many americans are trying to keep the manifest destiny and great person theories
of u.s history going they want the united states of america's creation to have been
some result of divine forces so that more people treat it with further if not reverence this view
of american history is especially desirable when issues such as reparations are being discussed
the truth of american history is that a lot of the most significant events were essentially mad men
grasping wildly most creators of history curriculums don't want to admit that so
the historical periods where they had the most influence often glossed over in
lessons such as the majority of u.s history between the u.s civil war and world war one
even when the historical periods where they were influential are put in the historical spotlight
these figures have been pushed to the side well it's time to shift that light a little
and show that u.s history was a crazier less predictable place than we might have thought
10. the van swearingen brothers born in 1879 and 1881 respectively orisa mantis van sueringen often
referred to as the vans started out as assistance at a fertilizer shop in cleveland ohio by 1990
they had begun a plan to develop the cleveland community shaker heights into a top-of-the-line
suburb needing to develop high-speed transport to bring in residents and allow them expedient routes
to and from work the vang suaregans stumbled into railroad investing by 1930 they would
transform cleveland forever and owned the largest railroad empire in the world stretching roughly 30
000 miles across the nation fortunately for the nation since many rail lines and other aspects
of infrastructure had fallen into disrepair in the wake of an 1893 economic depression
the brothers oversaw many renovations and standardizations as they became some
of the nation's first billionaires they weren't outgoing at all in fact the brothers made a point
of not promoting themselves they were lifelong bachelors who shared a bedroom and their shaker
heights mansion in the rare instances they made public appearances they always did so together
unfortunately for them the band swearingens had their investments in exactly the sorts of assets
that were the most devalued during the 1929 stock market crash within six years they were to sell
off their once three billion dollar empire for the far sell prices in 1935 within a couple of
years both brothers died without a fortune or progeny to carry the torch for them all
the properties they'd once owned were renamed until their vast influence was mostly erased
9. cornelius vanderbilt this tycoon preceded the vans by about a century and oversaw even
more massive changes in america's infrastructure born in 1794 he dropped out of school at age 11
bought a passenger boat in 1810 and then ran a government supply fleet for the war of 1812.
from there he expanded his shipping so that in 1829 he had a shipping business that
vied for control of hudson-based shipping and was a millionaire by the 1840s by the 1850s he
expanded into rail projects which would leave him and his family so wealthy they literally
controlled 10 of all dollars in circulation upon his death in 1877 a number of mad habits and plans
he had came out since members of his family were claiming he was not of sound mind when he wrote
his will the most notable of these was his plan to convert all of central park in new york city
into a statue of george washington that would be the tallest man-made structure in the world a
project for which he went so far as to commission blueprints for all the fuss over the will almost
the entire fortune was lost by the family within a generation which is why you've heard much more
about the rockefellers or the carnegies as shorthands for wealthy american dynasties
number 8. charles lee while the revolutionary war general harry lighthouse lee is relatively well
remembered general charles lee dwells in obscurity born in 1731 he served in the french indian wars
and so he was redeployed to the american colonies in 1773. he switched allegiances to the americans
and resigned to join the continental army which he quickly rose through the ranks of by the start
of the revolutionary war he was considered the most experienced general in the continental army
and basically saved it during the 1776 new york campaign when he convinced washington to retreat
from a hopeless situation even before the war lee was getting a reputation for being erratic
john adams called him an odd creature it was an opinion that lee couldn't help but support
when he wrote adams to bluntly admit that he found dogs preferable to people in 1777 he was
captured by the british while sneaking away from the continental army to hunt for a sex worker he
had to be released in a prisoner exchange contrary to the aforementioned vanderbilt lee was usually
open in his contempt for washington's abilities as a leader and it was this more than anything
that caused him to be relieved of command he lost his faculties to an extent that he spent
his last days living in squalor with his dogs and he passed away in 1782 before the revolutionary
war officially ended and too early to valorize his name and posterity however decades later it
was revealed through private papers that lee had been conspiring with british command to betray the
americans in a manner similar to benedict arnold though he was court-martialed before he could
act on these plans it's understandable then that despite his vital service to his country he's one
of the revolutionary generals that just doesn't get talked about 7. monk eastman not every person
who was influential in their time needed legal business or the military to confer legitimacy on
them edward eastman was born in lower manhattan in 1875 and by the 1890s he was working as a bouncer
at new irving hall an upscale dancehall where he earned a reputation for toughness among criminals
and made connections with tammany hall politicians his gang grew to a staggering 1200 people which
was enough to intimidate voters and drive vote counts until tammany hall became overwhelmingly
powerful eastman's wars changed the face of gangs including beginning the american tradition of
drive-by shootings although the wars got out of hand to an extent where eastman was sent to prison
for five years in 1904 during world war one he was able to redeem himself on the battlefield until he
became something of a national hero not bad for a guy who once considered his most redeeming feature
the fact that he took off his brass knuckles before hitting women beyond eastman's penchant for
violence he was notorious for having an obsession with pigeons he owned literally thousands of them
he would also physically attack people for abusing animals of all kinds that's the sort of guy that
could run a criminal organization which changed the shape of politics 6. john randolph of roanoke
returning to the world of politics john randolph was born in roanoke virginia in 1773 and by the
time of his death in 1833 he'd been a member of the u.s house of representatives ur senate
ambassador to russia he was such a contentious figure that he clashed with every president most
notably thomas jefferson who he charged abandoned small government principles in 1806 he split from
the then democratic republican party and formed the old republican party essentially shaping the
political void that we know today his ability to do this was largely attributed to his great
oratory skills particularly impressive since a childhood ailment was believed to have disrupted
