WEBVTT - Sounds Big 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.440 Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:14.440 iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.440 the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.119 of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:28.840 waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:40.000 The year was eighteen sixty five. The place an estate 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.519 just east of Nashville. A man named Colonel Patrick Henry 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.920 Anderson was struggling under debts, and his land was on 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:52.200 the verge of collapse. His financial ruin seemed inevitable. Now, 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.200 before you extend too much sympathy toward the colonel, it's 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:57.800 worth knowing that he was the manager of a plantation 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:02.200 in Civil War era Tennessee. His financial woes were entirely 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:05.480 tied to the resolution of the Civil War. The Confederacy 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:09.160 had lost, and human trafficking, the enterprise that supported the 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:13.560 entire Southern economy, was no more. Colonel Anderson was so 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:17.120 desperate for anyone to salvage his fortunes that he wrote 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.920 a letter to a man named Jordan, entreating him to 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:23.240 come back and work for him. Jordan, you see, was 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:27.080 a former enslaved man of the Colonels. Jordan had also 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:29.800 taken the last name Anderson, and had been freed by 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:32.840 the Union Army in eighteen sixty four. The request to 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:35.560 come back and work for his former enslaver was so 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:39.480 absurd that Jordan, who was by this point living in Dayton, Ohio, 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:43.560 had to respond. Now. The man could not read or write, 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:45.839 but what he could do was dictate to a neighbor, 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.640 who sent the response on his behalf. The document was 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:53.040 entitled Letter from a Freedman to his old master. In 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:57.000 this letter, Jordan Anderson described his pleasant life in Ohio 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.560 to the man who had once held him captive for decades. 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.720 Jordan insisted that he and his wife, Millie, were in 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:05.840 a good situation and didn't wish to go back south. 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:09.200 In a tone that at first sounds sincere but drips 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:12.639 with sarcasm, he outlined his concern that he and his 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:15.840 wife wouldn't get the proper treatment they deserved if they 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:18.440 were to go back and work for their one time enslaver. 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:21.639 And then he went on to make a request what 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:24.080 the colonel would have to do in order to get 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:28.080 his interest. Jordan requested thirty two years of back pay 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:31.840 for both himself and his wife, amounting to some eleven thousand, 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:35.640 six hundred and eighty dollars including interest, that's equal to 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:39.239 about a quarter of a million dollars today. To compliment 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:41.840 that dry sense of humor, he said that the figure 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:45.400 included deductions for clothing that his master purchased for them, 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:47.920 and for the services of a dentist to pull a 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:51.800 couple of teeth. Underlying every sly jab in the letter 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:54.600 is the brutal reality that life for a black man 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:59.120 in the South was still extremely difficult even after emancipation. 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.320 Dan Anderson mentioned in the letter that he wished to 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:05.560 get his children a good education, implying that this would 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:08.400 not be possible in the South, and that any request 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:11.280 from him to go there would be an absurd decision 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:15.080 on his part and if his intent wasn't abundantly clear 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:18.840 at that point. Jordan also added a PostScript, say howdy 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.799 to George Carter, he wrote, and thank him for taking 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:24.200 the pistol from you when you were shooting at me. 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:28.359 The reference to attempted murder makes for a perfect punchline. 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.720 Jordan Anderson obviously had no intention of going back to 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:34.320 work for the Colonel. It is an eight hundred and 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:38.120 eight word clapback against a man who never saw Jordan 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.480 as worthy of human dignity. What makes the letter an 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:45.120 incredible historical document is the use of humor to critique 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:49.320 the brutal reality of slavery. Jordan's tone is blistering to 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.040 read even today, and we can only imagine how his 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:56.240 former enslaver received it. One month later, in September of 0:03:56.280 --> 0:04:00.640 eighteen sixty five, Colonel Anderson sold his plantation, all one 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:03.680 thousand acres of it, for a fraction of its value. 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.160 He was dead two years later at the age of 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:09.040 forty four. According to a journalist who tracked down his 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:13.680 surviving family, they remained bitter at Jordan for generations afterward, 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:16.560 saying that he should have been loyal and respectful to 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.560 the colonel, whatever that means, thus proving that generations later 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:25.320 they still missed the entire point of the letter. Jordan. Anderson, 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:28.159 on the other hand, outlived his former master by almost 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:32.080 forty years. His letter, published in local papers, became a 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:36.240 viral sensation in its day, encouraging comparisons to Mark Twain, 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:40.600 the legendary literary satirist, and it was printed and reprinted 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:44.719 among oral accounts of surviving enslaved peoples, helping give insight 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.160 and perspective on the sort of person who survived enslavement 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:52.360 in the nineteenth century. Even though he was illiterate, Jordan 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:56.640 Andersen displayed an incredible literary wit, and without the ability 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:59.160 to read or write, he backed his way into becoming 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.640 an acclaimed offe, a more important voice of the American 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:20.000 experience than people like Colonel Anderson ever would be. It 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:23.120 was August twenty sixth, eighteen eighty three in the Dutch 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:26.039 colony of Katimbang, on the southern end of the island 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:29.159 of Sumatra. Johanna Baar inc Was the wife of the 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.520 local colonial overseer. She stood on the porch of her 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.919 family's home, looking out across the Sunda Strait at the 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:40.599 smoking volcano Krakatoa. The volcano was known to occasionally spew 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:43.400 ash and lava into the air, it had for as 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:45.839 long as they'd live there, and it was doing that now. 