Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: History is full of unpopular taxes. Some, like Britain's taxation
Speaker 1: of colonial tea, were met with pushback or even revolution,
Speaker 1: But a few taxes in history stand out for being
Speaker 1: not just unpopular but downright strange, like a tax on
Speaker 1: fireplaces in England during the Middle Ages, or one on
Speaker 1: animal sacrifices in the time of the Roman Empire. Governments
Speaker 1: have tried taxing everything from clocks to wallpaper and card games,
Speaker 1: even newspapers and hats, but all of these pale in
Speaker 1: comparison to a tax instituted by Czar Peter the Great
Speaker 1: in the seventeenth century. The ruler stunned nobles and peasants
Speaker 1: alike when he announced a new tax law that changed
Speaker 1: the face of Russia forever, and I mean literally, because
Speaker 1: Peter wasn't taxing a product. His target was beards. The
Speaker 1: roots of the beard tax can be traced back to
Speaker 1: sixteen ninety seven, when the twenty five year old Czar
Speaker 1: embarked on a grand tour of Western Europe. The trip
Speaker 1: was meant to be educational, a way for Peter to
Speaker 1: learn about the culture, politics, and military prowess of his neighbors.
Speaker 1: For two whole years, he traveled the continent incognito, even
Speaker 1: working as a day laborer in the dockyards of Britain's
Speaker 1: Royal Navy. Peter quickly became enthralled with the culture of
Speaker 1: Western Europe, which seemed infinitely more modern than his own country.
Speaker 1: By the time he returned home in sixteen ninety eight,
Speaker 1: he was convinced that Russia needed a serious makeover. First
Speaker 1: thing on the chopping block men's facial hair. It seems
Speaker 1: that those long beards that were common throughout Russia were
Speaker 1: out of style in other countries. This was mostly practical too,
Speaker 1: Like heavy coats, beards made more sense in a country
Speaker 1: known for its brutal winters. But there was a religious
Speaker 1: component too. The Russian Orthodox Church treated long beards as
Speaker 1: a symbol of piety, and virtually all monks and priests
Speaker 1: wore their facial hair untrimmed, but Peter didn't care. He
Speaker 1: saw the beards as a symbol of the country's refusal
Speaker 1: to modernize and decided that they had to go. At
Speaker 1: a party celebrating his return, he announced a nationwide ban
Speaker 1: on beards. It was such a strange idea. At first,
Speaker 1: people thought that the Tsar was joking, and that wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been surprising. Peter the Great was a notorious jokester,
Speaker 1: known for throwing destructive feasts and parties. He kept a
Speaker 1: close group of friends who called themselves the All Justting
Speaker 1: and all Drunken Synod of Fools and Gestures. Heavily drinking
Speaker 1: and participating in pranks was literally a requirement for being
Speaker 1: in the club, and one of the main targets for
Speaker 1: their jokes was the Orthodox Church. At times, they would
Speaker 1: even dress up as bishops and perform mock marriage ceremonies
Speaker 1: to make fun of the clergy. So, knowing all of
Speaker 1: that context, the beard tax probably seemed like yet another
Speaker 1: joke aimed at riling up the church, but the Czar
Speaker 1: was deadly serious. This time. He demanded that his noble
Speaker 1: friends shave on the spot or have their beards ripped
Speaker 1: out by the roots. Then he had the police to
Speaker 1: hunt through the streets and perform forced shavings of the public.
Speaker 1: Individuals who wanted to keep their facial hair could do
Speaker 1: so as long as they paid a fee. Nobles were
Speaker 1: charged more than peasants, but everyone who paid received a
Speaker 1: token with the image of a beard engraved on it.
Speaker 1: By showing it to the police, Russians could avoid being
Speaker 1: shaved in the streets so long as they didn't forget
Speaker 1: their token at home, and the Russian people, as you
Speaker 1: might imagine, were appalled. Forced shavings felt like an affront
Speaker 1: to their faith and their culture. A few years after
Speaker 1: the tax was instituted, it sparked a bloody uprising. A
Speaker 1: group of soldiers published a letter stating that they refused
Speaker 1: to submit to foreign fashion. Hundreds of commoners and merchants
Speaker 1: joined them, and they took over several towns. Peter responded
Speaker 1: by sending two detachments of troops to crush the revolt.
Speaker 1: Approximately three hundred and sixty five rebels were caught and
Speaker 1: taken to Moscow, where they were tried, tortured, and executed.
Speaker 1: And you have to say, anyone who wondered whether the
Speaker 1: Tsar was serious now had their answer. Despite being wildly unpopular,
Speaker 1: the Russian beard tax remained in place for decades, long
Speaker 1: after Peter's death. It was finally repealed in seventeen seventy
Speaker 1: two by Catherine the Great. Modern historians might find it
Speaker 1: ironic that a female ruler gave Russian men their beards back,
Speaker 1: but the people didn't care. They were just happy to
Speaker 1: have one less tax to pay. So much of our
Speaker 1: history is hidden, buried under layers of dirt and silt.
