Stay ConnectedIn 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.
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This is my full, uncut interview with Ben Stimpson, a psychotherapist, pagan author, and student of classical, medieval, and religious studies at the University of Waterloo.
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This is my full, uncut interview with Emma Louise Dyson, an Earth medicine practitioner and practicing witch in the UK.
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Think of a witch. You’re likely picturing an old woman, gnarled and stooped with a hooked nose and stringy unkempt hair. Maybe she’s wearing a black robe, a pointy hat. Maybe she’s flying on a broomstick. Does she have a black cat? A cauldron where she mixes up deadly potions? An ancient book of spells she uses to curse people? This witch you’re picturing is evil. She cavorts with the devil and uses black magic to hurt people. She’s no hero. She’s a villian. Now ask yourself, where did this character come from? This witch? Because this cackling hag you’re picturing, she doesn’t exist. That’s not to say witches aren’t real. They’ve always been real. But did you know, they aren’t villainous conjurors of evil spirits, they’re actually healers and caretakers, counselors and therapists, grandmothers tending to the sick, midwives easing babies into the world? Let’s fix that.
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In 1586 Sir Francis Drake arrived off the coast of present day North Carolina with a massive fleet, ships heavy with Spanish gold and riches he’d stolen privateering in the Caribbean, South America, Florida. He came to check in on the Roanoke colony - a group of 108 Englishmen who had set up a fort on the North end of Roanoke Island, part of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. He came bearing these stolen gifts to give to the colony he thought was surely flourishing by now. He found them in bad shape and whisked them back to England to save them from near certain death. But did you know, Drake had more than gold and silver aboard his ships? He had a reported 500 enslaved Africans and Indigenous South Americans that he had also stolen from the Spanish. Did you know that when he returned to England, 400 of them were missing? And did you know that despite the fame and infamy of the English Lost Colony that would disappear a year later, there may have been a whole nother lost colony left behind by Drake that no one even cared to look for? Let’s fix that.
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John White stares at the sun bleached skull. Empty eye sockets stare back. This was surely one of Grenville’s men. But 15 stayed behind to hold Fort Raleigh. Where were the rest of them? “Governor White,” one of the men speaks up, “we should go.” White nods, but go where? He’s still rattled from the news he was given back at the ship, still trying to make sense of it. As they’d clamored into the boat to head to shore, the ship’s pilot, Simon Fernando, had leaned over the railing. “Leave the men on shore,” he had yelled down in his thick Portuguese accent, “you come back for the rest.” White hadn’t understood at first. They were only here to find Grenville’s men. They were meant to sail on to the Chesapeake Bay farther north, to settle in a more accessible spot, with friendlier native people. “Summer is far spent,” Fernando continued, “I will land all the planters in no other place.” They were stuck, it seemed, on Roanoke Island, stuck amidst hostile enemy territory.
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In 1587, John White arrived on Roanoke Island, part of the Outer Banks of present day North Carolina. He was part of an expedition sent by Queen Elizabeth I of England to establish a permanent colony in the Americas. White was to be the governor of this new colony. But this wasn’t his first time on Roanoke Island. He had been part of an earlier expedition in 1585. An expedition that did not end well. And, spoiler alert, this new attempt would meet an even more disastrous end when as many as 116 men, women, and children disappeared entirely, going down in history as the mysterious “Lost Colony of Roanoke.” But did you know, there's a lot more to the story than what a handful of Englishmen recorded back in the 1580’s? A whole nother side to the story, that is mostly left out? Let’s fix that.
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She could play the piano by ear at the age of 3 and was accepted into the prestigious Julliard school of music at age 8. By 19 she was headlining at Café Society, the first racially integrated club in New York City. She went on to become a successful Hollywood film star, fierce Civil Rights activist, and the first Black woman to host her own television show. She counted Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, and Dizzy Gillespie as close friends, dominating the jazz scene as a piano virtuoso who put her own spin on the classics. Her rise to the top was nothing short of inspirational, the American dream at its finest, loved by all, glowing, electric. But did you know, you’ve probably never even heard of her? Let’s fix that.
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“Okay, Houston we’ve had a problem here. This is Houston, say it again please. Uh, Houston we’ve had a problem.” That 7 seconds of audio has been immortalized throughout time, history, and culture. Even if that was your first time hearing the original audio, you’ve definitely heard the quote “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” That’s astronaut Jim Lovell, commander of NASA’s Apollo 13 mission to the moon in 1970. But did you know the context of that quote? What the actual problem is? Did you know just how close Apollo 13 came to being the worst disaster in the history of space exploration? Let’s fix that.
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The winter of 1609 to 1610 is referred to as the “Starving Time” in Jamestown, Virginia - England’s first permanent settlement in the Americas. A perfect storm of events - poor harvest, disease, violent relations with indigenous neighbors, an influx of new settlers without any new provisions, and an actual hurricane led to the starvation and death of around 80% of Jamestown settlers that winter. Survivors resorted to eating unconventional meals in order to survive - horses, dogs, cats, rats, and even the bodies of the dead. Various first hand accounts written by settlers reported survival cannibalism during the starving time, with no evidence to back it up. But, did you know, in 2012, archaeologists working at Jamestown finally uncovered solid forensic evidence to confirm those claims? Let’s fix that.
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Chief Powatan stands shrouded in flickering shade amongst the forests of coastal Virginia, his arm raised, wooden club poised to strike the man who lay cowering beneath him. This man, with his pale skin and fair hair, is one of them. The ones trying to claim their ancestral lands. The ones who steal their precious food and burn their villages to the ground. This man must die. Suddenly, a streak of golden skin, a flash of black hair, and his beloved Pocahontas now lies beneath the club. She stares up at him, eyes flashing. “If you kill him, you’ll have to kill me too.” Pocahontas may very well be the best known indigenous historical figure ever. That’s mostly thanks to the 1995 animated Disney film. You know the one, where Pocahontas falls in love, despite herself, with the dashing Captain John Smith, heartthrob of every 90’s tween. It’s all very romantic. But did you know, the real John Smith completely fabricated his relationship with Pocahontas in order to cast himself as the hero in his own twisted history? Let’s fix that.
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