July 19, 2022 • 13 mins
Today's tour features two individuals who lived life against the grain, although the causes they fought for couldn't have been more different.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcomed Aaron Mankey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeart
Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
There is perhaps no greater stain on American history than
that of the slave trade. For over two hundred years,
millions of African men, women, and children were kidnapped from
their homes and enslaved, forced to work on plantations, picking
crops like cotton and tobacco for white owners who did
not see them as people. To those in power, especially
in the Southern States, enslave people were simply property. It
(01:00):
was a dark and tumultuous time, a time when the
country was still new and finding its place in the
larger world. Yet, despite slavery's wide acceptance, an abolitionist movement
brewed among those who opposed its barbaric treatment of our
fellow human beings. People like Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, and
Harriet Tubman spoke out against the horrors of slavery, as
(01:21):
did many allies, such as author Harriet Beecher Stowe and
John Quincy Adams. Yet there was one abolitionist who did
much to further the cause. But despite his theatrical approach
to ending slavery, few people have heard of him today.
So let's change that. His name was Benjamin Leigh, and
he was a white man born in Copford, England, in
(01:41):
sixteen eighty two. His parents were Quakers and they instilled
a strong moral compass in him from a young age.
When he was in his mid thirties, Benjamin moved to
Barbados to work as a merchant. His time there gave
him a firsthand look at the injustices of the world,
namely the enslavement of black people, and it, in fear
created him. He grew more impassioned after a harrowing experience
(02:03):
watching an enslaveman take his own life to spare himself
another lashing from his owner. From that point forward, Benjamin
let everyone else know what he thought of slavery, which
didn't quite endear him to the people profiting from it
on the island. He left Barbados in seventeen thirty one
and settled down in Pennsylvania, where he continued to advocate
against the slave trade. It wasn't something yet codified in
(02:27):
Quaker philosophy. Quakers themselves had been prominent slave traders early on,
although abolition had become an increasingly popular cause among them informally.
His vocal admonition of it, though, cemented Benjamin as one
of the more progressive minds of his time. And he
didn't just talk the talk either. He saw everyone as equal,
and Benjamin was so against slavery that he made his
(02:49):
own clothes too, so as not to purchase anything that
might have been manufactured using slave labor. He also wrote
hundreds of essays and pamphlets on a handful of issues,
including slavery, as well as a book published by Benjamin Franklin.
In addition to his work toward abolition, he was also
anti capital punishment and believe the existing prison system needed
(03:10):
serious reform. But perhaps most importantly, Benjamin Lagh was an activist.
He did not rely on his words to get his
message across. In order to get people to hear him,
to really hear him, he knew he had to go bigger,
partly because he was a four foot tall man with
a hunchback and extremely long arms. People did not take
him seriously due to his looks. They were just not
(03:31):
going to listen to him, so he had to make them.
In one act of defiance, he stood outside a Quaker
meeting house in the dead of winter with nothing on
but his shirt, a pair of pants, and a single shoe.
He shoved one of his bare feet in the snow
and waited there in the cold. When someone asked him
why he was doing this or encouraged him to put
on warmer clothing, Benjamin informed them that enslaved people didn't
(03:55):
have the luxury of warm coats and shoes in the winter.
They were still forced to work outside dressed much like
he was right then. He also didn't hesitate to hit
slaveholders where they lived. Benjamin once asked a six year
old neighbor boy to come to his home and spend
time with him there for several hours. When it got late,
the boy's parents ran outside in a panic looking for him.
(04:15):
After a short while, Benjamin emerged and told them that
the boy was fine, he'd been with him the whole time,
but their desperation and sadness were the same desperation and
sadness felt by the parents of the young black girl
the couple had enslaved when she had been ripped from
their arms. And finally, in perhaps his most impressive and
ostentatious demonstration, Benjamin wore a soldier's uniform and delivered a
(04:37):
speech against slavery in front of his fellow Quakers at
the yearly meeting in Philadelphia. He held in his hand
a Bible and read out loud, Thus shall God shed
the blood of those persons who enslave their fellow creatures.
When his speech was over, Benjamin withdrew his sword and
drove it through the front cover of the Bible, which
(04:57):
bled and sprayed red liquid all over self and his audience.
