Sixteen chapters of American history, from the Lost Colony of Roanoke, the Salem witch trials and the Boston Tea Party to the Gold Rush, Gettysburg, the Little Bighorn, Prohibition and the Great Depression.
American history is full of stories that turn out to be stranger than the legends. This collection follows the United States across three and a half centuries, from the vanished English settlers of Roanoke and the Salem witch trials, through the Boston Tea Party, the Declaration of Independence and the founders Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton, to the Louisiana Purchase, the Donner Party and the California Gold Rush.
The Civil War and the frontier follow, with the Battle of Gettysburg and Robert E. Lee, the Battle of the Little Bighorn and Sitting Bull, and the thirty-second Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The collection ends in the 20th century with Prohibition and the Great Depression.
Many familiar stories turn out to be myths. Nobody was burned at the stake in Salem, the Boston Tea Party was sparked by a tax cut, Congress voted for independence on 2 July, and Franklin never waited in a field for lightning to strike his key. The O.K. Corral gunfight did not take place in the O.K. Corral, drinking alcohol was never actually illegal under Prohibition, and the 1929 crash did not cause a wave of Wall Street suicides.
From the word "CROATOAN" carved on a post to grape bricks with a suspicious warning label, each event and person below has fifteen facts to discover.
Every item on this page, with the one fact most people get wrong about it.
| Name | Where you'll meet it | The fact worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Lost Colony of Roanoke | Roanoke Island, 1587-1590 | "CROATOAN" was carved into a post at the deserted settlement. |
| Salem Witch Trials | Massachusetts, 1692 | Nobody was burned at the stake - nineteen people were hanged. |
| Boston Tea Party | Boston, 1773 | The protest was sparked by a tax cut, not a tax increase. |
| Declaration of Independence | Philadelphia, 1776 | Congress voted for independence on 2 July, not 4 July. |
| Benjamin Franklin | Founding Father, printer and inventor | He never stood in a field waiting for lightning to strike his key. |
| Alexander Hamilton | First Secretary of the Treasury | He wrote 51 of the 85 Federalist Papers in about six months. |
| Louisiana Purchase | 1803 | Jefferson originally only wanted to buy New Orleans. |
| Donner Party | Sierra Nevada, 1846-1847 | An untested shortcut sealed the emigrants' fate. |
| California Gold Rush | California, mid-19th century | Abandoned Gold Rush ships lie beneath San Francisco's financial district. |
| Battle of Gettysburg | Pennsylvania, July 1863 | The barrage before Pickett's Charge could reportedly be heard a hundred miles away. |
| Robert E. Lee | Confederate general | His US citizenship was restored only in 1975. |
| Battle of the Little Bighorn | Montana Territory, 1876 | Custer's own scouts warned him about the size of the village. |
| Sitting Bull | Hunkpapa Lakota holy man | He foresaw Custer's defeat during a Sun Dance. |
| Gunfight at the O.K. Corral | Tombstone, Arizona, 1881 | It did not actually take place in the O.K. Corral. |
| Prohibition | United States, 1920-1933 | Drinking alcohol was never actually illegal. |
| Great Depression | The 1930s | Al Capone ran one of its best-known soup kitchens. |
Biggest Land Deal
828,000 sq mi
The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States for fifteen million dollars. Louisiana Purchase
Shortest Gunfight
About 30 seconds
Around 30 shots were fired in roughly half a minute in Tombstone on 26 October 1881. Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Longest Wait for Justice
Over 300 years
The final victim of the Salem witch trials was legally exonerated more than three centuries later. Salem Witch Trials
Most Federalist Papers
51 of 85
Alexander Hamilton wrote fifty-one of the eighty-five Federalist Papers in about six months. Alexander Hamilton
Roanoke Island, 1587-1590
The 1587 colonists were never meant to stay on Roanoke, and Virginia Dare became the first recorded child of English parents born in the Americas. The governor, John White, was also a gifted artist. Tree rings show the settlers arrived during the worst drought in 800 years.
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Massachusetts, 1692
Confessing was the surest way to survive the Salem trials, and a four-year-old girl was jailed. Courts relied on spectral evidence, two dogs were executed, and Giles Corey was pressed to death. The trials ended after accusers targeted the governor's wife.
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Boston, 1773
The Sons of Liberty dumped 342 chests of mostly Chinese tea and swept the decks afterwards. A man caught pocketing tea was stripped and beaten, and George Washington condemned the destruction. The name "Boston Tea Party" appeared in print only in 1826.
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Philadelphia, 1776
Only John Hancock and Charles Thomson signed the approved text at first, and a mysterious handprint marks its back. It spent World War II in Fort Knox, and Jefferson and Adams both died on its 50th anniversary. A toppled royal statue became American bullets.
