James Hardy 
Though slavery in America has long since been illegal in the United States, the ramifications of the African slave trade that almost broke the new nation are still felt throughout American society, politics, and culture today. While the rest of the world had long engaged in the forced servitude of people throughout history, America was …
With the ink of the Revolutionary War Treaty of Paris documents barely dried, the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 took the fledgling American nation from being 13 colonies that stretched to the Mississippi, to a country that encompassed everything from the Atlantic to the Rockies. Not only did the land acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase doubled …
The very word “West” in American history has all sorts of different connotations; from cowboys and Indians to dust bowls and Davy Crockett, the American West is as diverse as it is expansive. The drive that led the Founding Fathers, and particular Thomas Jefferson, to seek agreements that would allow American soil to stretch from …
As far as history-spanning, full-on conquests and religious iconography go, few objects have a more fantastical, bloody, and legendary tale than the Holy Grail. From medieval crusades to Indiana Jones and The Da Vinci Code, the cup of Christ is one chalice with a spectacularly wicked narrative that spans well over 900 years. Said to …
In a world popularly obsessed with the occult (the phenoms of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings come to mind), it seems hardly plausible that the past murders of American “witches” were not only accepted but encouraged in history. For those unfamiliar with the Salem Witch Trials—the killing of 14 women and six men …
Read moreBoil, Bubble, Toil, and Trouble: The Salem Witch Trials
Christmas may get buried under the catalogues of holiday cheer, present buying, and a lot of food prep stress, but the 2 thousand-year-old holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus has one of the most complex and interesting timelines of any holiday in the history of the world. The annual festival celebrated on Dec. 24, Dec. …