July 8, 2021 • 10 mins
There are some legends that have hidden secrets, and if you dig deep enough, you'll learn something absolutely curious about them.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
of I Heart 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
(00:27):
the Cabinet of Curiosities. They say the apple never falls
far from the tree. The implied meaning, I think is
that kids tend to echo their parents. Maybe you hear
your mother in the way you laugh, or perhaps you
(00:48):
see your nose in the mirror every morning and are
instantly reminded of your grandfather and his siblings. Look no
further than Danny Harrison, son of Beatle George Harrison, or
Ken Griffey Jr. His father, both of whom were popular
prominent Major League Baseball players, And while Griffey Jr's son
didn't follow his family into the same game, he ended
(01:09):
up playing in the NFL. But the old adage isn't
universally true. In fact, some kids fall pretty far from
the parental tree, and William was one of them. It
wasn't all his fault, though. People are often a product
of the times they live in. And William lived through
some of the most tumultuous in history, the sort of
turmoil that gives birth to a brand new sovereign nation.
(01:32):
In fact, his parents weren't married when he was born
around seventeen thirty, and much of his time was spent
in the care of his mother. But William's father was
right there making sure he had a good education and
plenty of job opportunities, and at that time in the
American colonies, there was plenty of growth to take advantage of.
As a teen, he joined the Pennsylvania Provincial Troops, gaining
(01:54):
a quick military experience during his service in King George's War.
When he left, he had reached the rank of captain.
Years later, in seventeen sixty two, William married a woman
from England name Elizabeth, who he met while they're on
a trip with his father, and with that his life
seemed to be entering that stable period most adults hoped for.
(02:15):
After the wedding, the new couple moved back to North America,
settling in the colony of New Jersey, where he had
been given a new job serving as the colony's royal governor. Yeah,
it was a big deal, and I imagined. William was
pretty proud of that. He loved his English roots and
had risen up the ranks of power pretty quickly. But
I mentioned that he was the sort of apple that
(02:36):
didn't fall close to the family tree, didn't I. You See,
while William was utterly loyal to the Crown of England,
his father was different. The seventeen seventies were full of
rumors of impending war, a war that would pit the
American colonies against their overbearing, unjust authorities across the Atlantic,
and Williams father supported that uprising. In fact, the older
(03:00):
and visited William many times to beg him to reconsider
his military service would earn him top ranks in the
American forces, he was sure of it, but William refused.
His loyalties were to the king, and that was that.
It didn't matter that every single one of his fellow
colonial governors had already thrown their hats into the rebellion.
(03:21):
It didn't matter that William's own son had sided with
William's father, It didn't matter that troops were being assembled
on both sides of the conflict. He was stubbornly committed
to the Crown. Finally, in seventeen seventy six, colonial forces
put him and Elizabeth under house arrest. She would die
in custody, but he would stay there until seventeen seventy eight,
(03:43):
when he was released in a prisoner exchange. But even
the loss of his wife and his job wasn't enough
to stop him. For the next few years, as the
Revolutionary War raged on across the colonies, William worked as
the leader of the American Loyalist movement, people actively working
to defeat the Americans. He even encouraged guerilla warfare against
(04:04):
rebel groups, hoping to earn favor with the crown by
helping British forces. And he was vicious too. But we
all know how the Revolutionary War was going to end, right,
and by seventeen eighty two, Williams saw it coming. Admitting defeat,
he boarded a ship and headed to London, leaving his
life in America behind. He would die there three decades
(04:25):
later in eighteen thirteen, and his father, well, dear old
Dad cut William almost entirely out of his autobiography and
his will And that was a big deal too. Why well,
because all these years later, folks are still talking about
William's father, while he's become something of an overlooked footnote,
(04:45):
although how could he really compete with a father who
was a famous writer, publisher, scientist, postmaster, inventor, political activist,
and statesman, A man who seemed to alter the course
of history with his printing press, and who who had
the courage to stand in a lightning storm with a
kite and a key. William's father, Benjamin Franklin. There's an
(05:21):
old saying that goes behind every great man, there's a
great woman. Women have been responsible for some of the
most important achievements in history, only to have their contributions
severely reduced or even erased by men. Charles Babbage, for example,
was credited with creating the analytical engine, a precursor to
the computer as we know today. However, it was a
(05:42):
mathematician named Ada Lovelace who developed an algorithm for the
device that could compute Bernouly numbers, and although the analytical
