Why Traveling In Colonial America Was SUPER Dangerous
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- Опубликовано: 5 июн 2024
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In the chaos following the American Revolutionary War, a pair of bandits known as the Harpe Brothers went on a vicious killing spree across the frontier. They are now considered the first serial killers in America.
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LINKS LINKS LINKS
goo.gl/maps/4wuZGXeJxEb5ynGX8
www.fm.coe.uh.edu/timeline/170...
murderpedia.org/male.H/h/harp...
www.legendsofamerica.com/we-h...
www.officialdata.org/us/infla...
www.illinoishistory.com/harpes...
murderpedia.org/male.H/h/harp...
www.appalachiabare.com/the-de...
www.appalachiabare.com/the-de...
www.appalachiabare.com/the-de...
www.legendsofamerica.com/we-h...
www.officialdata.org/us/infla...
www.appalachiabare.com/the-de...
www.illinoishistory.com/harpes...
theravenreport.com/2017/04/25...
murderpedia.org/male.H/h/harp...
TIMESTAMPS -
0:00 - America's First Serial Killers
2:11 - The Frontier
3:18 - The Harpe Brothers Backstory
7:51 - On The Move
10:17 - Cave-In-Rock and the Mason Gang
12:12 - The Summer of 1799
14:50 - Three Wives
17:00 - Sponsor - Brilliant 
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How has a filmmaker not grabbed this story up. With the rise in western’s and horror movies over the last decade this would be a perfect film for someone at A24 to make.
Right????
Agreed, this would make for a great inspiration for multiple horror and adventure stories.
Look up the Assassination of the Espinosas; that could be very cinematic
The child bashing and deaths would be a little too gore
A Serbian film : 😬
Love your work, Joe. As a retired historian, I'm happy to see you doing stories like this.
I love your videos, too, but next video, please take away that front door, bell ringing, chime sound, you have in the background… Drove me nuts, the entire video I don’t even have a doorbell 😂😂
As a retired serial killer, I feel the same way!
@@Diggnuts As a retired historian turned serial killer, stories like this bring joy to my heart.
@@JarthenGreenmeadow ---As a retired serial killer turned historian, I want Joe to do a video about me.
As a killer of retired cereal historians, I agree. How dare they retire from telling us the history of breakfast cereal?!
Great story of frontier darkness. I realize I'm a year late here, but I have a problem with how money values are calculated over time. When the governor put a $300 bounty on the Harp brothers, another way to look at it is that $300 could buy 300 acres of raw land from the government or a nice house in town.
I always think it's crazy how I've learned more about history on random RUclips videos then I did in school
Assuming you have at least a high school degree, you undoubtedly learned lots of history in school. The difference is you were required to go to school full time and the curriculum was chosen for you. Now you're learning about history for pleasure in your free time. When we're not engaged in something by choice and/or not enjoying it, we tend not to retain the information for a very long time.
It is so frustrating, this trope. School, especially early years are not for "finding out cool stuff". It's for building basic math, language and critical thinking skills for pupils to apply further in life. I've programmed computers since I was 11, read about the fall of Rome at 9 and almost broke my mind trying to understand quantum physics at 15. Guess what - I've attended a pretty usual provincial school in Siberia, Russia. Schooling can be in depth, but only for those who want it to be so. Don't blame teachers - blame yourself, and maybe your parents a little.
Watching Bonanza episodes is another way to learn about the history of the American west, since a lot of those episodes (but not all) are based on historical facts, some fairly obscure. Like, I never knew that Samuel Clemens lived a few years in Virginia City, Nevada, and how many other famous people had passed through that small town.
Because you are interested enough to continue learning.
@@MrKruger88 assuming you're both american, i assumed y'all learned a varying crapton of a fraction of what people generally learn, anywhere else in the world
One of the women married into my family. I've heard this story throughout my childhood. My father is actually working on publishing a book from the womens' side.
On my moms side I’m related to Abraham Lincoln.
@@ChaseHollisRE I'm related to Adam and Eve
@@Kabup2 Adam and Eve had three sons. How could you be?
I'm a descendant of Godzilla
I have an uncle Zeus
I'm from a Hispanic country and I remember in one of my history classes hearing about colonial Spain and that they would station guards at the entrances of their camps in colonial Florida, but facing inwards because they had a big desertion problem where the soldiers preferred to go live with the Seminole and other tribes in those areas so the leaders of the conquistador groups had to basically hold their men 'hostage' in camp and make them fight.
Funny that it also happened in New England lol
I think that happened in the US too
@@citrusblast4372 💀💀💀
The Native American tribes had a much simpler but more balanced and forgiving way of life than many colonists did. All lived hard lives to be sure, but most colonists were led by religious zealots or bankrolled by people who were getting folks (entire families with kids sometimes!) out of debtors prisons and these people were expected to do back-breaking work to pay off the passage, including the kids! The Native way of life was much easier than toiling on a plantation to produce money for a company back in England! Spain had a similar problem with the soldiers in Florida and other Gulf coast villages as well. The tribes had been decimated by white man's diseases so they needed warriors and their women needed husbands. This was way more enticing than a brutal Spanish General any day of the week to them!