Speaker 1: It's just sitting there, waiting to be dug up, like
Speaker 1: a toy in a sandbox. Thanks to hundreds of years
Speaker 1: of excavation and study, we've been able to learn about
Speaker 1: and understand the creatures and civilizations that came before us,
Speaker 1: From dinosaurs and ancient burial practices to magnificent structures and
Speaker 1: old tools. We know a lot more about our world
Speaker 1: than we used to. But every once in a while
Speaker 1: we unearthed something that defies explanation. It forces us to
Speaker 1: confront the limits of our understanding. In eighteen thirty two,
Speaker 1: in a town in Massachusetts, about fifty miles south of Boston,
Speaker 1: a young woman named Hannah Cook had been digging in
Speaker 1: a nearby sandbank. She was collecting sand for cleaning purposes,
Speaker 1: as it worked wonders as a scouring agent. But she
Speaker 1: found much more than just some natural cleaning products. She
Speaker 1: stumbled upon something big. It had been buried in the
Speaker 1: sand for a long time. It was a human skeleton.
Speaker 1: There was something strange about it. For one, the skeleton
Speaker 1: had been discovered sitting down with its legs tucked under
Speaker 1: its chin. But the other notable thing about it was
Speaker 1: how it was dressed. According to a report written by
Speaker 1: doctor Phineas W. Leland in eighteen forty three and I quote,
Speaker 1: covering the sternum was a triangular plate of brass, somewhat
Speaker 1: corroded by time, and around the body was a broad
Speaker 1: belt made of small brass tubes four or five inches
Speaker 1: in length. As for the body itself, an Illinois lawyer
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty seven noted how the skull had deteriorated,
Speaker 1: but the teeth were mostly intact. They indicated the body
Speaker 1: had been that of a young man. There was still
Speaker 1: even a little bit of skin in certain places, like
Speaker 1: around the shoulders and on the back. This lawyer suggested
Speaker 1: that the body might have been embalmed to some degree,
Speaker 1: but the question remained, who did this skeleton belong to.
Speaker 1: Could it have been a member of an indigenous tribe
Speaker 1: from the area. A historian in the late eighteen hundreds
Speaker 1: claimed that the body had been buried according to wamp
Speaker 1: and Noah customs, so it was possible. Others argue that
Speaker 1: the remains had been those of a Phoenician, or an
Speaker 1: ancient Egyptian or a Carthaginian who had come to North
Speaker 1: America many centuries earlier. By the way, this theory was
Speaker 1: thrown around a lot at the time to explain how
Speaker 1: the pre Columbian city of Chichenitza was built by other
Speaker 1: cultures who had come and colonized the Americas. But that
Speaker 1: theory didn't hold weight either. After all, we know the
Speaker 1: Mayans built Chichenitza. And of course, it was even suggested
Speaker 1: that the whole thing had been a hoax, although no
Speaker 1: motive or culprit was ever determined. Eventually, the skeleton was
Speaker 1: sent to the Fall River Athenaeum for further study, and
Speaker 1: that's where it was observed by one man, in particular,
Speaker 1: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poets and author thought that maybe
Speaker 1: the remains were Norse, meaning they had belong to a Viking.
Speaker 1: He wrote a poem titled The Skeleton in Armour, which
Speaker 1: told the story of a Viking warrior who sailed to
Speaker 1: a new land with his bride and built a life
Speaker 1: with her until her untimely death. The poem was published
Speaker 1: in eighteen forty one, two years before a tragic accident
Speaker 1: that would change the fate of the actual skeleton forever.
Speaker 1: You see, in eighteen forty three, two young boys had
Speaker 1: been firing a small cannon when they ignited a fire.
Speaker 1: That fire grew into an uncontrollable blaze that destroyed twenty
Speaker 1: acres of Fall River. Numerous buildings were lost in the inferno,
Speaker 1: including the post office, two hundred family homes, and the Athenaeum.
Speaker 1: The skeleton was consumed by the fire. Then, six decades later,
Speaker 1: in nineteen oh three, the corner of Hartwell and Fifth
Speaker 1: Street was honored with a bronze plaque. It read, a
Speaker 1: skeleton in armor was found near this spot by Hannah
Speaker 1: Cook in the month of May a d Eighteen thirty one.
Speaker 1: Hannah probably appreciated being remembered for her discovery rather than
Speaker 1: what came after it. You see, in eighteen ninety two,
Speaker 1: her great niece was tried and acquitted for a horrible crime.
Speaker 1: She had allegedly murdered her parents, and that girl's name Lizzie,
Speaker 1: Lizzie Borden. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
Speaker 1: over at the Worldolore dot com. And until next time,
Speaker 1: stay curious.