It wasn't real blood, though he had hollowed out the
middle of the book and placed a bladder full of
pokeberry juice inside. The stunt shocked all in attendance, and
Benjamin was forced to leave the meeting. Rather than walk away,
though he lay down outside the door of the venue
so that when people left they had to step over
(05:19):
him and see his bloody corpse in all its glory.
It may have been appalling and offensive at the time,
but it worked. Thanks to Benjamin's advocacy, Philadelphia Quakers expelled
all slaveholders from their ranks. Benjamin Lay was, by eighteenth
century standards, a strange and garish person. He wasn't afraid
to go against the grain or to make people feel uncomfortable.
(05:41):
He even convinced Ben Franklin to free his enslaved people
in the event of his death. Benjamin Lay was a
hero and an ally, but above all else, despite his
small stature, he was someone that you could look up
to and a role model for people everywhere for all time. Curious, yes,
but also incredibly noble. Money changes people. Too much can
(06:19):
make them more selfish, too little can make them desperate,
And for those with a lot of it, money can
transform them into strange individuals who spend it in peculiar ways.
For example, a Canadian dentist named Michael Zook spent over
thirty one dollars in two thousand eleven to purchase a tooth.
But not just any tooth. It was a molar that
had been plucked from the mouth of the legendary beatle
(06:40):
John Lennon. His reason for procuring such a morbid item
he wanted to clone the late musician. But a few
of these eccentric elites can hold a candle to Ida
Mayfield Wood, who made quite a stir in nineteen thirties
New York City. Ida was born in eighteen thirty eight
and came to New York at the age of nineteen
to start a new chapter in her life. She hoped
(07:02):
to take her rightful place at the top of society,
where she felt she belonged. She was young, but knew
exactly who she was and what she wanted from life.
Ida's father had been the owner of a sugar plantation
back home in Louisiana, while her mother had been an
English aristocrat distantly related to the Earls of Crawford. In
order to maintain her status in a man's world, though,
(07:22):
she realized that she needed a man to help her
navigate it. She found what she needed in Benjamin Wood,
a thirty seven year old newspaper owner and Confederate sympathizer
from Kentucky. There was just one problem. He was already married.
Ida didn't mind, though, she continued to pursue Benjamin and
the two began a long lasting affair. They even had
a daughter together named Emma, and when Benjamin's wife suddenly
(07:45):
passed away in eighteen sixty seven, he and Ida were
finally able to tie the nut. He was just what
she needed. Ida worked her way up to the head
of the New York upper class, had found herself mentioned
in all the papers. She even snagged a visit with
Abraham Lincoln shortly after he won the election. But what
did bliss was not in the cards. Literally. Benjamin had
(08:07):
a nasty gambling habit, which made Ida worried about her future.
She certainly didn't want him throwing away all of their money,
so she made a deal with him. He was free
to gamble as much as he wanted under two conditions. First,
she got half of all of his winnings no matter what,
and second, he was responsible for paying back all of
his debts and losses. With those rules in place, Benjamin
(08:30):
continued to gamble, and he lost often, but not to
loan sharks or betting houses. He lost to his wife,
who was now even wealthier than when she'd married him.
Ida also bought a majority stake in her own husband's newspaper.
Benjamin eventually died in nineteen hundred, leaving behind a lot
of money and a rich newspaper owning widow. Ida sold
(08:51):
the paper shortly thereafter for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
and she kept selling. In nineteen o seven, she got
rid of almost everything she owned, as if she was
purging herself of her old life, and once it was
all gone, she withdrew one million dollars from her bank
account in a single transaction and moved herself into a
two room suite at the Herald Square Hotel. After that,
(09:14):
she stopped going out. She stopped dining with other rich
New York socialites and celebrities, instead becoming a recluse. But
she wasn't alone. Her sister Mary and her own daughter Emma,
both lived in the suite with her. No guests were
ever permitted through the door, nor was any hotel staff.
Their only interaction with people on the outside occurred when
(09:34):
they would pay one of the bellhops to bring them
food and supplies once per day, things like bacon and eggs, coffee, cigars,
and petroleum jelly for Ida to slather all over her face.
She claimed that it helped keep her skin moist and
young looking. As far as the hotel staff knew, the
women had just enough money to stay there, but were
otherwise broke. Sadly, Ida outlived Emma, with her daughter passing
(09:57):
in at seventy one years old. The two sisters remained
in the room for the next few years until Mary
suddenly took a turn for the worse. In nineteen thirty one, Ida,
afraid for her sister, left the hotel room for the
first time in fourteen years and called out for help.
