I wonder if that was mainstream teachers confusing the Salem witch trials with the way the Catholic churches executed "witches" during their Inquisitions in Europe 🤔
I don't think I was taught that they were burned at the stake, but witches being burned at the stake is so iconic that it blend into people's understanding of the Salem Witch Trials.
Yeah, I think that's where people think people were burned at Salem. I can't remember in school if we were told how they died, only about the trials, etc. Later I remember docs only talking about the hanging and the one person crushed to death. I think separately we were told that so many people have been burned at the stake for witch craft, that our brains just fuse these facts together.
Add to it that the Spanish Inquisition gets blamed, when in fact, the Spanish Inquisition declared witches to be deluded, and that "the less you talk of witches, the less there will be"
Actually it was very rare for it to happen, if you confessed and repented you would be set free, and most methods to even determine if you were a heretic would simply kill you, for instance they would tie you up and toss you into a lake and you would drown and prove you were innocent, it was very rare for someone to be burned, often times those were repeat offenders, people who would not repent and confess, who would recant. Most people convicted who actually were executed were either drowned, had a piece of wood placed on their chest and stones would be placed on top until they were crushed. Only the people considered the worst of the worst would be burned, not even people who were considered witches were all burned. That’s a historical myth, because of Joan of Arc (who recanted her confession and was EXTREMELY hated as well by the church)
Hey chris! Im just a teen living in southeast asia enjoying your informative videos. Friends poke fun at me for watching‘boring videos’ but history is just so interesting to me. You’re my favorite history youtuber
Please keep this passion for learning history and just learning in general it's a good quality, I forget who said this but that they tried to learn at least one new thing everyday
"Herodotus: If he wrote it, let's just say it's probably not entirely accurate." That's a pretty good rule of thumb. It's a bit hyperbolic, but I had a professor tell me once, "Anything Herodotus wrote in Histories involving battles and numbers, if the troops were Greek, multiply by ten, and if they were the opposing army, divide by ten." 😂😂
Yeah, I just took a class at my university that was about Homer’s Iliad and its effects on history; and part of that was that we talked about how Herodotus wrote his histories in a way that was to emulate Homer (to an extent, at least).
@@B30WULF2 Oh, most definitely. Herodotus clearly aimed to mythologize the "Greeks" of his time, especially the Achaeans. I'm sure if he thought he could get away with it, his Histories would have contained just as much mythology as Stasinus, Homer, and Arctinus combined. Thankfully other historians of the era like Thucydides were a tad more grounded.
Herodotus mentioned the Cartheginean fleet's circumnavigation of the continent of Africa, and in the account, he mentioned that the sailers reported the position of the sun in the Southern hemisphere being different for some reason, which he couldn't have known why that was, but reported it anyways. The fact that he mentions that detail actually gives the story validity, even though in his mind he probably thought that detail proved it being fictitious. He was more of a journalist/ story teller, reported what he heard. Commented sometimes. There's lots of gems in The Histories.
Herodotus gets a bad rap but I think is now being seen a little more favourably. He loves repeating weird stories he's been told but makes it clear that this is what he was told andd he hadn't seen it himself; and when he does report on something he's seen himself, he's often a lot more accurate than people were ready to believe in the past. A lot of historians are just as credulous and far less inclined to tell readers that it's only hearsay.
@@ryanboggs5919 this makes for a funny thought that he was his era's equivalent of a romanticizing pop history author, although I don't know how true that is, maybe that's just how history was written back then
21:30 yes! I'm 26 and live in Missouri. In high school we learned of the Salem witch trials but it was only in passing, a brief footnote of the time before America's independence. We learned almost nothing specific except that people accused of witchcraft were "burned at the sake, crushed to death, and hanged." The lesson plan then quickly sped ahead about 75 years
I'm actually 26 and live in Missouri too right outside of KC. And never once was I told they were burned. Learned about it for the first time in 5th grade American history and was just told they were hanged. Must just be a teacher thing but I only heard about burnings at Salem from people trying to tell me it never happened 🤷
Interesting part of that to me is the time compression. Growing up out east, within 40 miles of some revolutionary battles, we spent a sizable chunk of curricular time on the settlements of the 13 colonies, then skipped ahead to the French & Indian War through the Jefferson years. Then after 1812 we fast forwarded to the years before the Civil War.
Speaking of first hand sources, Korea's centuries long Joseon dynasty has an excruciatingly detailed annual chronicle of royal affairs. Comprised of over 1800 volumes spanning from 1392 to 1865, the chroniclers were sworn to secrecy and all were banned from reading it (including the King himself) It somehow survived wars, a mad king, and Japanese colonialism and is the longest continual documentation of dynastic history in the world. A famous anecdote regarding the chronicles was King Taejong falling from his horse and the King asking the historian with him to kindly refrain from mentioning the incident in the chronicle. The chronicle reads something to the effect of, "on this day, King Taejong fell from his horse. He asked for the incident to not be recorded in this chronicle"
I studied theatre and history at what then was called Salem State College. The burning if witches was indeed a misunderstanding both among the students and the tourists who visited town. I lived down the street from The House Of Seven Gables. I visited in a number of times and that is one of the questions that the guides often had to handle.
I’m always stunned by how many people seem to have such very specific memories about the quality of their high school history classes and each event that was or was not covered.
Yes, I was taught in junior high school that they burned people at the stake during the Salem witch trials. I was also taught Columbus sailed to prove the world was round.
I can recall when I was a kid in school that it was implied there were witch burnings at the Salem Witch trials. That being said "responding to an argument nobody is making" is definitely a pet peeve of mine and you see that type of thing on a constant basis on social media from really annoying people.
When Cicero was the governor of Sicily (not a very profitable posting) he rediscovered the lost tomb of Archimedes and cleaned up the area. Cicero was loved in Sicily for being a fair and caring governor.
I have read at least two childrens' books that stated Betty Ross designed the first flag. I also have seen more than one TV show depicting witches being burn at Salem.
Hey Chris, Einstein was only ethnically Jewish, he was not a practicing Jew. He, himself, had described himself as a person who believes in Spinoza’s God. Spinoza’s God being something akin to “everything” or pantheism.
You touch on a really interesting point about when a source is from in comparison to what it’s talking about. The further removed from an event something is, the more we should caution believing it at face value but at the same time, something contemporary to its subject isn’t necessarily believable either. For example Tacitus’ Agricola. He basically wrote it to glorify his father in law so even though it was of and about his time, we still tread lightly believing it 100%. As in all historiography, source analysis and critical thinking is key. Also, as an Englishman who loves the NFL, I love seeing foreigners, especially Americans, be really into English football. Absolutely love your jersey collection.
Speaking of Ipswich, across from the football stadium is the local bus depot. The building dates to the early 1900s when they used electric tram cars (trolleys). A coal fired power plant was located behind the carriage barns. By the 1930s Ipswich switched from electric tramcars and maintaining the street rails to motorized buses. The operations building from early 1900s has been well maintained reflecting its late Victorian/Edwardian architectural details. St George did slay the dragon. Philomena Cunk showed a painting somebody had taken of the event.