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Founding Father, printer and inventor
Franklin coined the words "battery" and "conductor", charted the Gulf Stream and invented bifocals and the glass armonica, yet patented none of them. He wrote as "Silence Dogood" at 16 and is in the International Swimming Hall of Fame. He also wrote an essay called "Fart Proudly".
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First Secretary of the Treasury
Hamilton probably lied about his age, founded the forerunner of the Coast Guard and launched the New York Post. He defended a murder suspect alongside Aaron Burr, rewrote Washington's Farewell Address and published the Reynolds Pamphlet. His son died in a duel at the same grounds three years before him.
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1803
The Haitian Revolution pushed Napoleon to sell, and the United States borrowed from European banks to pay. The borders were undefined, Jefferson thought the deal might be unconstitutional, and Napoleon's brothers confronted him in his bath to stop it. Land in fifteen future states changed hands.
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Sierra Nevada, 1846-1847
The Donner Party cut their own road through Utah's mountains before snow trapped them below the Sierra summit. The Forlorn Hope set out on homemade snowshoes, four rescue missions were needed, and roughly half survived. Patty Reed's tiny doll survived too.
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California, mid-19th century
James Marshall tried to keep his discovery secret, but a merchant spread the news to sell supplies. Most Forty-Niners lost money, women often out-earned the miners, and scurvy killed more than violence. Levi Strauss's riveted jeans came decades later, in 1873.
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Pennsylvania, July 1863
Gettysburg did not start over shoes, and a 69-year-old cobbler joined the fight. Jennie Wade was the only civilian killed directly, and General Sickles had his shattered leg preserved. Lincoln gave his address while reburials were still underway.
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Confederate general
Lee married into George Washington's family, captured John Brown and turned down command of the Union Army. He opposed Confederate monuments after the war, and Arlington National Cemetery was created on his family's estate. He finished his life reforming Washington College.
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Montana Territory, 1876
Many Lakota and Cheyenne warriors had better rifles than Custer's cavalry, and Custer left behind his Gatling guns. Women fought in the battle, and archaeology has dismantled the myth of an orderly last stand. Sitting Bull did not fight on the front line.
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Hunkpapa Lakota holy man
Sitting Bull was born Jumping Badger and was above all a holy man. He spent years in exile in Canada, toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show and befriended Annie Oakley. He was killed by Lakota reservation police, and the trick horse Buffalo Bill had given him began performing as he lay dying.
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Tombstone, Arizona, 1881
The 30-second gunfight began over a town ban on carrying weapons, and Virgil Earp, not Wyatt, was in charge. Doc Holliday was a trained dentist, and the man who started the trouble ran away. Western film stars later carried Wyatt Earp's coffin.
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United States, 1920-1933
Congress passed Prohibition over the president's veto, and even weak beer counted as intoxicating. Doctors prescribed whiskey, Congress had its own bootlegger, and NASCAR has roots in moonshine running. Its repeal is the only amendment to cancel another.
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The 1930s
The 1929 crash did not cause a wave of Wall Street suicides, and Monopoly became a hit with families dreaming of wealth. The Golden Gate Bridge and the Empire State Building were built in its darkest days, and the government confiscated private gold. Water pie was a real recipe.
Read the full article →8 questions, every answer is somewhere above.
1. What word did John White find carved at the deserted Roanoke settlement?
2. How were most of the people executed in the Salem witch trials killed?
3. What sparked the Boston Tea Party?
4. On which day did Congress actually vote for independence?
5. Which bird did Benjamin Franklin privately prefer to the bald eagle?
6. Where did the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral actually take place?
7. What did Prohibition's grape bricks carry a warning against?
8. Which famous gangster ran a well-known soup kitchen during the Depression?
Nobody knows for certain. When John White returned in 1590 the houses had been dismantled and "CROATOAN" was carved into a post, suggesting a planned move. Archaeologists have since found 16th-century English objects on Hatteras Island, once part of Croatoan, but the mystery remains unsolved.
No. Witchcraft was a felony punishable by hanging under English law. Of the twenty people executed, nineteen were hanged and one, Giles Corey, was pressed to death under heavy stones.
No. The approved text was at first signed only by John Hancock and Charles Thomson, and most delegates signed later. Congress had actually voted for independence on 2 July 1776.
No. The 18th Amendment banned the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating liquors, but not drinking or owning them. Doctors could even prescribe medicinal whiskey.
Not on its own. Historians see the crash as the first domino, followed by bank failures and other economic shocks. The Depression only fully ended with the industrial mobilisation of World War II.
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