once he and his former teacher
parted way, Houston was left without a laboratory to continue
(07:51):
his work. Luckily, his friend Benjamin Franklin lived nearby with
a basement large enough for him to dissect his bodies
in peace. It's best. Woman's were hard to come by,
so Houston resorted to grave robbing. He'd sneak the bodies
in under cover of night, perform his work, and then
bury what remained so he wouldn't get caught trying to
get rid of the evidence. He never killed anyone on
(08:12):
his own, but that didn't mean his methods were ethical.
It's not clear whether Franklin participated or even knew about
the experiments going on in his basement. When he returned
to America, he continued to let Houston use the house
for his work. If only his friend had been more careful.
In the spring of seventeen seventy four, while dissecting a cadaver,
(08:35):
Dr Houston cut himself and contracted an infection which eventually
turned into sepsis. He died a short while later, but
don't worry, his bones were not among the others found
in Franklin's house. Dr William Houston was given a proper
burial in Saint Martin in the Fields Churchyard in London,
and Franklin, well, he really didn't have any skeletons in
(08:58):
his closet after all, but he did keep quite a
few in his basement. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
(09:20):
Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious.
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of curiosities. Our time on this
(00:28):
earth is often short. Disease and unforeseen circumstances can make
it even shorter. Compared to the Red Sea urchin, which
is known to live for as long as two hundred years,
our lives can be seen as a blip, a gust
of wind coming in and blowing out in an instant.
It's rare for a person to live past ninety years
(00:48):
of age, even rarer for and one hundred is reserved
for only the most special people. Less than one percent
of the American population lives to be one hundred, and
that entage goes down from there as their ages go up.
But one man beat the odds. If someone had written
a novel about him, readers would have called it science fiction.
(01:10):
He was a man out of time, with firsthand knowledge
of experiences that the rest of us could only read
about in books. And his name was Sylvester. His story
is one of a kind. Born on a North Carolina
plantation in eighteen forty one. Sylvester's younger years were tough.
He was a slave, as were his parents, and he
(01:32):
worked alongside them until he turned nineteen. That's when his
owner sold him to another plantation in Mississippi. When the
Civil War started, he assisted the owner in securing guns
for the Confederate Army, which automatically made the young slave
a Confederate soldier. Yeah, Sylvester had unknowingly been enlisted to
the side trying to keep him a slave. It's not
(01:55):
like he had a choice, but he eventually got the
upper hand a few years later when he escaped north
and joined the Union Army. Once away from his old life,
Sylvester soon found himself alongside almost scores of other soldiers
as part of General Grant's Vicksburg's Campaign and the Battle
of Champion Hill. He had no fighting experience and he'd
never been in a war before, but he held on
(02:16):
to his faith, which helped him calm some of the
more frightened soldiers around him. Sylvester was freed after the
war and went back to Mississippi, where he found work
on a farm, eventually settling down to work at a
local sawmill, and that's where his story ended well, ended
is the wrong word. Paused is more like it. You see,
(02:37):
many years later, the people of Collins, Mississippi held a
birthday party for him. A five layer cake was brought
in adorned with a lot of candles. That's because this
party was held in nineteen sixty five. Yes, the Civil
War veteran had lived to the unheard age of one
hundred twenty four and naturally his story reached the historian
(02:58):
named Alfred Andrews, who helped get so investor classified officially
as a veteran of the Civil War, despite there being
no record of his ever having served. But Sylvester didn't
need a piece of paper saying he'd been a soldier.
He told Andrews stories about the war, about specific battles
no one else would have known. He spoke in exceptional
detail about his experiences, establishing himself as the oldest and
(03:21):
last surviving former American slave. When you think about a
life as long as Sylvester McGee's, you realize he didn't
just survive one war. He also lived through two World wars,
the Korean War and Vietnam, until finally passing away in
nineteen seventy one. And what makes his story even more
powerful is what else he witnessed. He began his life
(03:45):
in servitude, only to see the end of the Civil
War and the end of slavery in the United States.