In the early 1960s from 1960-65, it was taught that Betsy Ross did design the first American flag. The story taught at the time was that on a day in late May 1776 three members of a secret committee from the Continental Congress came to call upon Betsy Ross. Those representatives were George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross. George Washington was then the head of the Continental Army. Robert Morris, an owner of vast amounts of land, was perhaps the wealthiest citizen in the Colonies. Colonel George Ross was a respected Philadelphian and also the uncle of Betsy's late husband, John Ross. Betsy was a widow struggling to run her own upholstery business. Upholsterers in colonial America not only worked on furniture but did all manner of sewing work, which for some included making flags. According to Betsy, General Washington showed her a rough design of the flag that included a six-pointed star. Betsy, a standout with the scissors, demonstrated how to cut a five-pointed star in a single snip. Impressed, the committee entrusted Betsy with making the first flag. According to the lessons of the time Ross changed Washington’s six-pointed star to a five-pointed star which according to the lesson was easier to cut out, thus Betsy did design/redesign the first American flag. Betsy Ross herself would often tell this story to her family. Thus the idea that Betsy Ross designed the first American flag was born. It is a fact that “history” taught in grammar is often a simplified, romanticized version what what actually happened. By the time you are in college, the history courses teach something vastly different than what you learned in second grade.
Sorry, 1 month late to the party, but, while being European, when I was younger I did read a lot of stories about Betsy Ross having designed the "stars and stripes" flag. So, it was definitely floating around and it needed to be corrected.
I've watched about a dozen of these reaction videos and I don't think my thoughts have ever been more aligned with someone before. Im just not near as articulate and studied as you are! I appreciate your insight
@15:00 "People believe the lie...". The way this is explained in psychology is that the strength of a belief is determined by how much you trusted the source when you first heard it and how long that belief has been part of your personality. New information, however accurate, has to overcome those serious hurdles. Humans are not logical by default, we seek patterns and connections. We believe the things that other people in the social group believe because it makes us a more integral part of the group. We also want things to make sense (pattern-recognition). A fat person choking on a ham sandwich (note: it's specifically ham, a fatty food) has a sense of cause and effect that makes sense to us. This is also why we cling to childhood beliefs long after we learn they are wrong: when we learned them we had absolute trust in our teachers/ parents and these beliefs have been part of our personalities for our entire conscious lives.
I had seen some sources claim that Alantis was a reference to the island of Santreni (I am not sure I spelled it right). This was an island that was a super volcano, near Crete. When it erupted it wiped out the Cretan civilization. I thought Atlantis and Cretean civilization were the same thing, Fun theory: This eruption happened around the time of Moses and might be the source of the "fire and brimstone" that is written about in the Old Testament.
Thera/Santorini caused a massive tidal wave that probably caused the collapse of the Minoan civilization. The Egyptians did record the event as well but also that several groups of people from North Africa and the Western Mediterranean raided Crete and Northern Egypt. Some of these tribes were those that Egypt had previously used as mercenaries. I would agree that the Minoan and Atlantis were one and the same. But this isn’t the Great Flood. Geological data shows an even larger eruption had occurred earlier in the Western Indian Ocean that would have flooded the Fertile Crescent. That is the flood mentioned in the Gilgamesh story and possibly the Noah story as well.
Fun fact, I have an ancestor from MA (near Salem, but not in Salem) from the same time period (late 1680s) and his death certificate (or some type of document) actually says the cause of death was "Witchstruck".
The thing you mentioned about people hearing one message and believing it despite it being disproven - this happened to a friend of mine. An ill-informed news article came out about him and everyone just assumed it was true, except the reporter had misread a police report and it caused all sorts of misinformation from people sharing on social media. So dangerous what can happen!
Chris talking about chastity belts: 'But they had one in Robin Hood: Men in Tights'. Lmbo the younger kids would have to watch the movie to get the reference as it was a very good and funny movie.
3:55: Another example: Caesar didn't want a war with Rome, he just wanted to serve as Consul and was willing to sacrifice many things so long as he had the promise he would be able to run for Consul. But when they gave him no directions but prosecution or rebellion, he saw no option but forward.
Almost every example where you said "iv never heard anyone even say that" is exactly what I was taught in school and I graduated in 2020, it's sad how much provably false stuff is still taught in school
Cass Elliot's daughter has just written a book about her mother's life and has had to debunk the ham sandwich story in the interviews she has given promoting the book. Can you imagine being 7 years old and your mother dying and everyone blaming it on a sandwich and continuing to go on and on about your mother's weight? I hate that she's still having to debunk this story.
That story made it onto the BBC homepage yesterday. One interesting thing that they note was that the sandwich was untouched and could never have been the cause. The story was a deliberate lie, getting a story out to undercut any rumours of a drug related death.
@needude7218 there also a story that Philips had said that and weather it's true or not but was an ass and a controlle freek disliked her Cass and how she was becoming the face of the momma and the popas, hell she even made an appearance in Scoby-doo
I genuinely have had to explain to at least two people I can remember that nobody was burned in Salem. I think it’s one of those things us internet history people know a lot, but some less aware people actually believe.
Truly enjoy your commentary, Chris, and your channel. Thank you! With respect to a lengthy time lag between an event purportedly occurring and the existing records of such event, I think much skepticism is appropriate. Have you ever played "telephone" where a group of people in the same room at the same time relay a story one to another and by the end it's often comically different from the original version? I'm just skeptical that a story could be passed down through decades or centuries without becoming significantly altered. Now I'm off to make a ham sandwich; wish me luck.
As both an author of fiction AND a former advertising executive, the whole “where there is smoke there is fire” and “people dont just make things up” are laughably innocent.
Regarding the question of the value of the first account being centuries later, it's worth mentioning Homer and specifically the Battle of Troy which we once considered to be pure fiction especially considering it was written several centuries after the supposed event. Today we now believe that at least the foundational details were likely true even if there are a boatload of embellishments since.
One thing that I always find bizarre about the Atlantis stuff is every time people incorporate Atlantis into their fiction, it's somehow this mighty nation that is still technologically advanced relative to modern society.
19:37 I've always been a bit of a history nerd, who also happened to have some good history teachers [thanks Mrs. Levan, Coach Bradford, Ms. Duffy and Mr. Arp]. I used to read my dad's old World Books for fun. I watched PBS and History Channel when it actually showed history. So a lot of the time I simply think of many of these things as common knowledge.
Ipswich Town is going to be in the Premier League this coming season. I know you're a West Brom guy but I love the shirt collection you have. I have two Arsenal shirts, a Man City shirt, a Belgium national team shirt, and two England training shirts.
Love the series! And the channel. I'm from Connecticut, Salem is only about an hour and a half north of me, I've been many times, and I've never heard they were burned at the stake.
Yes Chris! as an Ipswich town fan, im glad you brought this up even though this is a history channel. Hopefully West Brom will join us! as we say where I'm from "Uppa Towen"
As far as the Salem Witch Trials, I have always heard they were either burned at the stake, drowned, or thrown from cliffs. I think my impression was just that the punishment was whatever they felt like doing that day, and I didn't find out that was incorrect until recently.
