History Scoop

  Olive Oatman, 1857 A native of Illinois, OLIVE ANN OATMAN (September 7, 1837 – March 21, 1903, age 65) is well known for having been held captive by Native Americans. Her family was attacked by a small group of Native Americans in 1851 while migrating from Illinois to California with a company of Mormon Brewsterites. The attackers were most likely Tolkepayas. Numerous people were killed by clubs, her brother Lorenzo was left for dead, and Olive (age 14) and Mary Ann (age 7) were held captive for a year before being sold to the Mohave tribe. Mary Ann passed away from malnutrition, and Olive spent another four years living with the Mohave, all the while Lorenzo made arduous attempts to enlist government assistance in the search for them. She was integrated back into American culture five years after the attack. As well as in her own memoir and lectures, the Oatman Massacre myth started to be embellished in the press. It spawned books, plays, films, and poems that had an impact on t...

Lafayette, as a Lieutenant General, 1791 by Joseph-Désiré Court (1834) MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE, Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch GILBERT DU MOTIER, Marquis de La Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834, aged 76), known in the United States as 'Lafayette', was a French aristocrat and military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War, commanding American troops in several battles, including the siege of Yorktown. In 1777, aged 19, he cruised to America, masquerading as a woman, even after he was threatened by the British government and was told that his ship will be seized and he would be imprisoned if he disobeys the orders. He was against slave trade and believed in emancipation and liberation of all human beings, which was the issue that he addressed with the House of Delegates in the United States, for which he received much admiration. Lafayette, made important contributions to the success of the Revolutionary War, including his role as a strategist for the Yorktown camp...