Engine was never completed in her lifetime, lovelaces algorithm made
her the world's first computer programmer, an achievement that wouldn't
be recognized for over a century. Many were also demonized
by the men who ruled over society, Not only were
(06:04):
their efforts overshadowed, they were often tainted. Over time, men's
accusations and beliefs colored women's contributions and their reputations in
a negative light, and it's taken decades, sometimes even centuries,
for corrections to be made. If at all want proof,
look no further than medieval ale wives. Though today's beer
(06:25):
industry is a male dominated field, beer was originally brewed
by women. In ancient Babylon, women not only made the
beloved beverage, but they sold it as well. It wasn't
until beer's introduction into ancient Egypt when men eventually took
over the trade. Meanwhile, in Europe, women run taverns and breweries.
Flourished brewster has produced a drink called ale, which lacked
(06:47):
the hops found in today's beer. In fact, it was
a German nun named Hildegarde who suggested hops as an
ingredient at all, thanks to its healing, bettering, and preserving
properties sometime in the twelfth century. Yet, despite an increasingly
male presence in the beer trade over the years, women
still dominated. During the Middle Ages, they were called ale wives,
(07:08):
and they sold their goods in crowded markets which were
packed to the brim with thirsty customers, so in order
to stand out among the crowds, the ale wives would
don special clothing, namely tall, pointy hats. These hats were
tall enough to be seen by anyone, even from several
yards away. And of course they had to have beer
to sell, which meant hauling it from the brewing location
(07:29):
to the markets. But rather than stock individual bottles, ale
wives transported their beer in large cauldrons, which allowed them
to carry a lot more at one time, and those
who sold beer out of their homes hung brooms above
their front doors to indicate that they were open for business.
Oh and one last detail. Vermin was also a major
concern for brewers, as mice and other rodents would nibble
(07:51):
on the grain used for brewing. To combat that threat,
ale wives employed the use of cats to chase them away. Unfortunately,
these women owned businesses didn't last forever. Patriarchal society wouldn't
let them, and as the Reformation spread across Europe, female
brewers became the perfect scapegoats for Christianity, which labeled them
as witches. It was theorized that as the Protestants and
(08:14):
Catholic churches waged war against each other for supremacy. They
campaigned among the public to increase their numbers, and there
was no better way to boost recruitment than to offer
protection against the biggest threat of all, the devil. Agents
of the church accused women of using their cauldrons to
brew potions, not beer, and those black hats they weren't
really pest control, they said, they were the witches familiars,
(08:37):
little demons in animal form that attended to a witch's
every need. Eventually, women had no choice but to abandon
the beer trade to save their lives. In the mid
fifteen hundreds, one English town even passed a law prohibiting
women between the ages of fourteen and forty from becoming
ale wives. After all, if a woman was working, she
was probably too busy to get married, let alone tend
(08:59):
to her household in children. From that point forward, men
rose to prominence as makers and sellers of beer, a
tradition that has continued to this day. And the ale wives, well,
they never truly outgrew their witchy accusations. Their pointy hats, broomsticks,
cauldrons and cats all became cliches of witches, and we
can still find them depicted that way in books, films,
(09:21):
and television today, though some historians argue about the accuracy
of such claims, it's hard not to see the link
between the ale wives of old and the witches we
know today. Regardless, it's clear that women invented the beer industry,
only to have it taken away by men. It's like
James Brown once saying, it's a man's world, but it
(09:42):
wouldn't be nothing without a woman or a girl. 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 Mankey in partnership with how
(10:03):
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,
Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
of I Heart 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
(00:27):
the Cabinet of Curiosities. They say the apple never falls
far from the tree. The implied meaning, I think is
that kids tend to echo their parents. Maybe you hear
your mother in the way you laugh, or perhaps you
(00:48):
see your nose in the mirror every morning and are
instantly reminded of your grandfather and his siblings. Look no
further than Danny Harrison, son of Beatle George Harrison, or
Ken Griffey Jr. His father, both of whom were popular
prominent Major League Baseball players, And while Griffey Jr's son
didn't follow his family into the same game, he ended
(01:09):
up playing in the NFL. But the old adage isn't
universally true. In fact, some kids fall pretty far from
the parental tree, and William was one of them. It
wasn't all his fault, though. People are often a product
of the times they live in. And William lived through
some of the most tumultuous in history, the sort of
turmoil that gives birth to a brand new sovereign nation.
