26 Jamestown’s Starving Time
The “Starving Time” in Jamestown during the winter of 1609-1610 proved catastrophic. Of the original 500 settlers, only 61 survived. Desperation drove several colonists to cannibalism to endure the brutal conditions.
27. Corn (maize) contains essential nutrients that can only be absorbed after cooking it in limewater-a process Native Americans had long practiced. Unfortunately, early European settlers lacked this knowledge, leading to widespread malnutrition and even death despite relying on corn as a staple food.
28. One possible origin of the Jack O’Lantern traces back to the Irish Samhain festival, where people carried home embers from communal bonfires in hollowed-out turnips. In the New World, settlers adapted this tradition using pumpkins instead-perhaps explaining why “Jack” has an Irish-sounding name!
29. The U.S. once granted land in Alabama to exiled French Bonapartists, encouraging them to grow grapes and olives. However, the colony failed due to unsuitable soil and the settlers’ lack of agricultural skills.
30. In 1755, Shawnee warriors captured a teenage colonial girl. They later gave her to the Seneca, who fully adopted her into their culture. She supported the Mohawks during the American Revolution, helped negotiate for the Seneca after their defeat, and lived to age 90 within the Seneca Nation.
31 Samoset Asked Pilgrims for Beer
Samoset, the first Native American to make contact with the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony, strolled into the settlement unannounced, greeted the settlers in English-which he had learned from fishermen in Maine-and famously asked for a beer.
32. A devastating plague swept through Native American populations shortly before the Pilgrims arrived, killing millions and leaving behind cleared land and pre-planted fields that greatly benefited the new settlers.
33. Before the Mayflower landed, a thriving Patuxet village existed on the Massachusetts coast. A deadly epidemic wiped out about 90% of its inhabitants. When the Pilgrims arrived, they settled in the remains of the village and renamed it Plymouth Colony.
34. Newark, New Jersey, was founded in 1666 by Puritans from Connecticut seeking to build a theocracy. They named it “New Ark,” believing they were creating a new Ark of the Covenant. The settlement remained a Puritan theocracy until 1746, when Episcopalian missionaries finally established a church.
35. In 1667, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a unique law to control blackbird populations, which were damaging cornfields. Every unmarried man was required to kill six blackbirds-or face a strange penalty: he couldn’t marry until he did.
36 Fredonia’s Rebellion Briefly Ignited
In 1826, American settlers in Mexican-controlled Texas launched a brief rebellion known as the Republic of Fredonia, aiming to secede from Mexico. The uprising quickly collapsed when Mexican troops intervened, and the rebels fled north into U.S. territory.
37. German immigrants in early America attempted to form Socialist Utopian communities, but every one of them collapsed due to famine and financial ruin. Interestingly, future literary giants like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson lived in or visited some of these failed experiments.
38. During the French and British struggle for control of North America, both sides offered “scalp bounties” to their Native American allies-paying them to attack enemy settlers and bring back the scalps of men, women, and children as proof of a kill.
39. Some Mayflower Pilgrims were not fleeing religious persecution in England but rather the religious tolerance of the Dutch Republic. They feared their children were becoming too Dutch in both language and culture.
40. In the 17th and 18th centuries, British settlers often drank beer, ale, hard cider, and fruit brandy for daily hydration. Clean drinking water was scarce and considered unsafe, so alcohol was the safer-and more popular-choice.
41 Sourdough Starters Saved in Winter
Old-timers in Alaska are often called “sourdoughs”-a nickname from the Gold Rush era. Experienced miners and settlers carried sourdough starter in pouches around their necks or belts to keep it warm and alive during Alaska’s brutal winters.
42. During the California Gold Rush, violence against Native Americans was so rampant that the state paid bounties for Indian scalps, with rates varying by age and gender. Between 1849 and 1870, an estimated 4,500 Native people were killed under this system.
43. European settlers brought onions to North America-only to discover that Native Americans were already cultivating and eating them as part of their traditional diet.
44. Early settlers at Yellowstone reportedly used the Old Faithful geyser to do laundry. One account claimed that garments placed in the crater during its dormant phase would be ejected “thoroughly washed” when it erupted.
45. Blue-footed boobies, along with other booby species, got their name from the Spanish word bobo, meaning “fool” or “clown.” Early European settlers thought the birds looked clumsy and unwary when they saw them on land-their least graceful environment.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 Kansas Settlers Lived in Caves
The first Kansas settlers lived in hand-dug caves carved into hillsides. Some of these primitive homes, built out of necessity on the frontier, still exist in ruins today.
47. The Virginia General Assembly, founded in Jamestown on July 30, 1619, is the oldest continuous lawmaking body in the New World. Remarkably, seven of its elected members would go on to sign the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
48. Wall Street got its name from an actual wall built by Dutch settlers in the 1600s using slave labor, meant to defend against British and Indigenous attacks. The street also hosted a slave market for 50 years, where New York City taxed the sale of enslaved people.
49. Puritans despised Christmas, believing it had no biblical basis and encouraged immoral behavior. It was banned in England in the 1650s, sparking riots. The ban extended to Puritan colonies like Boston, and Christmas only gained popularity there after 1776.
50. Little Sandy Creek in Wyoming was a crucial stop along the Oregon and Mormon Trails. Depending on the season, it could be the last water source for 40 miles. So many travelers underestimated the harsh stretch ahead that the trail became littered with abandoned wagons, animal carcasses, and makeshift graves.
