A Black and Wampanoag sailor who escaped enslavement, Crispus Attucks was the first man to fall when British troops opened fire on a crowd of disgruntled colonists in Boston, 1770. Patriots like Paul Revere branded it a massacre, with Attucks being assigned the role of martyr. The real controversy came […]
See the rest of J’s video here: https://youtu.be/bwoFajsD95k Despite the revolutionary atmosphere in early America, homosexuality was still punishable by death. Though Founding Fathers knew of Steuben’s “proclivities,” they let Steuben continue to help them win. By contrast, British Army chaplain Robert Newburgh stood trial for homosexual conduct, and used […]
How does one of the most notorious pirates in British history become an iconic hero of the American Revolution? Long before he went toe-to-toe with the most powerful navy on the face of the planet, John Paul Jones was just a simple Scottish merchant ship captain…who committed a murder…or two. […]
Was Peggy Shippen the real mastermind behind Benedict Arnold’s betrayal? Peggy successfully fooled the most powerful men in America, including George Washington, into believing she was just an innocent and naive creature. It wasn’t until 150 years later that her role in the plot was discovered, when pages of secret […]
In the 1760s, powerful men in the American colonies were in danger. The working class people beneath them were sick of the corruption and bullying, and were ready to rebel. All they needed was a ferocious leader willing to take on the fight. Herman Husband was an enigma. Though a […]
Immigrant and Vermont congressman Matthew Lyon was in jail when he was reelected. Not for the fight he started in the halls of Congress but for his willingness to criticize the relatively new government of the United States. For the first time in American history, freedom of speech was up […]
Take the 2023 PBS Survey: https://to.pbs.org/pbssurvey2023p The details of Walter Loving’s complicated double life remained classified for over 60 years. Born to formerly enslaved parents, he became a famous band conductor and an advocate for Black Americans. When the U.S. military grew paranoid that Black Americans were colluding with German […]
Take our audience survey here: https://to.pbs.org/2025SurveyRH King Philip’s War was the deadliest conflict of the colonial period. What scared the colonists most was the sophistication of Philip’s forces. Indigenous warriors used guerrilla tactics that the English, trained in European-style warfare, were completely unprepared for.So while the colonists were the ones […]
The British government vowed freedom to enslaved people if they could escape and take up arms against their Patriot enslavers. But when the British failed to deliver promised land in Nova Scotia, the Black Loyalists needed a leader to step up, sail across the ocean, and demand a solution. That […]
Get a free What If Top 10 book when you sign up for our newsletter: https://underknown.com/newsletter/ The biggest planet in the Solar System has gone rogue. And now it’s heading straight toward Earth. You have 30 days till this gas giant wipes us all out. What speeds would Jupiter be […]