The problem I always had with 300 is they depicted the Spartans as so brutal that I couldn't in good conscience root for them. It was like: they're gonna get wiped off the map? GOOD! Stop those maniacs before they throw more babies off the cliff! I'm sure the real version of events was more nuanced and I can look at with a more relativistic eye. Just didn't make for a particularly likable film protagonist is all.
12:39 you missed a trick in not mentioning that our king "Harald Bluetooth" is in fact where we get the name 'Bluetooth' for our favourite wireless technology which i am currently using to listen to this video :)
Loving this. A lot of these I have heard of, but knew they weren’t actually real. I think a good idea for another video would be literally “Famous Last Words”. Since it’s a saying now finding historical figures famous last words lol.
I saw the burning at the stakes on a show once, tapling about Salem, but even as a kid I understood that it was more of a symbolic because it was easier to show someone being saved from fire then before being hung. It was also more of choking on smoke than actually being burned
14:42 All the way back in 1710, Jonathan Swift wrote "Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect". Pretty much exactly the same thing as you are saying here, over 300 years ago.
About Lady Godiva - her name is from the Old Saxon 'Godgifu' which means God's gift. In pagan Saxon times at harvest time, a young woman would ride on a white horse round the fields as a sort of blessing and a gift for the gods. Whether she was sacrificed after, I don't know. Peeping Tom was not spoken to again by the townspeople, leading to the saying 'being sent to Coventry '. The real Lady Godiva was the great grand daughter of the Lady Wulfina, after whom the town of Wolverhampton was named It is very rare for a town to be named after a woman. 😅
there are also oral histories that get embellished as they are passed on and then finally written down years later. sometimes a lack of written records from the time of an event could be that it was on,y oral history at the time.
Great introduction Chris. You are one of the fairest on TH-cam allowing for those of a different view rather than ranting as some do. Boing Boing Baggies Baggies 😊✌️
21:18 I agree, I don't know anyone that has put forward that witches were burned at Salem. Hanged was always what I have read and heard. Even films involving or lightly referencing them, my favorite being Hocus Pocus, it was by hanging. I think this is more an example of people thinking that everyone believes it.
For the witch trials, I seem to remember being told, whomever was accused was "tried" by like a catch 22. The accused was placed in a condition where they were sure to die, unless they used their witchcraft abilities, or the devil interceded for them to survive. These methods included various methods of drowning like being bound and weighted down and tossed into a body of water. Also I believe, crushing was one way too. If the accused died, they were found innocent of witchcraft and given a Christian burial, but if for whatever reason they survived, they were guilty of witchcraft, in which case they would be either hanged or burned at the stake. The whole thing was brought about by mass hysteria and moldy rye they made their bread with.
3:07 Luther was actually one of the biggest drivers of Lutheran princes in the Holy Roman Empire - especially in Northern Germany - forming Protestant (Lutheran) state churches that required their subjects to adopt their new religion and pay tithes to local Protestant monarchs. Luther was a strong believer in the divine right of kings and believed that Protestant monarchs had the right, like the Biblical King David, to administer their own churches. He did prefer the term "Evangelical" though to describe his theology and church structure.
Funnily enough I was reading an interview with Cass daughter. The sandwich story came directly from her manager and an American journalist as her manager thought it was less of a reputational stain than 'another' drug related death.
21:32 I don’t remember specifically, but I was shown the 1996 The Crucible in school. I don’t remember anyone being burned at the stake, but there were always depictions of that on the history channel around Halloween every year
27:05 I don't think I've ever heard it told that Xerxes decided to turn back after winning Thermopylae either. He was there when the Persians sacked Athens and their navy was defeated at Salamis which is why the bulk of the army returned to Asia with him.
It’s been about 8-9 years since high school for me but I very well remember my history teacher blatantly stating nobody was ever burned at the stake, but my literature teacher stated that “it was quite common” when we were leading to up reading the crucible
About the burning at the stake thing, I've seen it in tv shows/movies, but not actually been told that's what happened. The stone test and the drowning test killed people, so did the hanging.
While he was of jewish descent, Einstein didn't actually practice any religion. But neither was he an atheist. Deism is the closest label that could be attributed to him. He believed that there was a God who created nature, but that nature, not God, created and drove the universe.
Growing up I thought that the witch trials were done by burning at the stake, but I don’t think I was ever actually told that (because what 7 year old wants to learn about people being burned alive lol). Salem witch trials were never a topic discussed in any of my history classes, so the only things I knew about witches were through pop culture, in which witches are kinda generalized with other “monsters” that are killed by fire in some media (like how Frankenstein’s monster is afraid of fire in most media) so despite most media not depicting witches getting killed by fire like the wicked witch from Wizard of Oz, more often than not I feel like we just collectively thought witches = burned at the stake, and obviously that being done in Europe didn’t help with my understanding of the witch trials.
29:39 Yes Chris, there is a bit of truth to the Atlantis story. There was an island in the Mediterranean which was known to the Minoan civilization of Crete. After the collapse of the Minoans, there was a terrible volcanic eruption which completely destroyed the island and caused it to sink below the surface. By the classical period of Greece, the story had become the legend of a civilization that fell out of favor with the gods. The island was known as Santorini and its just off the coast of Spain.
Pleased to see you wearing the ITFC top. Paul Woodage is a old and good friend of mine ( I've done a few shows with him when he first started WW2TV). As a point of interest, during the witch hunts in the 1640's in East England, one 'witch' was burnt at the stake. This happened in Ipswich, and although most witches were hung, Mary Lakeland was also convicted of murdering her husband . This conviction of 'Petty Treason' meant the sentence was burning. Her witchcraft conviction was having a familiar that tormented a neighbour and his son with the surname of Lawrence , which is my surname. This person may be a distant relative as research shows our family certainly lived in the area around the 1640's.
I don't know that I was "taught" that there were witch burnings at Salem, but it's quite common in retellings of the events in movies and TV, which might be why it's coming up here. The "Cultural depictions of the Salem witch trials" Wikipedia page has 8 instances of "burn", and it's not like that page is doing any kind of detailed summary, so that number is probably strongly under counting the actual figure.
At 26:53 "Thespians" - impressive that their were thousands of Greek actors participating in the battle on the last day. 😉 Of course, you meant Thebans, but the thought of a bunch of theater geeks, or should that be theater Greeks, fighting at Thermopylae struck me as hilarious.
I am from Denmark and burning witches in Salem was apart of my history lessons, when I was in school. It is however very possible that the author had no clue about the events in Salem and just asumed that was what happened in the states, because it happened in Europe :)
Yes, I was told as a young kid, mostly from cheap VHS kids educational videos, that Betsy Ross designed the flag. Also yes, I can remember being told as an older kid that witches in Salem were burned at the stake.
@@orwellboy1958LOL it could have been a lot worse - Rangers were dead and buried at end Oct, but one managerial appointment later sure changed the situation.