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:48.760 But Johanna was less concerned with what she could see 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:52.840 and more concerned with what she could hear. For months now, 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.120 the volcano had been producing a series of loud bangs 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.919 similar to thunder but over the last day or so, 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:03.000 those bangs had been growing in volume and frequency. When 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.960 she closed her eyes and listened to the jungle around her, 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:09.760 the birds chirped with a chaotic energy that wasn't typical. 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.360 She walked inside, picked up her newborn infant son from 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:16.360 his crib, and held him close. She looked at her 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:18.640 two other young children playing in the sitting room with 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:22.360 their nanny, and she had a bad feeling. Johanna's heart 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:26.200 leapt at the arrival of a new sound, two loud bangs, 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:29.159 but not from the volcano. They were heard coming from 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:33.679 the roof. Outside. She could see large smoldering stones raining 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.599 down onto the colony. It was pumice stone. The volcano 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:42.000 was erupting. The family ran with their servants from their 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.599 cottage into the hills. Johanna tried to ignore the putrid, 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.520 burning air as it coated her throat, and the sharp 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.040 panes of the pumice stones when they landed on her, 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:54.640 but once again what she could hear was infinitely more 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:57.800 terrifying than what she could see or feel. This time, 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:01.719 she heard a roaring sound coming from behind them, and 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:05.760 it was getting louder, and then suddenly, a massive wave 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:09.000 crashed through the jungle behind them, sending their hiking party 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:12.240 flying in all directions. It was all Johanna could do 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:15.360 to hold onto her baby. Her husband and their servants 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.200 grabbed the other children, and they all held onto whatever 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:21.720 they could, dragging themselves forward through the jungle against the 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:26.360 crashing current. Miraculously, the family managed to pull themselves through 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:29.520 the jungle, out of the water and up into the hills, 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.920 where the safety of their village awaited them. The family 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:37.080 and the villagers alike huddled inside. Johanna hoped that the 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:39.800 worst of it was behind them, that she wouldn't hear 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:44.400 any further harbingers of doom. Unfortunately, her hope couldn't have 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.720 been more in vain. At five point thirty in the morning, 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:51.000 an ear piercing boom shook the whole island. The baby 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:54.480 cried and the children screamed, And then at six forty 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:58.440 four am, another ash began to fall outside the windows, 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:02.400 and then at eight twenty eight a third boom, and finally, 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:06.520 at ten o two am, the sound to end all sounds. 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:10.720 The whole world seemed to shake. Johanna felt two sharp 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:14.320 pains on both sides of her head, and all went silent. 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.200 Her entire body seemed to swell. Her lungs inflated to 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:22.160 their maximum capacity, and she couldn't expel the air. She 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:28.160 felt beyond dizzy, completely disoriented. Luckily, the disorientation quickly passed 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:30.960 and she could breathe again, but she couldn't hear a thing. 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.600 Even worse, looking down, she saw white smoke curling its 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.559 way up into the room from the floorboards. The heat 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:40.920 was unbearable. When she looked down at the baby in 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:44.599 her arms, she realized that he wasn't moving. Some combination 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.480 of the heat, the smoke, and the sound had taken 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:51.000 her child from her. Devastated, she laid the baby down 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.040 and wandered outside into the smoke. She couldn't see her 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:57.400 hands in front of herself. She couldn't hear anything. When 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:00.480 she felt her face, she realized that her skin was 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:04.079 hanging loose off of her body. She was literally melting. 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.880 She fell to the jungle floor and waited for Krakatoa 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:12.120 to claim her as its next victim. When Krakatoa erupted 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.559 that August in eighteen eighty three, it killed over thirty 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:19.880 six thousand people. Most died from the resulting tsunamis, but 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:23.959 some died from the sound of the eruption itself. You see, 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.160 that final ten oh two am explosion is believed to 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.960 have registered at three hundred and ten decibels, the loudest 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:35.360 sound ever documented in history. At that level, the shockwave 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:38.600 from Krakatoa ceased to be a mere sound wave and 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:42.200 instead became a wave of air pressure, rupturing the ear 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.360 drums and even the internal organs of anyone within one 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:49.959 hundred miles. People three thousand miles away in Australia even 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:54.079 heard the sound. Miraculously, Johanna and the rest of her 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:57.080 family actually survived. They were found at the brink of 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:00.840 death and nursed back to health. Their hearing ofally returned. 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:04.000 But it's possible that her baby and hundreds of others 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:08.479 were killed by the sound of Krakatoa alone. It's incredibly 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:13.320 curious that's in a legendary disaster where massive waves, falling 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:17.240 pumice stones and burning clouds could kill you, it was 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:20.360 an invisible force in the air that was the most 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:27.320 deadly of all. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:31.520 of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:35.119 or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:39.120 dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:42.920 in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.480 winning show called Lore which is a podcast, book series, 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:49.160 and television show and you can learn all about it 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:53.680 over at the Worldolore dot com. And until next time, 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:56.480 stay curious.