his adolescence so that he never went through puberty and was left with a child's voice a
compromised immune system and lifelong impotence randolph's physical ailments were about on par
with his eccentricities which his colleagues in congress absolutely had to deal with as well
he openly drank in the chambers of commerce so that a brief speech took three hours he brought
his dogs into the house chambers at one point when a meeting was adjourned owing to randolph's
bad health his colleague willis alston said the puppy still demands respect randolph responded
alston if it were worthwhile i would cane you and i believe i will can you then decades before the
infamous charles sumner caning randolph beat up allston considering his obvious love of dogs you'd
think he would have found such a label flattering 5. lucy parsons born a slave in 1853 to what was
known then as a mixed race family lucy parsons seems to have been set on the path from rank and
file labor activist to history-making firebrand leader by a miscarriage of justice the husband was
hanged in 1886 for supposedly masterminding the chicago haymarket riot despite a lack of evidence
in the trial so pronounced that several of the convicted were later pardoned such was her drive
and influence that she would later be labeled by the chicago police more dangerous than a
thousand rioters where parsons parted from general progressive and labor rhetoric and from sanity was
in the severity of her language she literally said of the rich let us kill them without mercy
and let it be a war of extermination without pity when franklin roosevelt's administration
began the new deal in 1933 which brought about many of the goals for which parsons had advocated
she was furious because she felt it was a half-measure and that only a full revolution
would do so it was that when she died in a fire in 1942 at the age of 89 many people believed it was
a suicide 4. charles burley lately there's been an increased interest in more forceful advocates
for the cause of abolition such as john brown and nat turner newspaper editors and columnists like
charles burley didn't live such dramatic lives and yet their contributions were also significant
in 1835 the 25 year old connecticut native abandoned his law career to become the public
face of the middlesex anti-slavery society he was so effective in advocating the cause and
organizing abolitionist movements that when in 1836 a speech he was giving in mansfield missouri
was attacked by 20 pro-slavery tufts the fallout still swelled abolitionist ranks by 200 people
which were significant to keeping missouri from becoming a full slave state before and during the
civil war he also arranged roots and samaritans for the underground railroad all this despite
an appearance that even his colleague said worked against him early in his life he declared that he
would not cut his hair until slavery was abolished in the united states which not only meant he had
some of the longest hair and the bushiest beard in the u.s but he put his hair in ringlets which were
wildly unfashionable at the time in general let alone for a public speaker since he lived until
1878 he at least could have cut his hair into something relatively normal if there's one thing
this look into american history is showing us it's that in the 19th century a person could be a high
profile success while flying their freak flag astonishingly high number three governor morris
in many ways governor morris was effectively the auntie john randell he was a tall strapping fellow
notorious for his romances and an early advocate for a strong federal government to an extent
that he both wrote the preamble of the u.s constitution and oversaw the phrasing for
the rest of the document he also notably wanted to abandon the constitution he did so much to write
by 1812 believing that his home state of new york should secede the closest he came to a similarity
with his conservative junior randolph was that he lost his leg and at one point practically skinned
his arm with scalding water now when i say it was notorious for his romances that includes such acts
as a liaison with novelist adelaine de flowerheart in her governance's convents and the louvre he
also had a very curious habit of climbing church steeples you'd think such a powerful
and accomplished man wouldn't feel a need to so strongly overcompensate number two benjamin lay
while charles burley lived to see american slavery ended to a point benjamin lay was so far ahead of
his time that he had no such satisfaction born in essex in 1681 he initially worked as a glove maker
and then became a farmer then a sailor by 1701. by 1717 he had sailed to america and joined the new
england quaker community and then quickly began antagonizing it through interrupting services
advocating vegetarianism never wearing footwear and refusing to drink tea in 1731 he became even
more vociferous though also immeasurably more righteous when he took a trip to barbados was
appalled by the treatment of slaves and returned to quaker communities denouncing this peculiar
institution his most significant writing all slave keepers that keep the innocent in bondage
apostates became a foundational document for the atlantic abolitionist movement
after a mass printing in 1738 by no less of a historical figure than benjamin franklin himself
he was also utterly uninhibited when it came to more physical denouncements of slavery at
one point he went to service in a cloak and then he tore the cloak off to reveal he was wearing a
military uniform and holding a hollowed bible the bible was hollow because while vocalizing
the evils of slavery he stabbed the bible which had a bladder full of red liquid in it which he
then splatted on slave owners that were present one of the few religious lectures with a splash
zone this and such acts led him to being banished from the quaker community though by the time of
his death in 1759 he had lived to see the quaker community begin adopting his stance on mass and
he was buried in a quaker cemetery 1. james otis jr speaking of fiery colonial orators
we'll be closing out on a harvard law born in 1725 in west barnsdown massachusetts in 1761 he
resigned his commission as massachusetts advocate general to protest writs of assistance laws which
allowed agents of the crown to search anywhere in the colonies for evidence of smuggling on
february 24 1761 he gave an impassioned five-hour speech denouncing the laws and the monarchy itself
which won many bostonians over to the cause of independence audience members and second
president john adams wrote that the revolution was then and they're born he continued to give similar
speeches against other arbitrary abuses of royal power throughout the 1760s and even collaborated
with samuel adams in writing letters of protest which infuriated king george iii himself lotus was
noted for having wild mood swings between rage and despair unfortunately for his place in history he
was in a sense beaten into submission in 1769 when he confronted a royal commissioner at the
british coffee house near the boston wharf and was severely wounded by loyalists the mugging left him
too traumatized for further advocacy or other political work and thus he had to sit out the
revolution in the 1770s during the most momentous years the most notable aspect of his final years
was that he spent them vocalizing a wish that he'd be killed by lightning which he was as satisfying
as that might have been he deserved better so i really hope you enjoyed today's video if you did
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