I was raised Catholic (not anymore), and I remember asking my Deacon about indulgences back in 6th grade. He was very clear how messed up they were, but also explained that it wasn't a church-wide thing, nor was it part of the dogma. He made a comparison that always stuck with me and said just as there are bad priests, there have been bad popes (specifically referencing 5 in close proximity that I cannot remember). He also brought up it was meant to raise money & clarified that they weren't "buying your way into heaven" but rather advertised as a gesture of good faith which would help loved ones lessen their time in purgatory (like you said). Obviously still messed up, but it was refreshing to have someone tell me the truth rather than try to sweep it under the rug.
Yeah, and I think that's fair to point out. The fact that it was done is not an indictment of the entire Catholic church. Just the people involved in that at the time. Same with the crusades.
There were other practices that went uncomfortably close to "buying your way into heaven", for example nobles could "donate their bodies" to religious orders, including military orders. In exchange for leaving them some properties in their wills, noblemen would be buried in the monastery dressed as monks (or holy knights), which was understood to mean that they would get "credit" in the afterlife as if they had been monks themselves.
Indulgences were the product of superstition. They prayed on the belief that you could repent any sins. I remember the days as an alter boy back in the early 70s when the offering plate was passed around and people would put money onto the plate. This practice was the same as the medieval indulgences.
@meej33 Oh I'm sure. It's been so long since I studied any of this stuff, I just remember what that Deacon said about indulgences & those popes. He said there was a century of terrible popes who cared only for power & money. But it's not like we were taught these things either. He was just someone I could ask all my questions from regular school after church on Sundays. There's a ton of dark chapters with the church (and religion in general)
@meej33 I still remember this Deacon fondly, even 25 years later, as he's the one that would answer all my random questions I had from school. One time I brought up the size of the universe & trillions of planets, saying there must be other intelligent life out there, and to my surprise he agreed with me 😆 Then when I brought up the big bang, he told me a Jesuit priest/monk (don't remember) scientist came up with the idea & that he believed that's how God set the universe in motion. Cool dude that helped 6th - 8th grade me answer random questions without getting annoyed.
Newton's apple tree is still there at his home too, at least a tree growing out of the same roots. There are clippings planted of it all around the world as well.
Wait you've made a channel about stories of the Great War ? Lucky for me I clicked on this half passed out on my couch (I tend not read comments while watching on my TV) : I happen to work at the Hartmannswillerkopf Historial on the Vosges front ! I'm not at all as much of an expert on WW1 as some of my colleagues are, but I'm always looking to expend my knowledge about the topic. If you're interested in anything we might have to share about the place, don't hesitate to contact me ! Much love from Alsace !
I have also had several people repeat the "witches were burned at the stack in Salem" bit. Mainly from people who don't know much about it. The thought process being witches got burned at the stake as a general rule (in Europe), ergo convicted witches in Salem had to have been burned at the stake as well.
The chastity belt thing seems like an example of how most people don’t comprehend sarcasm. Citing the old texts would be like some future archaeologist quoting Mad Magazine or the Onion as chronicles of the past century. Historically accurate or not, museums started displaying chastity belts and torture contraptions as examples of a cruel, unenlightened past. This was common in Western Europe in the 19th century. Atlantis was allegorical fiction, but the interesting part to me has always been why so many people in the last few millennia have wanted it to be true.
In my high school, we learned the burned at the stake. I learned the correct answer almost instantly after when I googled the answer for myself. This feels more a simplification for teaching purposes
Have heard many many people talk about burning witches in Salem, and when asked about where they heard that story its not normally from school but from a parent/uncle or someone similar, makes for a good story I guess.
I always took the story for Atlantis as the destruction of Minos via volcano which also may have inspired the epic of Gilgamesh and later the Hebrew flood myth.
Glad you spoke on the whole earliest accounts thing... I didn't comment yesterday but did wonder what your thoughts were on it. As an atheist (who grew up Roman Catholic) it's always been a struggle for me given how I know many accounts of other historical events of that time were either made up or embellished to promote a narrative... Yes there are many accounts of pure truth, but most are embellished in some way. Because if this I have always found it hard to believe the words of sacred texts as pure fact, to me the Bible (as well as other religious scripture) read not as a historical account of events, more a set of morality tales to inform and guide a population that might not be well read, the imagery, rhyming schemes, themes all make it accessible not just to spread through the gathering of people, but easy to understand. Sensationalized at times to keep interest All these things might have happened as they are presented, we simply don't know, and that's okay... You can believe in these things and hold them true to you and I guess that's the most important thing, at the end of the day we may never know what is pure fact... So if you believe the source and have faith in the words then that's awesome!
The Salem witch trials burning was a thing for me in elementary school but my schooling was in alaska which had a lot more focus on alaskan history especially the yukon gold rush and how we were bought from russia and we tended to speed through a lot of history that happened in the "lower 48" like the civil war entire class study was like 10 pages long and was mostly about how it started and Abraham Lincoln's death.
Yes, burning witches in Salem is what I was told in my history class. It wasn't until years later that I found out my teacher got it wrong.
Me too
I wonder if that was mainstream teachers confusing the Salem witch trials with the way the Catholic churches executed "witches" during their Inquisitions in Europe 🤔
came to comment the same lol
Yup. This was all over mass media/history classes almost as much as "Columbus proved the world was round"
Fell out of favour in the 90's.
Me too!
I don't think I was taught that they were burned at the stake, but witches being burned at the stake is so iconic that it blend into people's understanding of the Salem Witch Trials.
Yeah, I think that's where people think people were burned at Salem. I can't remember in school if we were told how they died, only about the trials, etc. Later I remember docs only talking about the hanging and the one person crushed to death. I think separately we were told that so many people have been burned at the stake for witch craft, that our brains just fuse these facts together.
This. I'm thinking it's less of a "thing taught in schools" and more of a "thing people 'know' through generalized pop-culture osmosis."
Add to it that the Spanish Inquisition gets blamed, when in fact, the Spanish Inquisition declared witches to be deluded, and that "the less you talk of witches, the less there will be"
Actually it was very rare for it to happen, if you confessed and repented you would be set free, and most methods to even determine if you were a heretic would simply kill you, for instance they would tie you up and toss you into a lake and you would drown and prove you were innocent, it was very rare for someone to be burned, often times those were repeat offenders, people who would not repent and confess, who would recant.
Most people convicted who actually were executed were either drowned, had a piece of wood placed on their chest and stones would be placed on top until they were crushed.
Only the people considered the worst of the worst would be burned, not even people who were considered witches were all burned. That’s a historical myth, because of Joan of Arc (who recanted her confession and was EXTREMELY hated as well by the church)
"And what do you burn with witches?"
"More witches!"
I got better...
There are ways of telling whether she is a witch
tis a scratch
A Duck.
“She turned me into a newt!”
“A newt?”
“…I got better.”
