Whitman massacre / James Jay invents invisible ink - November 29th Flashback

On this day in 1847, a group of Cayuse tribespeople killed 13 people at the Whitman Mission, as they believed that physician and religious leader Marcus Whitman was deliberately spreading measles.

On this day in 1775, physician and amateur chemist James Jay invented a new kind of invisible ink, which was later put to use in the American War of Independence. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, history fans. We're taking a break to stay
ahead of the holidays, but we've got plenty of classic
shows to keep you busy. Please enjoy these flashback episodes
from the TDI HC Vault, and be sure to tune
in on December first for a brand new episode.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome back everyone. I'm Eves and you're listening to This
Day in History Class, a show where we peel back
a new layer of history every day. The day was
November twenty ninth, eighteen forty seven members of the Cayus

(00:37):
Native American tribe murdered missionaries Marcus Whitman and Narcissa Whitman,
along with eleven other people. The Whitman Massacre, as it
became known, marked the beginning of the Cayus War, a
conflict between the Cayu's people and the US government and
American frontiers people. In eighteen thirty six, Marcus and Narcissa
Whitman founded the Whitman Mission among the Cayu near present

(01:01):
day Walla Walla, Washington. It was the second Protestant mission
in the Oregon Country, a region between the Pacific Ocean
and the Rocky Mountains in the Pacific Northwest. The Whitman's
built up the mission over the years, but tensions escalated
between the missionaries and the Cayus. The Cayus refused to
bend to Marcus's will and become full time farmers, weren't

(01:23):
interested in learning from the Whitman's and did not care
about Christianity. The Cayus also maintained that since the Whitman's
built the mission on their land, they were obligated to
give them goods, but in the tribe member's eyes, Marcus
wasn't fulfilling his obligations. Aware of the whitman missions struggles
with the Cayus and with money, the American Board of

(01:46):
Commissioners for Foreign Missions even ordered the mission to close
in eighteen forty two, though the board later rescinded its order.
The mission soon became a place where immigrants on the
Oregon Trail stopped to rest, gathered so applies, and receive
care and treatment. As more people moved west, there was
an influx of white immigrants in the area. The Cayus

(02:08):
were aware of the harmful effect the arrival of white
populations was having on Native American tribes in other places.
They brought with them disease and in eighteen forty seven,
an epidemic of measles killed half the Cayu's people. The
Cayus were hungry, sick, and unhappy with how stingy Marcus
was in his trading, and Marcus was unable to keep

(02:30):
the epidemic under control for the Cayus, even though he
had been caring for white and Native American people who
had been affected. They believed that Marcus, as a doctor
and religious leader, was essentially killing their families to make
room for more white immigrants. This was not unprecedented, as
Native Americans in the Northwest had been threatened with German warfare,

(02:52):
and their beliefs about the power white people had over
medicine was exploited. On November twenty ninth, eighteen forty seven,
a group of Cayu's tribesmen attacked the Women Mission, which
was sheltering dozens of people, mostly immigrants. They killed thirteen people,
including Narcissa and Marcus. They destroyed most of the buildings

(03:14):
at the mission and held around fifty women and children
captive for weeks. Two children died and the other captives
were ransomed. Historians agreed that the Cayus were defending their
tribe since the Cayus believed that Marcus was allowing measles
to spread among them. News of the massacre reached Washington,
d c. In eighteen forty eight, and Congress responded by

(03:37):
establishing the Oregon Territory. That August, the Provisional Legislature of
Oregon and Governor George Abernathy authorized volunteers to go to
war against the Cayus, and a unit of volunteers was
dispatched to the Dows. Fighting soon broke out and the
Cayus War continued sporadically for several years. The war did

(03:59):
not turn out well for the Cayus. I'm Eve Steffcote
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. Feel free to share your thoughts
or your innermost feelings with us and with other listeners
on social media, and you can email us at this
Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks for listening to today's episode.

(04:23):
We'll see you again tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Hello, and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that reveals a little bit more about history every day.
I'm Gabe Lucier and in this episode, we're talking about
a breakthrough form of espionage from the Revolutionary War a
new kind of invisible ink that only one side knew

(04:55):
how to use. The day was November twenty ninth, seventeen
seventy five. Physician and amateur chemist James Jy invented a
new kind of invisible ink, which was later put to
use in the American War of Independence. From the seventeen

(05:19):
fifties until the start of the war, Jay had studied
and practiced medicine in Great Britain. When the war broke
out in the colonies, he used his new invisible ink
to correspond with John Jay, an American patriot, and his
more famous younger brother, eventually with James Blessing. John Jay

(05:40):
offered his brother's ink to General George Washington, who immediately
put it to use. In the famous Culper Spy ring
during the Revolutionary War, both combatants used invisible ink. British
soldiers would dip their quills in something acidic like lime juice,
lemon juice, or vinegar, and then write secret messages between

