Rogue History

How does one of the most notorious pirates in British history become an iconic hero of the American Revolution? Long before he went toe-to-toe with the most powerful navy on the face of the planet, John Paul Jones was just a simple Scottish merchant ship captain…who committed a murder…or two.

Was Peggy Shippen the real mastermind behind Benedict Arnold’s betrayal? Peggy successfully fooled the most powerful men in America, including George Washington, into believing she was just an innocent and naive creature. It wasn’t until 150 years later that her role in the plot was discovered, when pages of secret correspondence were uncovered.

The British government vowed freedom to enslaved people if they could escape and take up arms against their Patriot enslavers. But when the British failed to deliver promised land in Nova Scotia, the Black Loyalists needed a leader to step up, sail across the ocean, and demand a solution. That man would be Thomas Peters, a former prince who escaped enslavement in North Carolina.

King Philip's War was the deadliest conflict of the colonial period. What scared the colonists most was the sophistication of Philip's forces. Indigenous warriors used guerrilla tactics that the English, trained in European-style warfare, were completely unprepared for. So while the colonists were the ones who brought guns to the New World, King Philip's forces were already better at using them.

In the 1760s, powerful men in the American colonies were in danger. The working-class people beneath them were sick of the corruption and bullying and were ready to rebel. All they needed was a ferocious leader willing to take on the fight. Herman Husband was an enigma. Though a pacifist at heart, his fiery spirit and passion for justice led him into violent uprisings.

Immigrant and Vermont congressman Matthew Lyon was in jail when he was reelected. Not for the fight he started in the halls of Congress but for his willingness to criticize the relatively new government of the United States. For the first time in American history, freedom of speech was up for debate. And Matthew “Spittin” Lyon was just the guy to fight for it.

In 1780, Congress listened to a message from across the world describing how the Muslim rulers of The Kingdom of Mysore in India, were beating the British in battle. While George Washington was struggling to hold the line, Sultan Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan, nicknamed The Tiger of Mysore, were scoring victories that inspired the founding fathers and weakened the British Empire.

Despite the revolutionary atmosphere in early America, homosexuality was still punishable by death. Though the Founding Fathers knew of Steuben’s “proclivities,” they let Steuben continue to help them win. By contrast, British Army chaplain Robert Newburgh stood trial for homosexual conduct and used the same ideals that inspired the American Patriots to defend his personal freedom.

A Black and Wampanoag sailor who escaped enslavement, Crispus Attucks was the first man to fall when British troops opened fire on a crowd of disgruntled colonists in Boston, 1770. Patriots like Paul Revere branded it a massacre, calling Attucks a martyr. At trial, future president John Adams defended the soldiers by portraying him as an intimidating threat.