Hey chris! Im just a teen living in southeast asia enjoying your informative videos. Friends poke fun at me for watching‘boring videos’ but history is just so interesting to me. You’re my favorite history youtuber
Please keep this passion for learning history and just learning in general it's a good quality, I forget who said this but that they tried to learn at least one new thing everyday
"Herodotus: If he wrote it, let's just say it's probably not entirely accurate." That's a pretty good rule of thumb. It's a bit hyperbolic, but I had a professor tell me once, "Anything Herodotus wrote in Histories involving battles and numbers, if the troops were Greek, multiply by ten, and if they were the opposing army, divide by ten." 😂😂
Yeah, I just took a class at my university that was about Homer’s Iliad and its effects on history; and part of that was that we talked about how Herodotus wrote his histories in a way that was to emulate Homer (to an extent, at least).
@@B30WULF2 Oh, most definitely. Herodotus clearly aimed to mythologize the "Greeks" of his time, especially the Achaeans. I'm sure if he thought he could get away with it, his Histories would have contained just as much mythology as Stasinus, Homer, and Arctinus combined. Thankfully other historians of the era like Thucydides were a tad more grounded.
Herodotus mentioned the Cartheginean fleet's circumnavigation of the continent of Africa, and in the account, he mentioned that the sailers reported the position of the sun in the Southern hemisphere being different for some reason, which he couldn't have known why that was, but reported it anyways. The fact that he mentions that detail actually gives the story validity, even though in his mind he probably thought that detail proved it being fictitious. He was more of a journalist/ story teller, reported what he heard. Commented sometimes. There's lots of gems in The Histories.
Herodotus gets a bad rap but I think is now being seen a little more favourably. He loves repeating weird stories he's been told but makes it clear that this is what he was told andd he hadn't seen it himself; and when he does report on something he's seen himself, he's often a lot more accurate than people were ready to believe in the past. A lot of historians are just as credulous and far less inclined to tell readers that it's only hearsay.
@@ryanboggs5919 this makes for a funny thought that he was his era's equivalent of a romanticizing pop history author, although I don't know how true that is, maybe that's just how history was written back then
Your face at "Medieval hand stuff" sent me into hysterics.
21:30 yes! I'm 26 and live in Missouri. In high school we learned of the Salem witch trials but it was only in passing, a brief footnote of the time before America's independence. We learned almost nothing specific except that people accused of witchcraft were "burned at the sake, crushed to death, and hanged."
The lesson plan then quickly sped ahead about 75 years
I'm actually 26 and live in Missouri too right outside of KC. And never once was I told they were burned. Learned about it for the first time in 5th grade American history and was just told they were hanged. Must just be a teacher thing but I only heard about burnings at Salem from people trying to tell me it never happened 🤷
The crushed to death only happened to one person, Giles Core. The rest were hanged.
Interesting part of that to me is the time compression. Growing up out east, within 40 miles of some revolutionary battles, we spent a sizable chunk of curricular time on the settlements of the 13 colonies, then skipped ahead to the French & Indian War through the Jefferson years. Then after 1812 we fast forwarded to the years before the Civil War.
Speaking of first hand sources, Korea's centuries long Joseon dynasty has an excruciatingly detailed annual chronicle of royal affairs.
Comprised of over 1800 volumes spanning from 1392 to 1865, the chroniclers were sworn to secrecy and all were banned from reading it (including the King himself)
It somehow survived wars, a mad king, and Japanese colonialism and is the longest continual documentation of dynastic history in the world.
A famous anecdote regarding the chronicles was King Taejong falling from his horse and the King asking the historian with him to kindly refrain from mentioning the incident in the chronicle.
The chronicle reads something to the effect of, "on this day, King Taejong fell from his horse. He asked for the incident to not be recorded in this chronicle"
“Don’t let them find out please”
Watching VTH all day, a great way to spend a day off work!
Cheeky you!
110% agree!
I set my phone up under my monitors and watch while I work lol
I studied theatre and history at what then was called Salem State College. The burning if witches was indeed a misunderstanding both among the students and the tourists who visited town. I lived down the street from The House Of Seven Gables. I visited in a number of times and that is one of the questions that the guides often had to handle.
I am watching this at Work.
I’m always stunned by how many people seem to have such very specific memories about the quality of their high school history classes and each event that was or was not covered.
For the most part, videos are only made about sensational or at least very interesting things. I can easily recall that stuff from high-school.
Yes, I was taught in junior high school that they burned people at the stake during the Salem witch trials. I was also taught Columbus sailed to prove the world was round.
I can recall when I was a kid in school that it was implied there were witch burnings at the Salem Witch trials. That being said "responding to an argument nobody is making" is definitely a pet peeve of mine and you see that type of thing on a constant basis on social media from really annoying people.
When Cicero was the governor of Sicily (not a very profitable posting) he rediscovered the lost tomb of Archimedes and cleaned up the area.
Cicero was loved in Sicily for being a fair and caring governor.
I have read at least two childrens' books that stated Betty Ross designed the first flag. I also have seen more than one TV show depicting witches being burn at Salem.
Hey Chris, Einstein was only ethnically Jewish, he was not a practicing Jew. He, himself, had described himself as a person who believes in Spinoza’s God.
Spinoza’s God being something akin to “everything” or pantheism.
You touch on a really interesting point about when a source is from in comparison to what it’s talking about. The further removed from an event something is, the more we should caution believing it at face value but at the same time, something contemporary to its subject isn’t necessarily believable either. For example Tacitus’ Agricola. He basically wrote it to glorify his father in law so even though it was of and about his time, we still tread lightly believing it 100%. As in all historiography, source analysis and critical thinking is key.
Also, as an Englishman who loves the NFL, I love seeing foreigners, especially Americans, be really into English football. Absolutely love your jersey collection.
Speaking of Ipswich, across from the football stadium is the local bus depot. The building dates to the early 1900s when they used electric tram cars (trolleys). A coal fired power plant was located behind the carriage barns. By the 1930s Ipswich switched from electric tramcars and maintaining the street rails to motorized buses. The operations building from early 1900s has been well maintained reflecting its late Victorian/Edwardian architectural details.
St George did slay the dragon. Philomena Cunk showed a painting somebody had taken of the event.
Ipswich town football club the only Club in history to build their ground in the red light district so that the players can actually get some.
In the early 1960s from 1960-65, it was taught that Betsy Ross did design the first American flag. The story taught at the time was that on a day in late May 1776 three members of a secret committee from the Continental Congress came to call upon Betsy Ross. Those representatives were George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross. George Washington was then the head of the Continental Army. Robert Morris, an owner of vast amounts of land, was perhaps the wealthiest citizen in the Colonies. Colonel George Ross was a respected Philadelphian and also the uncle of Betsy's late husband, John Ross.
Betsy was a widow struggling to run her own upholstery business. Upholsterers in colonial America not only worked on furniture but did all manner of sewing work, which for some included making flags. According to Betsy, General Washington showed her a rough design of the flag that included a six-pointed star. Betsy, a standout with the scissors, demonstrated how to cut a five-pointed star in a single snip. Impressed, the committee entrusted Betsy with making the first flag.
According to the lessons of the time Ross changed Washington’s six-pointed star to a five-pointed star which according to the lesson was easier to cut out, thus Betsy did design/redesign the first American flag. Betsy Ross herself would often tell this story to her family. Thus the idea that Betsy Ross designed the first American flag was born. It is a fact that “history” taught in grammar is often a simplified, romanticized version what what actually happened. By the time you are in college, the history courses teach something vastly different than what you learned in second grade.