A doctor came, but it was too late. Mary was
already deceased, and after looking around at the room, he
(10:19):
was shocked that Ida hadn't gone with her. It was
a mess. The room was cluttered with their belongings, as
well as cans and boxes of old food. There were
stacks of newspapers, dirt, debris. Over a decade of filth
had built up due to their isolated lifestyle. With Mary gone,
a lawyer stepped in to assist Ida in the next
(10:39):
phase of her life. Clearly, she could no longer remain
inside her room, but as he helped her, he discovered
the truth about her situation. She was rich, very rich.
She still owned about a hundred and seventy five thousand
dollars in railroad stocks, with countless dividend checks gone uncashed.
There was almost a million dollars in cash and expensive
(11:01):
jewelry hidden everywhere in the place. Once news got out
about Ida and her money, relatives from all over, people
who had never seen her or spoken to her in
her entire life, came out of the woodwork to stake
their claim. It was the Great Depression, after all. Her
late husband's cousins, nephews, and even his son showed up
with their hands out, as did people claiming to be
(11:23):
related to her mother and father from Louisiana. Except Ida
hadn't really come from Louisiana, her father hadn't owned a plantation,
and as far as anyone knew, her mother wasn't related
to the Earls of Crawford. Ida had been born in Oldham, England,
to poor parents who had emigrated to the United States
when she was a young girl. She didn't want to
be poor any longer. She believed that she deserved better,
(11:46):
so she invented a new identity, one that helped her
capture the attention of Benjamin Wood, and the rest, as
they say, was history. Sadly, the adventure was over for her.
The ninety four year old Ida was declared incompetent and
remove from her room, no doubt, in a desperate bid
by the others to get their hands on her money,
(12:07):
but by the time she died of bronchial pneumonia in
nineteen thirty two, only a handful of people were able
to legally claim her riches for themselves. Ida Wood's lasting
legacy wasn't one of generosity or love, nor was it monetary.
It was a legacy she had built for herself using
her own wits and fortitude, or, as the kids might
(12:29):
say today, she faked it until she made it. I
hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
(12:51):
Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
you can learn all about it over at the World
of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,
Welcomed Aaron Mankey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeart
Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
There is perhaps no greater stain on American history than
that of the slave trade. For over two hundred years,
millions of African men, women, and children were kidnapped from
their homes and enslaved, forced to work on plantations, picking
crops like cotton and tobacco for white owners who did
not see them as people. To those in power, especially
in the Southern States, enslave people were simply property. It
(01:00):
was a dark and tumultuous time, a time when the
country was still new and finding its place in the
larger world. Yet, despite slavery's wide acceptance, an abolitionist movement
brewed among those who opposed its barbaric treatment of our
fellow human beings. People like Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, and
Harriet Tubman spoke out against the horrors of slavery, as
(01:21):
did many allies, such as author Harriet Beecher Stowe and
John Quincy Adams. Yet there was one abolitionist who did
much to further the cause. But despite his theatrical approach
to ending slavery, few people have heard of him today.
So let's change that. His name was Benjamin Leigh, and
he was a white man born in Copford, England, in
(01:41):
sixteen eighty two. His parents were Quakers and they instilled
a strong moral compass in him from a young age.
When he was in his mid thirties, Benjamin moved to
Barbados to work as a merchant. His time there gave
him a firsthand look at the injustices of the world,
namely the enslavement of black people, and it, in fear
created him. He grew more impassioned after a harrowing experience
(02:03):
watching an enslaveman take his own life to spare himself
another lashing from his owner. From that point forward, Benjamin
let everyone else know what he thought of slavery, which
didn't quite endear him to the people profiting from it
on the island. He left Barbados in seventeen thirty one
and settled down in Pennsylvania, where he continued to advocate
against the slave trade. It wasn't something yet codified in
(02:27):
Quaker philosophy. Quakers themselves had been prominent slave traders early on,
although abolition had become an increasingly popular cause among them informally.
His vocal admonition of it, though, cemented Benjamin as one
of the more progressive minds of his time. And he
didn't just talk the talk either. He saw everyone as equal,
and Benjamin was so against slavery that he made his
(02:49):
own clothes too, so as not to purchase anything that
might have been manufactured using slave labor. He also wrote
hundreds of essays and pamphlets on a handful of issues,
including slavery, as well as a book published by Benjamin Franklin.