RE: Fact #45 (Boobies Named for Clumsy Ways) – That’s also why someone might be called a boob.
RE: Fact #1 (When Isolation Drove Settlers Mad) – That place looked totally deserted. Even in old pictures and films, I’d never want to live there. Just you, the plains, and the buffalo.
RE: Fact #39 (Pilgrims Fled Dutch Tolerance) – They weren’t escaping religious persecution; they were looking for a place where *they* could persecute others.
That made me think of a line from Eurotrip. America was started by a bunch of prudes who fled Europe to escape all the wild sex. Now I, Cooper Harris, am going back to my ancestors’ land to claim my birthright – a whole bunch of crazy sexual adventures.
It’s pretty clear how they acted once they arrived.
RE: Fact #49 (Puritans Banned Christmas Celebrations) – Christmas wasn’t always the family-friendly thing we know today. For a long time, it was more like a crazy party with pranks and lots of drinking – way wilder than even the wildest office party now.
RE: Fact #49 (Puritans Banned Christmas Celebrations) – They left England for a reason, alright? They weren’t just a bunch of reasonable folks who got a raw deal. They were fanatics, total nutjobs nobody could tolerate.
RE: Fact #34 (Newark: A Puritan Ark) – It’s become a really impure city!
RE: Fact #25 (The Turk Tricked Explorers) – Maybe he was guiding them toward the Mississippian people – those folks were famous for their metalwork, remember the Spanish were crazy for gold? And he was also trying to steer them away from the Pueblos.
RE: Fact #17 (Lobsters Piled on Shorelines) – Whoa, Carl! Don’t eat that giant water bug!
Nah, just kidding, they cost a fortune these days.
RE: Fact #16 (Wampum Inflation Crashed Currency) – Let’s bring back the wampum standard.
RE: Fact #6 (Squirrel Scalps for Taxes) – Womp rats are to Luke Skywalker as squirrels are to colonists.
RE: Fact #33 (Pilgrims Settled Ghost Village) – Early on, Europeans and Native Americans bumped into each other—fishermen, mostly. Basque fishermen might have even cooked up a simple way to talk with the locals.
The difference in population before Europeans arrived is pretty clear if you read about Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain. Cartier described the St-Lawrence Iroquois village of Hochelaga, which was gone when Champlain got there. It seems like tribal fighting over a key spot was the reason.
RE: Fact #7 (Bison Massacre by Design) – Buffalo were wiped out for a bunch of reasons, none of them good. It was a total disaster.
The government wanted to starve out Native Americans, especially the Sioux and Lakota, by killing off their food source.
Railroads also hated buffalo. A single buffalo wasn’t a big deal, but entire herds would wreck trains. And while there were train hunting parties, they weren’t as common as people think because leaving all that meat to rot was a waste of money.
Buffalo hides were super valuable – about a week’s wages for a factory boss. They were fashionable in Europe, but even without that, factories needed the leather. Plus, there were butchers who processed the meat and others who collected bones for fertilizer.
Lots of Civil War vets, many with PTSD, took these jobs. It was good money for a while, but some thrived, and others… well, let’s just say they didn’t always make it to retirement.
Finally, settlement and new technology finished them off. Barbed wire stopped the buffalo from roaming, and as railroads spread settlements, farmers fenced off land, blocking the buffalo’s migration routes.
RE: Fact #4 (Earthworms: Foreign Invaders Beneath) – Since they are not native they’re causing real trouble. They mess with the underground fungus networks that trees use to talk to each other, making northeastern trees die much sooner. It might be happening elsewhere, but I haven’t looked into that yet.
RE: Fact #1 (When Isolation Drove Settlers Mad) – Michael Lesy’s 1973 book, *Wisconsin Death Trip*, paints a grim picture of life in Black River Falls from 1890 to 1900. It uses photos by Charles Van Schaik and newspaper stories about all sorts of bad stuff – epidemics, suicides, bank failures, the whole shebang. The title and the book itself reflect the vibe of the time and are all about understanding what made those people tick back then and there.
RE: Fact #8 (Fighting Meant Eye Gouging) – Backwoods fighting in the southern and western US was brutal. The main thing was really messing people up—tearing them apart. But the absolute best move was gouging out an eye; it was like a knockout punch in boxing. The real pros were good at other fighting stuff too. Some even sharpened their teeth to make biting off limbs easier. Getting an eye out fast was the quickest way to win, the ultimate bragging right. This spread as far west as Missouri, where a skilled fighter could pop someone’s eyes out with just his thumbs. Getting your eye taken out was a big shame.
RE: Fact #5 (Colonists Drowned in Fish) – Historical animal numbers are seriously depressing.
RE: Fact #3 (Colonists Ignored Papal Orders) – The Pope’s Sublimis Deus bull said enslaving Native Americans was wrong because they were people, not property—a sin! This led to new Spanish laws trying to stop the abuse, but the landowners weren’t happy about it.
RE: Fact #31 (Samoset Asked Pilgrims for Beer) – Handy phrases to know when learning a new language: “Where’s the loo?” and “Can I get a beer?”
RE: Fact #15 (Mound Cities Lost to Time) – Did Native Americans have any diseases that Europeans caught? Seems weird it was one-sided, right? Honest question.