Sorry, 1 month late to the party, but, while being European, when I was younger I did read a lot of stories about Betsy Ross having designed the "stars and stripes" flag.
So, it was definitely floating around and it needed to be corrected.
I've watched about a dozen of these reaction videos and I don't think my thoughts have ever been more aligned with someone before. Im just not near as articulate and studied as you are! I appreciate your insight
Been looking forward to follow on parts. You are so knowledgeable.
@15:00 "People believe the lie...". The way this is explained in psychology is that the strength of a belief is determined by how much you trusted the source when you first heard it and how long that belief has been part of your personality. New information, however accurate, has to overcome those serious hurdles. Humans are not logical by default, we seek patterns and connections. We believe the things that other people in the social group believe because it makes us a more integral part of the group. We also want things to make sense (pattern-recognition). A fat person choking on a ham sandwich (note: it's specifically ham, a fatty food) has a sense of cause and effect that makes sense to us. This is also why we cling to childhood beliefs long after we learn they are wrong: when we learned them we had absolute trust in our teachers/ parents and these beliefs have been part of our personalities for our entire conscious lives.
I had seen some sources claim that Alantis was a reference to the island of Santreni (I am not sure I spelled it right). This was an island that was a super volcano, near Crete. When it erupted it wiped out the Cretan civilization. I thought Atlantis and Cretean civilization were the same thing,
Fun theory: This eruption happened around the time of Moses and might be the source of the "fire and brimstone" that is written about in the Old Testament.
Thera/Santorini caused a massive tidal wave that probably caused the collapse of the Minoan civilization. The Egyptians did record the event as well but also that several groups of people from North Africa and the Western Mediterranean raided Crete and Northern Egypt. Some of these tribes were those that Egypt had previously used as mercenaries.
I would agree that the Minoan and Atlantis were one and the same. But this isn’t the Great Flood. Geological data shows an even larger eruption had occurred earlier in the Western Indian Ocean that would have flooded the Fertile Crescent. That is the flood mentioned in the Gilgamesh story and possibly the Noah story as well.
Fun fact, I have an ancestor from MA (near Salem, but not in Salem) from the same time period (late 1680s) and his death certificate (or some type of document) actually says the cause of death was "Witchstruck".
The thing you mentioned about people hearing one message and believing it despite it being disproven - this happened to a friend of mine. An ill-informed news article came out about him and everyone just assumed it was true, except the reporter had misread a police report and it caused all sorts of misinformation from people sharing on social media. So dangerous what can happen!
Chris talking about chastity belts: 'But they had one in Robin Hood: Men in Tights'. Lmbo the younger kids would have to watch the movie to get the reference as it was a very good and funny movie.
3:55: Another example: Caesar didn't want a war with Rome, he just wanted to serve as Consul and was willing to sacrifice many things so long as he had the promise he would be able to run for Consul. But when they gave him no directions but prosecution or rebellion, he saw no option but forward.
I know it was just a slip of the tongue, but I can’t get the image of Spartan thespians performing Lysistrata to keep the Persians at bay
The Kingdom of Thespia was known for its grand oratory, dramatic battles and long, drawn-out death scenes.
Almost every example where you said "iv never heard anyone even say that" is exactly what I was taught in school and I graduated in 2020, it's sad how much provably false stuff is still taught in school
You haven’t mentioned how great the narrator of these stories is. I kind of don’t care how accurate he is, I just love listening to him.
Cass Elliot's daughter has just written a book about her mother's life and has had to debunk the ham sandwich story in the interviews she has given promoting the book. Can you imagine being 7 years old and your mother dying and everyone blaming it on a sandwich and continuing to go on and on about your mother's weight? I hate that she's still having to debunk this story.
That story made it onto the BBC homepage yesterday. One interesting thing that they note was that the sandwich was untouched and could never have been the cause.
The story was a deliberate lie, getting a story out to undercut any rumours of a drug related death.
I know her daughter stated years ago something to the effect of “What’s a nice Jewish girl doing eating a ham sandwich?”
@needude7218 there also a story that Philips had said that and weather it's true or not but was an ass and a controlle freek disliked her Cass and how she was becoming the face of the momma and the popas, hell she even made an appearance in Scoby-doo
I genuinely have had to explain to at least two people I can remember that nobody was burned in Salem. I think it’s one of those things us internet history people know a lot, but some less aware people actually believe.
Truly enjoy your commentary, Chris, and your channel. Thank you! With respect to a lengthy time lag between an event purportedly occurring and the existing records of such event, I think much skepticism is appropriate. Have you ever played "telephone" where a group of people in the same room at the same time relay a story one to another and by the end it's often comically different from the original version? I'm just skeptical that a story could be passed down through decades or centuries without becoming significantly altered. Now I'm off to make a ham sandwich; wish me luck.
We were absolutely taught that they were burned at the stake at Salem.
As both an author of fiction AND a former advertising executive, the whole “where there is smoke there is fire” and “people dont just make things up” are laughably innocent.
Regarding the question of the value of the first account being centuries later, it's worth mentioning Homer and specifically the Battle of Troy which we once considered to be pure fiction especially considering it was written several centuries after the supposed event. Today we now believe that at least the foundational details were likely true even if there are a boatload of embellishments since.
One thing that I always find bizarre about the Atlantis stuff is every time people incorporate Atlantis into their fiction, it's somehow this mighty nation that is still technologically advanced relative to modern society.
19:37 I've always been a bit of a history nerd, who also happened to have some good history teachers [thanks Mrs. Levan, Coach Bradford, Ms. Duffy and Mr. Arp]. I used to read my dad's old World Books for fun. I watched PBS and History Channel when it actually showed history. So a lot of the time I simply think of many of these things as common knowledge.
Ipswich Town is going to be in the Premier League this coming season. I know you're a West Brom guy but I love the shirt collection you have. I have two Arsenal shirts, a Man City shirt, a Belgium national team shirt, and two England training shirts.
Love the series! And the channel. I'm from Connecticut, Salem is only about an hour and a half north of me, I've been many times, and I've never heard they were burned at the stake.
Yes Chris! as an Ipswich town fan, im glad you brought this up even though this is a history channel. Hopefully West Brom will join us! as we say where I'm from "Uppa Towen"
As far as the Salem Witch Trials, I have always heard they were either burned at the stake, drowned, or thrown from cliffs. I think my impression was just that the punishment was whatever they felt like doing that day, and I didn't find out that was incorrect until recently.
The problem I always had with 300 is they depicted the Spartans as so brutal that I couldn't in good conscience root for them.
It was like: they're gonna get wiped off the map? GOOD! Stop those maniacs before they throw more babies off the cliff!
I'm sure the real version of events was more nuanced and I can look at with a more relativistic eye.
Just didn't make for a particularly likable film protagonist is all.
12:39 you missed a trick in not mentioning that our king "Harald Bluetooth" is in fact where we get the name 'Bluetooth' for our favourite wireless technology which i am currently using to listen to this video :)
There is a great quote from Terry Prattchet that a lie gets twice around the world bevor the truth even gets its boots on.