(06:03):
the lines of seemingly mundane letters. The hidden writing would
only appear if the recipient did one of two things,
either hold the letter over the flame of a candle
or treat the paper with a chemical substance, such as
sodium carbonate. These methods worked because the acidic ink would

(06:24):
weaken the fibers of the paper, so that when heat
or acid was applied, the weakened fibers would turn brown
faster than the fibers that hadn't touched the ink. The
main problem with these types of invisible ink was that
both sides knew how to use them. If a letter
was intercepted and the enemy suspected it might contain a

(06:46):
hidden message, they knew exactly how to check. In fact,
one British intelligence officer made it even easier to tell.
He instructed his agents to mark the corner of their
correspondence with either an an A or an F. This
told the recipient or the interceptor exactly how to make

(07:07):
the secret message appear with acid or with fire. James
j recognized that most invisible ink formulas had become too
common to be effective. To combat the problem, he developed
his own unique recipe for ink, one that could only
be activated by a specific corresponding reagent. It didn't matter

(07:30):
how much heat or sodium carbonate you tried. Without knowing
Jay's exact formula, his invisible ink would stay invisible. When
George Washington heard of this new form of invisible ink,
he couldn't contain his excitement. He wrote a letter to
a lawyer and statesman named Elias Boudino, singing the praises

(07:51):
of what he referred to as sympathetic stain Washington. Giddaly wrote, quote,
it is in my power I believe to procure a
liquid which nothing but a counter liquor rubbed over the
paper afterwards can make legible fire, which will bring out lime, juice, milk,

(08:11):
and other things of this kind. To light has no
effect on it. A letter upon trivial matters of business,
written in common ink may be fitted with important intelligence
which cannot be discovered without the counterpart. Shortly after, James J.
Began exporting small quantities of his invisible ink to Washington

(08:34):
and to the Continental Army's spymaster, Major Benjamin Talmadge. He
and the General would then pass the ink along to
their secret agents in British occupied New York City. They
encouraged the agents to write their hidden messages in the
blank pages of books and pamphlets in order to make
them less suspicious. There was never as much of Jay's

(08:58):
ink as they would have liked, but the amount they had,
alongside their aliases and various forms of code writing, was
enough to get them all the way through the war
without being caught. So what exactly was in James J's
mysterious white ink, or the medicine as Washington would later

(09:18):
refer to it in letters? Jay never revealed the chemical
composition of his formula, after all, writing it down would
have increased the risk of an outsider figuring out how
to use it. However, in the nineteen thirties, doctor Lodwick
Bendickson performed ultraviolet and infrared tests on letters written using

(09:41):
Jay's invisible ink. The analysis revealed it to be a
solution made from the tannic acid of gall nuts. What's
a gall nut? It's not a nut, but essentially a
wooden cocoon. When a wasp lays its eggs on the
branches of an oak tree, the tree he defends itself

(10:01):
by entombing the eggs within a big woody growth known
as a goal nut. As for the substance used to
reveal Jay's invisible ink, the test showed it to be
ferris sulfate, a soil additive used to lower the pH
of soil. Kudos to James J. For coming up with

(10:21):
that pairing. No way were the British going to crack
that one. Jay's invisible ink helped deliver valuable strategic information
to Washington and his allies, but the inventor was never
paid for his contribution to the war effort. In eighteen
o eight, long after the war had been won, Jay

(10:42):
appealed for payment to President Thomas Jefferson and to Congress.
He requested twenty thousand dollars in recognition of his services,
claiming that his ink formula had proven invaluable and would
surely be of even more use in the future. Congress
was split on the matter. Some felt Jay was owed

(11:03):
the money, while others said it was quote absurd to
vote away money for a thing they did not and
could not understand. In the end, Congress sided with Jay, declaring,
quote that it shall be lawful for the President of
the United States to obtain, by purchase at a reasonable price,
the exclusive right on behalf of the public of the

(11:26):
system invented by Sir James J as submitted by him
to the Executive Department of Government, provided in the opinion
of the President, it will be of public utility and
importance to possess the same. In other words, if President
Jefferson wanted to pay James j for their rights to
his invisible ink, Congress would have no objection. But apparently

(11:50):
that's not something Jefferson wanted to do. The subject was
broached again in eighteen thirteen, but the Senate voted down
the measure. James Jay died two years later, never compensated
for his efforts. His contributions to the nation were lasting,
but appreciation for them disappeared fast. I'm Gabeluesier and hopefully

(12:16):
you now know a little more about history today than
you did yesterday. If you liked what you heard, consider
following us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at TDI HC Show,
and if you have any comments or suggestions, you can
send them my way at this Day at iHeartMedia dot com.

(12:37):
Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank
you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow
for another Day in History class.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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Speaker 1 (12:59):
You listen to you your favorite shows.