In addition to his work toward abolition, he was also
anti capital punishment and believe the existing prison system needed
(03:10):
serious reform. But perhaps most importantly, Benjamin Lagh was an activist.
He did not rely on his words to get his
message across. In order to get people to hear him,
to really hear him, he knew he had to go bigger,
partly because he was a four foot tall man with
a hunchback and extremely long arms. People did not take
him seriously due to his looks. They were just not
(03:31):
going to listen to him, so he had to make them.
In one act of defiance, he stood outside a Quaker
meeting house in the dead of winter with nothing on
but his shirt, a pair of pants, and a single shoe.
He shoved one of his bare feet in the snow
and waited there in the cold. When someone asked him
why he was doing this or encouraged him to put
on warmer clothing, Benjamin informed them that enslaved people didn't
(03:55):
have the luxury of warm coats and shoes in the winter.
They were still forced to work outside dressed much like
he was right then. He also didn't hesitate to hit
slaveholders where they lived. Benjamin once asked a six year
old neighbor boy to come to his home and spend
time with him there for several hours. When it got late,
the boy's parents ran outside in a panic looking for him.
(04:15):
After a short while, Benjamin emerged and told them that
the boy was fine, he'd been with him the whole time,
but their desperation and sadness were the same desperation and
sadness felt by the parents of the young black girl
the couple had enslaved when she had been ripped from
their arms. And finally, in perhaps his most impressive and
ostentatious demonstration, Benjamin wore a soldier's uniform and delivered a
(04:37):
speech against slavery in front of his fellow Quakers at
the yearly meeting in Philadelphia. He held in his hand
a Bible and read out loud, Thus shall God shed
the blood of those persons who enslave their fellow creatures.
When his speech was over, Benjamin withdrew his sword and
drove it through the front cover of the Bible, which
(04:57):
bled and sprayed red liquid all over self and his audience.
It wasn't real blood, though he had hollowed out the
middle of the book and placed a bladder full of
pokeberry juice inside. The stunt shocked all in attendance, and
Benjamin was forced to leave the meeting. Rather than walk away,
though he lay down outside the door of the venue
so that when people left they had to step over
(05:19):
him and see his bloody corpse in all its glory.
It may have been appalling and offensive at the time,
but it worked. Thanks to Benjamin's advocacy, Philadelphia Quakers expelled
all slaveholders from their ranks. Benjamin Lay was, by eighteenth
century standards, a strange and garish person. He wasn't afraid
to go against the grain or to make people feel uncomfortable.
(05:41):
He even convinced Ben Franklin to free his enslaved people
in the event of his death. Benjamin Lay was a
hero and an ally, but above all else, despite his
small stature, he was someone that you could look up
to and a role model for people everywhere for all time. Curious, yes,
but also incredibly noble. Money changes people. Too much can
(06:19):
make them more selfish, too little can make them desperate,
And for those with a lot of it, money can
transform them into strange individuals who spend it in peculiar ways.
For example, a Canadian dentist named Michael Zook spent over
thirty one dollars in two thousand eleven to purchase a tooth.
But not just any tooth. It was a molar that
had been plucked from the mouth of the legendary beatle
(06:40):
John Lennon. His reason for procuring such a morbid item
he wanted to clone the late musician. But a few
of these eccentric elites can hold a candle to Ida
Mayfield Wood, who made quite a stir in nineteen thirties
New York City. Ida was born in eighteen thirty eight
and came to New York at the age of nineteen
to start a new chapter in her life. She hoped
(07:02):
to take her rightful place at the top of society,
where she felt she belonged. She was young, but knew
exactly who she was and what she wanted from life.
Ida's father had been the owner of a sugar plantation
back home in Louisiana, while her mother had been an
English aristocrat distantly related to the Earls of Crawford. In
order to maintain her status in a man's world, though,
(07:22):
she realized that she needed a man to help her
navigate it. She found what she needed in Benjamin Wood,
a thirty seven year old newspaper owner and Confederate sympathizer
from Kentucky. There was just one problem. He was already married.