Loving this. A lot of these I have heard of, but knew they weren’t actually real. I think a good idea for another video would be literally “Famous Last Words”. Since it’s a saying now finding historical figures famous last words lol.
This is the earliest i've ever gotten to a video here. 38 minutes. ❤
Thanks!
I saw the burning at the stakes on a show once, tapling about Salem, but even as a kid I understood that it was more of a symbolic because it was easier to show someone being saved from fire then before being hung. It was also more of choking on smoke than actually being burned
Possibly my favourite, not exactly true last words are... Don't worry (about enemy snipers), they couldn't hit an elephant at this dist...
John Sedgwick. Though the version of the story that has him being shot mid sentence is untrue. He was shot moments after saying it.
@VloggingThroughHistory I know that this version is not correct, but it is possibly the most....errrr.... comedic(?).
Was just watching part 1 when this dropped and started looking for part 2. I didn't have to wait long 😂
14:42 All the way back in 1710, Jonathan Swift wrote "Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect". Pretty much exactly the same thing as you are saying here, over 300 years ago.
Oh my. I’ve been a fan of the channel for about 2 years now 😢😢. After learning my friend is a west Brom fan I must say goodbye 👋🏽 ❤
About Lady Godiva - her name is from the Old Saxon 'Godgifu' which means God's gift. In pagan Saxon times at harvest time, a young woman would ride on a white horse round the fields as a sort of blessing and a gift for the gods. Whether she was sacrificed after, I don't know. Peeping Tom was not spoken to again by the townspeople, leading to the saying 'being sent to Coventry '. The real Lady Godiva was the great grand daughter of the Lady Wulfina, after whom the town of Wolverhampton was named
It is very rare for a town to be named after a woman. 😅
there are also oral histories that get embellished as they are passed on and then finally written down years later. sometimes a lack of written records from the time of an event could be that it was on,y oral history at the time.
Great introduction Chris.
You are one of the fairest on TH-cam allowing for those of a different view rather than ranting as some do.
Boing Boing Baggies Baggies 😊✌️
21:18 I agree, I don't know anyone that has put forward that witches were burned at Salem. Hanged was always what I have read and heard. Even films involving or lightly referencing them, my favorite being Hocus Pocus, it was by hanging. I think this is more an example of people thinking that everyone believes it.
For the witch trials, I seem to remember being told, whomever was accused was "tried" by like a catch 22. The accused was placed in a condition where they were sure to die, unless they used their witchcraft abilities, or the devil interceded for them to survive. These methods included various methods of drowning like being bound and weighted down and tossed into a body of water. Also I believe, crushing was one way too. If the accused died, they were found innocent of witchcraft and given a Christian burial, but if for whatever reason they survived, they were guilty of witchcraft, in which case they would be either hanged or burned at the stake.
The whole thing was brought about by mass hysteria and moldy rye they made their bread with.
Yes I graduated high school in 2005 and my history classes both middle school and high school taught burning witches in Salem
The best part of the video is the extra sound when Simon says "medieval hand stuff"
I was taught that witches were burned in Salem while in elementary school in the mid 80s.
3:07 Luther was actually one of the biggest drivers of Lutheran princes in the Holy Roman Empire - especially in Northern Germany - forming Protestant (Lutheran) state churches that required their subjects to adopt their new religion and pay tithes to local Protestant monarchs. Luther was a strong believer in the divine right of kings and believed that Protestant monarchs had the right, like the Biblical King David, to administer their own churches. He did prefer the term "Evangelical" though to describe his theology and church structure.
Funnily enough I was reading an interview with Cass daughter. The sandwich story came directly from her manager and an American journalist as her manager thought it was less of a reputational stain than 'another' drug related death.
21:32 I don’t remember specifically, but I was shown the 1996 The Crucible in school. I don’t remember anyone being burned at the stake, but there were always depictions of that on the history channel around Halloween every year
"There was one Robin Hood Men In Tights." You're killing me.
thank you for mentioning the most historically accurate movie of all times!!! It is rivaled only by History of the World, Part I
Hi Chris.
As a Southampton fan can I say may the best team win between Southampton and West Brom.
21:30 i think most get the information about the burning of witches from places like hollywood like most historical inaccuracies.
21:30 frankly had no idea they weren't burned until i became an adult and did independent research
27:05 I don't think I've ever heard it told that Xerxes decided to turn back after winning Thermopylae either. He was there when the Persians sacked Athens and their navy was defeated at Salamis which is why the bulk of the army returned to Asia with him.
It’s been about 8-9 years since high school for me but I very well remember my history teacher blatantly stating nobody was ever burned at the stake, but my literature teacher stated that “it was quite common” when we were leading to up reading the crucible
About the burning at the stake thing, I've seen it in tv shows/movies, but not actually been told that's what happened. The stone test and the drowning test killed people, so did the hanging.
While he was of jewish descent, Einstein didn't actually practice any religion. But neither was he an atheist. Deism is the closest label that could be attributed to him. He believed that there was a God who created nature, but that nature, not God, created and drove the universe.
Growing up I thought that the witch trials were done by burning at the stake, but I don’t think I was ever actually told that (because what 7 year old wants to learn about people being burned alive lol). Salem witch trials were never a topic discussed in any of my history classes, so the only things I knew about witches were through pop culture, in which witches are kinda generalized with other “monsters” that are killed by fire in some media (like how Frankenstein’s monster is afraid of fire in most media) so despite most media not depicting witches getting killed by fire like the wicked witch from Wizard of Oz, more often than not I feel like we just collectively thought witches = burned at the stake, and obviously that being done in Europe didn’t help with my understanding of the witch trials.
29:39 Yes Chris, there is a bit of truth to the Atlantis story. There was an island in the Mediterranean which was known to the Minoan civilization of Crete. After the collapse of the Minoans, there was a terrible volcanic eruption which completely destroyed the island and caused it to sink below the surface. By the classical period of Greece, the story had become the legend of a civilization that fell out of favor with the gods. The island was known as Santorini and its just off the coast of Spain.
The island of Santorini is just off the coast of Crete. This is why it did such damage to the Minoan civilisation of Crete.
Pleased to see you wearing the ITFC top. Paul Woodage is a old and good friend of mine ( I've done a few shows with him when he first started WW2TV). As a point of interest, during the witch hunts in the 1640's in East England, one 'witch' was burnt at the stake. This happened in Ipswich, and although most witches were hung, Mary Lakeland was also convicted of murdering her husband . This conviction of 'Petty Treason' meant the sentence was burning. Her witchcraft conviction was having a familiar that tormented a neighbour and his son with the surname of Lawrence , which is my surname. This person may be a distant relative as research shows our family certainly lived in the area around the 1640's.
20:55 I was told that witches were burned in Salem throughout my entire childhood.
I don't know that I was "taught" that there were witch burnings at Salem, but it's quite common in retellings of the events in movies and TV, which might be why it's coming up here. The "Cultural depictions of the Salem witch trials" Wikipedia page has 8 instances of "burn", and it's not like that page is doing any kind of detailed summary, so that number is probably strongly under counting the actual figure.