One years later, he saw the signing of the Civil
Rights Act of nineteen sixty four, a law that prohibited
discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
He watched the first black woman win an Academy award.
(04:06):
He saw schools desegregate, and sadly, he lived to see
the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King. Despite the bad
news he witnessed, though there was a lot of good too.
And one thing is certain, Sylvester McGhee lived a full life,
perhaps more than any other American citizen. Time is a
(04:28):
funny thing, after all, But if we managed to stick
around long enough, there's no telling the kinds of stories
we'll be able to tell. Sylvester McGee knew that better
than anyone else. Benjamin Franklin is best known as one
(04:55):
of America's founding fathers, partly responsible for our independence from
great Written a politician, inventor, author, and Polly Maath, Franklin
was a man with an insatiable curiosity. However, behind his
striking wit and boundless intellect beat the heart of someone
with more than a few secrets. Remember, Franklin's work took
(05:17):
him all over the world. In seventeen sixty four, he
traveled to London to advocate on behalf of the American
colonists against new taxes being imposed on them. For ten years,
he tried to make the case for lower taxes on
his people back home, but found himself blocked at every turn. However,
while living in England during this period of time, Franklin
(05:37):
needed to occupy his days with other pursuits. He was
used to expanding his mind with scientific and artistic endeavors
back in Philadelphia, so he continued to invent and write.
But it was inside his London home that evidence of
some of his more questionable work would be discovered. Over
two hundred years later, in a group calling them selves
(06:00):
the Friends of Benjamin Franklin, House had started turning Franklin's
former London abode into a museum all about him. A
worthy pursuit and a noble cause, for sure. A few
weeks into the process, though, one of the construction workers
who had been renovating the basement came across a pit
in the floor, big enough to hold a person. It
was in the middle of a room devoid of windows
(06:22):
and positioned far from the street, a room that was
for all intents and purposes hidden and soundproof. And down
in the pit, sticking straight out like a weed, was
a human bone. The worker called the police, who allowed
the team to continue their work. Bit by bit, a
team of workers carefully uncovered over one thousand bone fragments
(06:44):
in Franklin's basement, some of which had been carved into,
while others had been sawed straight through, and there was
evidence someone had drilled into several of the skulls. They found.
The shards belonged to ten victims, six of whom were children,
all of which were over two hundred years old. Perhaps
the charming diplomat who had invented bifocals and the glass
(07:05):
armonica also pursued a career as a serial killer. The police,
upon learning of the age of the bones, chose not
to pursue an investigation. After all, how do you prosecute
a founding father. But historians were curious. They documented all
the fragments and began running tests. It was clear something
heinous had gone down in Franklin's home well heinous by
(07:29):
today's standards. No, Benjamin Franklin was not a serial killer.
He didn't cut up people in his basement. He let
his friend William Houston do that. Houston was a medical
student with a passion for studying the internal workings of
the human body. However, once he and his former teacher
parted way, Houston was left without a laboratory to continue
(07:51):
his work. Luckily, his friend Benjamin Franklin lived nearby with
a basement large enough for him to dissect his bodies
in peace. It's best. Woman's were hard to come by,
so Houston resorted to grave robbing. He'd sneak the bodies
in under cover of night, perform his work, and then
bury what remained so he wouldn't get caught trying to
get rid of the evidence. He never killed anyone on
(08:12):
his own, but that didn't mean his methods were ethical.
It's not clear whether Franklin participated or even knew about
the experiments going on in his basement. When he returned
to America, he continued to let Houston use the house
for his work. If only his friend had been more careful.
In the spring of seventeen seventy four, while dissecting a cadaver,
(08:35):
Dr Houston cut himself and contracted an infection which eventually
turned into sepsis. He died a short while later, but
don't worry, his bones were not among the others found
in Franklin's house. Dr William Houston was given a proper
burial in Saint Martin in the Fields Churchyard in London,
and Franklin, well, he really didn't have any skeletons in
(08:58):
his closet after all, but he did keep quite a
few in his basement. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
(09:20):
Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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