(01:32):
In fact, his parents weren't married when he was born
around seventeen thirty, and much of his time was spent
in the care of his mother. But William's father was
right there making sure he had a good education and
plenty of job opportunities, and at that time in the
American colonies, there was plenty of growth to take advantage of.
As a teen, he joined the Pennsylvania Provincial Troops, gaining
(01:54):
a quick military experience during his service in King George's War.
When he left, he had reached the rank of captain.
Years later, in seventeen sixty two, William married a woman
from England name Elizabeth, who he met while they're on
a trip with his father, and with that his life
seemed to be entering that stable period most adults hoped for.
(02:15):
After the wedding, the new couple moved back to North America,
settling in the colony of New Jersey, where he had
been given a new job serving as the colony's royal governor. Yeah,
it was a big deal, and I imagined. William was
pretty proud of that. He loved his English roots and
had risen up the ranks of power pretty quickly. But
I mentioned that he was the sort of apple that
(02:36):
didn't fall close to the family tree, didn't I. You See,
while William was utterly loyal to the Crown of England,
his father was different. The seventeen seventies were full of
rumors of impending war, a war that would pit the
American colonies against their overbearing, unjust authorities across the Atlantic,
and Williams father supported that uprising. In fact, the older
(03:00):
and visited William many times to beg him to reconsider
his military service would earn him top ranks in the
American forces, he was sure of it, but William refused.
His loyalties were to the king, and that was that.
It didn't matter that every single one of his fellow
colonial governors had already thrown their hats into the rebellion.
(03:21):
It didn't matter that William's own son had sided with
William's father, It didn't matter that troops were being assembled
on both sides of the conflict. He was stubbornly committed
to the Crown. Finally, in seventeen seventy six, colonial forces
put him and Elizabeth under house arrest. She would die
in custody, but he would stay there until seventeen seventy eight,
(03:43):
when he was released in a prisoner exchange. But even
the loss of his wife and his job wasn't enough
to stop him. For the next few years, as the
Revolutionary War raged on across the colonies, William worked as
the leader of the American Loyalist movement, people actively working
to defeat the Americans. He even encouraged guerilla warfare against
(04:04):
rebel groups, hoping to earn favor with the crown by
helping British forces. And he was vicious too. But we
all know how the Revolutionary War was going to end, right,
and by seventeen eighty two, Williams saw it coming. Admitting defeat,
he boarded a ship and headed to London, leaving his
life in America behind. He would die there three decades
(04:25):
later in eighteen thirteen, and his father, well, dear old
Dad cut William almost entirely out of his autobiography and
his will And that was a big deal too. Why well,
because all these years later, folks are still talking about
William's father, while he's become something of an overlooked footnote,
(04:45):
although how could he really compete with a father who
was a famous writer, publisher, scientist, postmaster, inventor, political activist,
and statesman, A man who seemed to alter the course
of history with his printing press, and who who had
the courage to stand in a lightning storm with a
kite and a key. William's father, Benjamin Franklin. There's an
(05:21):
old saying that goes behind every great man, there's a
great woman. Women have been responsible for some of the
most important achievements in history, only to have their contributions
severely reduced or even erased by men. Charles Babbage, for example,
was credited with creating the analytical engine, a precursor to
the computer as we know today. However, it was a
(05:42):
mathematician named Ada Lovelace who developed an algorithm for the
device that could compute Bernouly numbers, and although the analytical
Engine was never completed in her lifetime, lovelaces algorithm made
