As it sometimes does, this week's topic presented itself to me. Determined to find out why the little known story of a woman most people have never heard of needed to be told so badly, I dug in. Join me to uncover the story of Grace Sherwood for yourself, the only woman ever to be convicted of witchcraft in Virginia. We'll examine the factors that led to Grace's conviction and the "recipe" for witch hunts that has plagued our past and potentially (but hopefully not!) our future.

Support the show!

• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources:

• Transcripts of Grace Sherwood's trial for witchcraft
• "A Place In Time: The Age of the Witch of Pungo" by Belinda Nash and Danielle Sheets
• Salem Witch Museum "Grace Sherwood: the 'Witch' of Pungo"
• Ferry Plantation "Trial of Grace Sherwood - the Witch of Pungo"
• Virginia Museum of History and Culture "Grace Sherwood: the 'Witch of Pungo'"
• The Washington Post "Va. Gov. Gives Informal Pardon to Witch"
• Wikipedia "Grace Sherwood"

Shoot me a message!

Welcome to Spooktober! It's my favorite month on History Fix because I get to bust out all of the spooky stories I've been saving. This week, we're talking about the notorious serial killer who operated in New Orleans in the nineteen teens known as the Axeman. The Axeman attacked strictly Italian grocers, breaking into their houses with stolen axes to bludgeon them to death. This guy has been embraced by popular culture, appearing on television shows like American Horror Story, not because of his brutal acts or the fact that we still have no idea who he was today. He's been embraced mostly because of a letter that was published in the local newspaper purporting that he loved jazz music and would spare anyone listening to jazz on a particular night in the spring of 1919. But who was the Axeman? And what does any of this have to do with jazz? Let's fix that.

Support the show!

• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources:

• "The Axeman of New Orleans: The True Story" by Miriam Davis
• Country Roads Magazine "The Axeman of New Orleans"
• Smithsonian Magazine "The Axeman of New Orleans Preyed on Italian Immigrants"
• The Historic New Orleans Collection "The Mysterious Axeman's Jazz"
• Wikipedia "Axeman of New Orleans"

Shoot me a message!

I'm back again this week with four more "lost cities" for you. First we'll explore the Egyptian city of Thonis-Heracleion that literally sank beneath the Mediterranean Sea and was rediscovered some 1,200 years later. Next, we'll hop over to Jordan to discover the ancient Nabataean city of Petra with it's grand facades etched into the red rock landscape. After that it's off to Cambodia to learn about the not actually lost at all Khmer city of Angkor. And finally the mountains of Peru where majestic and little understood Machu Picchu looms among the picturesque peaks. But, while it's fun to think about "lost cities," the obvious lesson of this week's episode is: be careful what you call "lost" and be careful how easily you throw out the term "discovered." These words carry weight and they've already caused a lot of damage. Let's fix that.

Support the show!

• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources:

• The Guardian "Lost Cities #6: how Thonis-Heracleion resurfaced after 1,000 years under water"
• The British Museum "Timeline of Ancient Egypt"
• Franckgoddio.org "Sunken Civilizations"
• National Geographic "Who built the 'lost city' of Petra and why did they leave?"
• Natural History Museum of Utah "Angkor: The 'Lost City' That Never Needed to be Discovered"
• Wikipedia "Angkor"
• Wikipedia "Machu Picchu"

Shoot me a message!