Nice Ipswich Town jersey. 👍
At 26:53 "Thespians" - impressive that their were thousands of Greek actors participating in the battle on the last day. 😉
Of course, you meant Thebans, but the thought of a bunch of theater geeks, or should that be theater Greeks, fighting at Thermopylae struck me as hilarious.
I don't recall ever hearing about anyone in Salem being burned. But I did hear - on many occasions - hear that witches in Europe were burned.
Media can often promote historical misconceptions. The TV sitcom, Bewitched, and the movie, Hocus Pocus, depict witch burnings in Salem.
I think the most fascinating part of this series is that I think I was taught in a history class that they were true at some point or another
Yeah i can remember hearing the burning at the stake myth quite frequently.
I am from Denmark and burning witches in Salem was apart of my history lessons, when I was in school. It is however very possible that the author had no clue about the events in Salem and just asumed that was what happened in the states, because it happened in Europe :)
Chris, I’m with you. I’ve never heard anyone say the Salem “witches” were burned at the stake.
Yes, I was told as a young kid, mostly from cheap VHS kids educational videos, that Betsy Ross designed the flag. Also yes, I can remember being told as an older kid that witches in Salem were burned at the stake.
Like the Tractor Boys footie shirt - a brilliant season from them. I'm a QPR fan by the way.
Oh, dear. Sorry.
@@orwellboy1958LOL it could have been a lot worse - Rangers were dead and buried at end Oct, but one managerial appointment later sure changed the situation.
He's actually a Baggie. Just waiting to clinch the last spot.
@@iangoodwin4275 yeah I know that - will be interesting to see how West Brom will ll perform in the playoffs
Concerning chastity belts, the Worcester armor museum had a chastity belt exhibit
I was raised Catholic (not anymore), and I remember asking my Deacon about indulgences back in 6th grade.
He was very clear how messed up they were, but also explained that it wasn't a church-wide thing, nor was it part of the dogma.
He made a comparison that always stuck with me and said just as there are bad priests, there have been bad popes (specifically referencing 5 in close proximity that I cannot remember).
He also brought up it was meant to raise money & clarified that they weren't "buying your way into heaven" but rather advertised as a gesture of good faith which would help loved ones lessen their time in purgatory (like you said).
Obviously still messed up, but it was refreshing to have someone tell me the truth rather than try to sweep it under the rug.
Yeah, and I think that's fair to point out. The fact that it was done is not an indictment of the entire Catholic church. Just the people involved in that at the time. Same with the crusades.
There were other practices that went uncomfortably close to "buying your way into heaven", for example nobles could "donate their bodies" to religious orders, including military orders. In exchange for leaving them some properties in their wills, noblemen would be buried in the monastery dressed as monks (or holy knights), which was understood to mean that they would get "credit" in the afterlife as if they had been monks themselves.
Indulgences were the product of superstition. They prayed on the belief that you could repent any sins. I remember the days as an alter boy back in the early 70s when the offering plate was passed around and people would put money onto the plate. This practice was the same as the medieval indulgences.
@meej33 Oh I'm sure. It's been so long since I studied any of this stuff, I just remember what that Deacon said about indulgences & those popes.
He said there was a century of terrible popes who cared only for power & money. But it's not like we were taught these things either. He was just someone I could ask all my questions from regular school after church on Sundays. There's a ton of dark chapters with the church (and religion in general)
@meej33 I still remember this Deacon fondly, even 25 years later, as he's the one that would answer all my random questions I had from school. One time I brought up the size of the universe & trillions of planets, saying there must be other intelligent life out there, and to my surprise he agreed with me 😆
Then when I brought up the big bang, he told me a Jesuit priest/monk (don't remember) scientist came up with the idea & that he believed that's how God set the universe in motion.
Cool dude that helped 6th - 8th grade me answer random questions without getting annoyed.
Newton's apple tree is still there at his home too, at least a tree growing out of the same roots. There are clippings planted of it all around the world as well.
Wait you've made a channel about stories of the Great War ? Lucky for me I clicked on this half passed out on my couch (I tend not read comments while watching on my TV) : I happen to work at the Hartmannswillerkopf Historial on the Vosges front ! I'm not at all as much of an expert on WW1 as some of my colleagues are, but I'm always looking to expend my knowledge about the topic.
If you're interested in anything we might have to share about the place, don't hesitate to contact me !
Much love from Alsace !
I have also had several people repeat the "witches were burned at the stack in Salem" bit. Mainly from people who don't know much about it. The thought process being witches got burned at the stake as a general rule (in Europe), ergo convicted witches in Salem had to have been burned at the stake as well.
The chastity belt thing seems like an example of how most people don’t comprehend sarcasm. Citing the old texts would be like some future archaeologist quoting Mad Magazine or the Onion as chronicles of the past century.
Historically accurate or not, museums started displaying chastity belts and torture contraptions as examples of a cruel, unenlightened past. This was common in Western Europe in the 19th century.
Atlantis was allegorical fiction, but the interesting part to me has always been why so many people in the last few millennia have wanted it to be true.
In my high school, we learned the burned at the stake. I learned the correct answer almost instantly after when I googled the answer for myself. This feels more a simplification for teaching purposes
Have heard many many people talk about burning witches in Salem, and when asked about where they heard that story its not normally from school but from a parent/uncle or someone similar, makes for a good story I guess.
I always took the story for Atlantis as the destruction of Minos via volcano which also may have inspired the epic of Gilgamesh and later the Hebrew flood myth.
Yea. From Mississippi here. We were tought that salem burnt witches...js
Glad you spoke on the whole earliest accounts thing... I didn't comment yesterday but did wonder what your thoughts were on it. As an atheist (who grew up Roman Catholic) it's always been a struggle for me given how I know many accounts of other historical events of that time were either made up or embellished to promote a narrative... Yes there are many accounts of pure truth, but most are embellished in some way.
Because if this I have always found it hard to believe the words of sacred texts as pure fact, to me the Bible (as well as other religious scripture) read not as a historical account of events, more a set of morality tales to inform and guide a population that might not be well read, the imagery, rhyming schemes, themes all make it accessible not just to spread through the gathering of people, but easy to understand. Sensationalized at times to keep interest
All these things might have happened as they are presented, we simply don't know, and that's okay... You can believe in these things and hold them true to you and I guess that's the most important thing, at the end of the day we may never know what is pure fact... So if you believe the source and have faith in the words then that's awesome!
The Salem witch trials burning was a thing for me in elementary school but my schooling was in alaska which had a lot more focus on alaskan history especially the yukon gold rush and how we were bought from russia and we tended to speed through a lot of history that happened in the "lower 48" like the civil war entire class study was like 10 pages long and was mostly about how it started and Abraham Lincoln's death.
Yup. I’m from Massachusetts. Was always taught that they were burnt at the stake
I've heard people remark of the burning in Salem but anything actually about the trials just had the hangings and the stone crushing
Like many responders, I too heard the Salem witch burnings spoken of as established truth during my early days (and afterward).