WEBVTT - How Did Benjamin Franklin Help Create the Jersey Devil?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, the production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren bobebam Here in the National Hockey League

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<v Speaker 1>landed in New Jersey. A Denver based team, the hopless

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<v Speaker 1>Colorado Rockies, had been purchased by new ownership and relocated

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<v Speaker 1>to the Garden State at a cost of roughly thirty

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<v Speaker 1>two million dollars, which is more than ninety six million

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<v Speaker 1>in today's money. The Rockies were named after the Rocky

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<v Speaker 1>Mountains Range, which lies more than one eight hundred miles

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<v Speaker 1>some three thousand kilometers west of New Jersey. Obviously, a

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<v Speaker 1>rename was in order. A statewide named the team contest

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<v Speaker 1>drew more than ten thousand votes. Some of the more

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<v Speaker 1>popular names included the New Jersey Goals and the New

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<v Speaker 1>Jersey meadow Landers, But in the end, fans chose a

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<v Speaker 1>name that sounds way more sinister, at least to the uninitiated.

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<v Speaker 1>The New Jersey Devil's Hockey Buffs didn't pick this at random.

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<v Speaker 1>Unlike the Colorado Rockies, the new name had a distinctly

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<v Speaker 1>local flavor. It pays tribute to regional folklore. With more

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<v Speaker 1>than one thousand, one nine residents per square mile, New

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<v Speaker 1>Jersey is the most densely populated state in the United States,

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<v Speaker 1>and yet of its total land area, representing a huge

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<v Speaker 1>chunk of South Jersey, is covered by an expanse of

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<v Speaker 1>sandy swampy forests known as the Pine Barrens. This place

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<v Speaker 1>is an outdoorsman's paradise with winding trails, campgrounds of plenty,

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<v Speaker 1>rustic blueberry farms, and its own answer to Bigfoot. Legend

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<v Speaker 1>says that there's a winged creature that stalks the Barons

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<v Speaker 1>by night. The Hellish Beast is an all American cryptid, though,

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<v Speaker 1>which is a word for an animal the existence of

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<v Speaker 1>which remains unproven by science. I think sasquatch or the

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<v Speaker 1>locknest monster. Believers call this one the Jersey Devil. Skeptics

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<v Speaker 1>call it a snare campaign. More precisely, some scholars see

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<v Speaker 1>the Jersey Devil as a folkloric offspring of an old

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<v Speaker 1>political feud, one that involved Benjamin Franklin of all people. Today,

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<v Speaker 1>there's a friendly North South rivalry inside New Jersey's borders, see,

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<v Speaker 1>for example, the Great Taylor Ham Park Roll debate. But

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<v Speaker 1>during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries things were different.

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<v Speaker 1>The British held colony that became the modern state of

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<v Speaker 1>New Jersey was split somewhat vertically into East Jersey and

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<v Speaker 1>West Jersey. West Jersey was the adopted home of Daniel Leeds.

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<v Speaker 1>Born in England in sixteen fifty one. He was a

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<v Speaker 1>Quaker and a pamphlet writer who emigrated to the town

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<v Speaker 1>of Burlington in what's now southwestern New Jersey. In seven

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<v Speaker 1>Leeds published the first edition of his very own Almanac,

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<v Speaker 1>and this became a lightning rod for controversy. Many Quakers

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<v Speaker 1>who read the text objected to its use of astrology Heathen,

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<v Speaker 1>Greco Roman planet names. When Quaker leadership turned against Leeds,

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<v Speaker 1>he went on the offensive. The pamphleteer befriended Antiquaker politicians

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<v Speaker 1>and wrote sixte manifesto denouncing Quaker theology, titled A Trumpet

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<v Speaker 1>Sounded out of the Wilderness of America. Bridges were burned.

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<v Speaker 1>One prominent Quaker took aim at Leads by writing a

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<v Speaker 1>pamphlet that called him Satan's Harbinger. It wouldn't be the

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<v Speaker 1>last time someone associated Leads or his family with the devil.

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<v Speaker 1>Daniel Leeds died in seventeen twenty, but despite all the notoriety,

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<v Speaker 1>his almanac lived on later editions were overseen by his son,

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<v Speaker 1>Titan Leads, and this is where Benjamin Franklin comes in.

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<v Speaker 1>He owned a rival publication, Poor Richard's Almanac, which jokingly predicted,

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<v Speaker 1>by way of astrology, that Titan Leads would die on

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<v Speaker 1>October seventeenth of seventeen thirty three. He didn't. Leads punched

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<v Speaker 1>back by calling Franklin a fool and a liar in print.

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<v Speaker 1>Then tongue planted firmly in cheek, Franklin suggested the Titan

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<v Speaker 1>Leads must surely be dead, and that his ghost was

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<v Speaker 1>writing nasty things about him from beyond the grave. The

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<v Speaker 1>eighteenth century trolling at its finest. Details of the feud

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<v Speaker 1>are explored in Brian Regal and Frank j Esposito's book

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<v Speaker 1>Secret History of the Jersey Devil, How Quakers, Hucksters and

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<v Speaker 1>Benjamin Franklin created a Monster. In it, the authors wrote

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<v Speaker 1>Franklin's clever statements about Leeds were in reality an attempt

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<v Speaker 1>to discredit his almanac competitor by blinking him to Satan.