her the world's first computer programmer, an achievement that wouldn't
be recognized for over a century. Many were also demonized
by the men who ruled over society, Not only were
(06:04):
their efforts overshadowed, they were often tainted. Over time, men's
accusations and beliefs colored women's contributions and their reputations in
a negative light, and it's taken decades, sometimes even centuries,
for corrections to be made. If at all want proof,
look no further than medieval ale wives. Though today's beer
(06:25):
industry is a male dominated field, beer was originally brewed
by women. In ancient Babylon, women not only made the
beloved beverage, but they sold it as well. It wasn't
until beer's introduction into ancient Egypt when men eventually took
over the trade. Meanwhile, in Europe, women run taverns and breweries.
Flourished brewster has produced a drink called ale, which lacked
(06:47):
the hops found in today's beer. In fact, it was
a German nun named Hildegarde who suggested hops as an
ingredient at all, thanks to its healing, bettering, and preserving
properties sometime in the twelfth century. Yet, despite an increasingly
male presence in the beer trade over the years, women
still dominated. During the Middle Ages, they were called ale wives,
(07:08):
and they sold their goods in crowded markets which were
packed to the brim with thirsty customers, so in order
to stand out among the crowds, the ale wives would
don special clothing, namely tall, pointy hats. These hats were
tall enough to be seen by anyone, even from several
yards away. And of course they had to have beer
to sell, which meant hauling it from the brewing location
(07:29):
to the markets. But rather than stock individual bottles, ale
wives transported their beer in large cauldrons, which allowed them
to carry a lot more at one time, and those
who sold beer out of their homes hung brooms above
their front doors to indicate that they were open for business.
Oh and one last detail. Vermin was also a major
concern for brewers, as mice and other rodents would nibble
(07:51):
on the grain used for brewing. To combat that threat,
ale wives employed the use of cats to chase them away. Unfortunately,
these women owned businesses didn't last forever. Patriarchal society wouldn't
let them, and as the Reformation spread across Europe, female
brewers became the perfect scapegoats for Christianity, which labeled them
as witches. It was theorized that as the Protestants and
(08:14):
Catholic churches waged war against each other for supremacy. They
campaigned among the public to increase their numbers, and there
was no better way to boost recruitment than to offer
protection against the biggest threat of all, the devil. Agents
of the church accused women of using their cauldrons to
brew potions, not beer, and those black hats they weren't
really pest control, they said, they were the witches familiars,
(08:37):
little demons in animal form that attended to a witch's
every need. Eventually, women had no choice but to abandon
the beer trade to save their lives. In the mid
fifteen hundreds, one English town even passed a law prohibiting
women between the ages of fourteen and forty from becoming
ale wives. After all, if a woman was working, she
was probably too busy to get married, let alone tend
(08:59):
to her household in children. From that point forward, men
rose to prominence as makers and sellers of beer, a
tradition that has continued to this day. And the ale wives, well,
they never truly outgrew their witchy accusations. Their pointy hats, broomsticks,
cauldrons and cats all became cliches of witches, and we
can still find them depicted that way in books, films,
(09:21):
and television today, though some historians argue about the accuracy
of such claims, it's hard not to see the link
between the ale wives of old and the witches we
know today. Regardless, it's clear that women invented the beer industry,
only to have it taken away by men. It's like
James Brown once saying, it's a man's world, but it
(09:42):
wouldn't be nothing without a woman or a girl. 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 Mankey in partnership with how
(10:03):
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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