Our Fake History

One of the most celebrated stories from the Underground Railroad is that of Henry Box Brown, the man who mailed himself to freedom. In 1849 Henry Brown successfully had himself shipped out of slavery in a packing crate from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Brown's ingenious and audacious escape from slavery immediately caught the attention of abolitionists all over the country. The story of his escape was not only exciting, it was deeply symbolic, and proved a powerful tool that could draw people into the anti-slavery movement. Box Brown soon became one the most sought after speakers on the abolitionist lecture circuit. However, Henry Brown was not content to remain a typical anti-slavery lecturer. He was soon creating elaborate multimedia shows that incorporated music, moving panoramas, and stage magic. His on-stage swagger and flashy style eventually put him at odds with much of the mainstream abolitionist community. Was Henry Box Brown too "glam" for solemn and sober activists who had once been his allies? Tune-in and find out how wombs, tombs, Tricky Sam, and the King of All Mesmerizers all play a role in the story.
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In this bonus episode Sebastian takes questions about the recent series on the Viking voyages to North America. In it he reckons with the history of slavery in the Norse world, guesses at why the southern Vinland of settlement of Hóp remains undiscovered, and muses about doppelgängers. Tune-in and find out how controversial episode art, tidal lagoons, and absurdist saga writers all play a role in the story.
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For centuries the western Norse colony of Vinland was known only to scholars of the Icelandic Sagas. But in the 19th century the work of a few Scandinavian historians helped revive interest in these previously obscure tales. When the Danish historian Carl Christian Rafn published in his work in English in 1837, many American's were exposed to the idea that the Norse had beaten Columbus to North America by 500 years. Many New Englanders were also excited by the idea that the legendary colony of Vinland may have been in Cape Cod. However, this new interest in the American Vikings also kicked off a wave of Norse flavored forgeries. Some were inspired to create elaborate pseudo-histories that supplanted the America's true first people with a lost group of Norse settlers. The real history of the Norse in North America was soon clouded by a haze of hoaxes and fantasies. Tune-in and find out how runes in Minnesota, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Newfoundlander named George all play a role in the story.
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The only literary sources we have about the Viking settlements west of Greenland come from the Icelandic Sagas. The only problem is that the Sagas can be totally off-the-wall. Corpses reanimate and speak prophecies, giant-eyed doppelgängers vanish into thin air, and one-legged creatures murder unsuspecting Norse explorers. But, this same sources also describe interactions between the Norse and the Vinland's first people that sound remarkably believable. The people the Norse called the Skraeling's act quite a lot like the Algonquin speaking peoples of Canada's east coast. How do we separate the historical wheat from the legendary chaff? Tune-in and find out how female axe murderers, Vinland's first Viking baby, and the loudest bull in the world all play a role in the story.
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Between the 9th and 11th centuries Norse explorers undertook a series of remarkable journeys through the North Atlantic. Iceland and Greenland were settled by medieval farmers eager to find new uninhabited lands. But just how far west did these seafarer's manage to travel? The unique Icelandic texts known as the sagas tell tales of journeys to a fertile and abundant country south west of Greenland named Vinland, or the Land of Wine, for the wild grapes that allegedly grew there. Archaeology has proven that the Norse managed to reach Northern Newfoundland, but could the rocky North Peninsula really be the "land of wine" blessed with "frostless winters?" Where was Vinland? Did it ever truly exist? Tune-in and find out how magical sleeps, violent troll tests, and saga story-time all play a role in the story.
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