Ida didn't mind, though, she continued to pursue Benjamin and
the two began a long lasting affair. They even had
a daughter together named Emma, and when Benjamin's wife suddenly
(07:45):
passed away in eighteen sixty seven, he and Ida were
finally able to tie the nut. He was just what
she needed. Ida worked her way up to the head
of the New York upper class, had found herself mentioned
in all the papers. She even snagged a visit with
Abraham Lincoln shortly after he won the election. But what
did bliss was not in the cards. Literally. Benjamin had
(08:07):
a nasty gambling habit, which made Ida worried about her future.
She certainly didn't want him throwing away all of their money,
so she made a deal with him. He was free
to gamble as much as he wanted under two conditions. First,
she got half of all of his winnings no matter what,
and second, he was responsible for paying back all of
his debts and losses. With those rules in place, Benjamin
(08:30):
continued to gamble, and he lost often, but not to
loan sharks or betting houses. He lost to his wife,
who was now even wealthier than when she'd married him.
Ida also bought a majority stake in her own husband's newspaper.
Benjamin eventually died in nineteen hundred, leaving behind a lot
of money and a rich newspaper owning widow. Ida sold
(08:51):
the paper shortly thereafter for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
and she kept selling. In nineteen o seven, she got
rid of almost everything she owned, as if she was
purging herself of her old life, and once it was
all gone, she withdrew one million dollars from her bank
account in a single transaction and moved herself into a
two room suite at the Herald Square Hotel. After that,
(09:14):
she stopped going out. She stopped dining with other rich
New York socialites and celebrities, instead becoming a recluse. But
she wasn't alone. Her sister Mary and her own daughter Emma,
both lived in the suite with her. No guests were
ever permitted through the door, nor was any hotel staff.
Their only interaction with people on the outside occurred when
(09:34):
they would pay one of the bellhops to bring them
food and supplies once per day, things like bacon and eggs, coffee, cigars,
and petroleum jelly for Ida to slather all over her face.
She claimed that it helped keep her skin moist and
young looking. As far as the hotel staff knew, the
women had just enough money to stay there, but were
otherwise broke. Sadly, Ida outlived Emma, with her daughter passing
(09:57):
in at seventy one years old. The two sisters remained
in the room for the next few years until Mary
suddenly took a turn for the worse. In nineteen thirty one, Ida,
afraid for her sister, left the hotel room for the
first time in fourteen years and called out for help.
A doctor came, but it was too late. Mary was
already deceased, and after looking around at the room, he
(10:19):
was shocked that Ida hadn't gone with her. It was
a mess. The room was cluttered with their belongings, as
well as cans and boxes of old food. There were
stacks of newspapers, dirt, debris. Over a decade of filth
had built up due to their isolated lifestyle. With Mary gone,
a lawyer stepped in to assist Ida in the next
(10:39):
phase of her life. Clearly, she could no longer remain
inside her room, but as he helped her, he discovered
the truth about her situation. She was rich, very rich.
She still owned about a hundred and seventy five thousand
dollars in railroad stocks, with countless dividend checks gone uncashed.
There was almost a million dollars in cash and expensive
(11:01):
jewelry hidden everywhere in the place. Once news got out
about Ida and her money, relatives from all over, people
who had never seen her or spoken to her in
her entire life, came out of the woodwork to stake
their claim. It was the Great Depression, after all. Her
late husband's cousins, nephews, and even his son showed up
with their hands out, as did people claiming to be
(11:23):
related to her mother and father from Louisiana. Except Ida
hadn't really come from Louisiana, her father hadn't owned a plantation,
and as far as anyone knew, her mother wasn't related
to the Earls of Crawford. Ida had been born in Oldham, England,
to poor parents who had emigrated to the United States
when she was a young girl. She didn't want to
be poor any longer. She believed that she deserved better,
(11:46):
so she invented a new identity, one that helped her
capture the attention of Benjamin Wood, and the rest, as
they say, was history. Sadly, the adventure was over for her.
The ninety four year old Ida was declared incompetent and
remove from her room, no doubt, in a desperate bid
by the others to get their hands on her money,
(12:07):
but by the time she died of bronchial pneumonia in
nineteen thirty two, only a handful of people were able
to legally claim her riches for themselves. Ida Wood's lasting
legacy wasn't one of generosity or love, nor was it monetary.
It was a legacy she had built for herself using
her own wits and fortitude, or, as the kids might
(12:29):
say today, she faked it until she made it. I
hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
(12:51):
Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
you can learn all about it over at the World
of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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