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<v Speaker 1>In that age, it was not unusual to paint one's

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<v Speaker 1>enemies as stargazing agents of the devil. The fact that

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<v Speaker 1>Leads promoted a belief in astrology in his popular almanac,

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<v Speaker 1>made perfect fodder for the clever Franklin. By clashing with

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<v Speaker 1>Franklin Titan, Leeds, who died for real in sevent thirty eight,

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<v Speaker 1>hurt his family's public reputation. That Daniel Leeds had been

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<v Speaker 1>a counselor of an unpopular governor of New York and

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<v Speaker 1>New Jersey worsened the family's public relations troubles during the

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<v Speaker 1>American Revolution. Over the years, insinuations the Leads were somehow

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<v Speaker 1>linked with Satan morphed into an East Coast horror story.

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<v Speaker 1>An eighteen fifty nine Atlantic Monthly article contains the first

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<v Speaker 1>unambiguous written reference to the character that we now call

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<v Speaker 1>the Jersey Devil. It's author, W. F. Mayor, had been

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<v Speaker 1>exploring the Pine barrens where he met a resident who

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<v Speaker 1>told him that she had once seen the Leads Devil.

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<v Speaker 1>Mayor's guide informed him that this was part of an

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<v Speaker 1>old superstition. Supposedly, a woman known as Mother Leeds had

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<v Speaker 1>long ago given birth to a deformed monster still at

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<v Speaker 1>large in the barons. After Mayor's peace ran in Atlantic Monthly,

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<v Speaker 1>more retellings were published, when some of them added gory

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<v Speaker 1>details in content. Emporary versions of the narrative. Mother Leads

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<v Speaker 1>is usually cited as an eighteenth century which who gave

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<v Speaker 1>birth to a dozen perfectly normal children, but her thirteenth

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<v Speaker 1>pregnancy ended in disaster, writhing in agony. During the painful childbirth,

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<v Speaker 1>poor Leads hollered, Oh, make it a devil or something

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<v Speaker 1>like that. The rumor was that Mother Leads bore a

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<v Speaker 1>hideous beast who stood upright like a man. But this

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<v Speaker 1>was no man. Her offspring had a goat's head or

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<v Speaker 1>a horse's snakelike tail, hoofed legs, and the wings of

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<v Speaker 1>a great bat. And there's a high body count. In

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<v Speaker 1>some iterations of the tail. The newborn creature may or

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<v Speaker 1>may not have killed Mother Leads, her midwife, and or

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<v Speaker 1>its own siblings before flying up the chimney and escaping

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<v Speaker 1>into the wilderness. Reported Jersey devil sightings made great headline

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<v Speaker 1>fodder in the first decade of the twentieth century. Several

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<v Speaker 1>Philadelphia newspapers ran stories about curious hoofprints dotting snowy corners

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<v Speaker 1>of the pine barrens. A few of these prints had

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<v Speaker 1>supposedly turned up on rooftops. Other accounts sounded more harrowing.

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<v Speaker 1>One taxi driver in Salem City, New Jersey, said the

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<v Speaker 1>Devil attacked his vehicle across state lines. Publicity hound Norman

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<v Speaker 1>Jeffreys caused quite a stir in nineteen o nine when

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<v Speaker 1>he announced that the Leads Devil had been captured alive

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<v Speaker 1>after a terrific struggle and would be displayed at a

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<v Speaker 1>Philadelphia museum. The Jeffreys monster turned out to be a

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<v Speaker 1>live kangaroo wearing painted stripes and a set of artificial wings.

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<v Speaker 1>When it comes to dramatizing the Jersey Devil, nobody can

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<v Speaker 1>talk the Garden States one and only Bruce Springsteen. As

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<v Speaker 1>a tribute to the state's favorite cryptid, the rock star

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<v Speaker 1>penned of bluesy ballad called a Night with the Jersey

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<v Speaker 1>Devil back in two thousand seven. He wrote at the time,

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<v Speaker 1>Dear friends and fans, if you grew up in Central

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<v Speaker 1>or South Jersey, you grew up the Jersey Devil. Here's

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<v Speaker 1>a little musical Halloween treat. Have fun. Today's episode is

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<v Speaker 1>based on the article how Bed and Franklin helped ignite

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<v Speaker 1>the Jersey Devil Hysteria on how Stuff Works dot com,

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<v Speaker 1>written by Mark Mancini and Brain Stuff is production by

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<v Speaker 1>Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works. Dot Com

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<v Speaker 1>is produced by Tyler Clang. The four more podcasts from

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<v Speaker 1>my heart Radio visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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<v Speaker 1>or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.