@@glitz6121hahahaha
I'm from new England Lexington Massachusetts n as you know the first battle of the revolutionary war n we know nothing of holding our ppl hostage to fight in fact they wanted war earlier than the Tea Party which I highly doubt they wasted valuable tea to through in the water
Most of the “kid’s stories” we all grew up with were originally a version of “colonial PSAs” red riding hood for example was a tale told to warn kids to stay out of the forest. As was “Hansel and Gretel”. I read a book about the history of storytelling awhile ago that really broke the symbolism down and went into pretty graphic detail about what would/could happen if you wandered into the woods…
what was the book called?
I don't think those stories you mentioned were *from* colonial America although they were probably commonly used in that way in colonial America. They were brought over from Europe by the settlers.
I don't think Hansel and Gretel was solely an anti-woods PSA. It was a child abduction PSA. A lot of scary woods stories from Europe for children had a predatory character who's behavior represented the type of people an innocent and naïve child could encounter who were extremely dangerous.
It's like how skinwalkers and similar folklore creatures/people were PSAs to warn people about evil Shamans. Shamans were not only their medical doctors but their psychologists and someone who mastered the "dark arts" in regards to psychology is usually predatory. Being able to mimic familiar behaviors, read body language efficiently, and compel compliance or other behaviors indirectly are something a therapist can do well but a psychopath can do really well.
A lot of horror stories for children weren't just warnings about predatory wildlife, and exposure to the elements, they were warnings about predatory people.
Whoa, I never realized that. 😮
They are European stories clearly.
This was very very common. My family moved into central WV in the early to mid-1700s which was very much frontier country. There was a half Indian half English man who would loot and murder anyone he found around the time other more organized raids occured a county or two away. He killed an entire family of my cousins at their house and the road is still called "bloody run" locally. I don't recall what happened or if they caught him but there were numerous murders and raids occurring with local settlers quickly taking frontier justice on anyone they deemed involved. The area had no resident native population so any native found was often seem to be involved unless they were known locally which led to a lot of tit-for-tat violence. There is a section in the local city graveyard from the mid-late 1700s for local people killed in these attacks which really speaks to the violence considering most would have been on farms.
That reminds me of something I'd heard earlier- that Native Americans would not live in WV, but they would hunt there. Do you know anything about that?
I always wondered how Bloody Run got its name.
If the women were kidnapped, it could have developed into Stockholm Syndrom. And given the circumstances of living in the wilderness, I could see how a woman of that time might find it nearly impossible to escape.
i was thinking this, too. i imagine it's even more difficult to leave an abuser when you live in the middle of the wilderness
If the wilderness can support a bear enough for it to grow fat, it can support you.
You might not live into your 80s, for 50 is old for a wilder.
But youll be free, and youll be who you were as you were born. Not Jesse the bank manager. Just, man.
Stockholm Syndrome is a myth.
@@paulster185 sure it is, lol.
That's Hawt..
Joe, thank you for posting this. This left me speechless when I saw Moses Stegall's name.... Because he has the same last name as me and we lived roughly in the same area. So I got curious and started digging. Turns out, Moses was one of my distant relatives and I am a descendant of his. We always knew that our ancestors came from England, settled in NC, then moved to KY and the original ancestor to come to the US was named Moses Stegall and that he lived to be 105 years old. But now I know that my ancestor was this Moses Stegall and once I realized this I burst into tears to think of what happened to him and his family. This was many generations ago, so just think of all of the other children that Moses might have had, that his children might have had, and their children and their children.... If not for these demented, cruel and evil people. All the lives lost, lives that never got the chance to live. This blew me away, Joe. Very much so. Imagine being the guy who figures out that the people who were murdered in the story were his distant relatives of generations past. Just.... Wow! My mind is blown, but thank you for posting this and helping me to finally dig deeper into my families past and figure out this awful tale that probably made my family who they are today. 🙂
Wow! It's so cool that this video had you to learning so much about your own family.
Your ancestor is a hero for what he did to that bastard. What happened to him is awful, but he saved many others with what he did because of it.
you have to triple check that kind of stuff but for now it's plausible
@@jgunther3398 Which part are you doubting?
Any relation to Steven?
I would encourage everyone to read "the Gangs of New Orleans". It explains why New Orleans has always been a bit of violent place and expands on the type of characters like the Harpes who inhabited the frontier.
What about Detroit? Was that always a battlefield?
@@TheDennys21 yes
@@TheDennys21Detroit Purple gang of the 1900s-20s....by far the most murderous gang in the country during that time...like by far
@@TheDennys21 it was peacefull during slavery times
Hey Joe. In case no one has told you, I love you, brother. You are so appreciated by a loving, loyal fan base. I know it's been hard for everyone lately, just checking in on ya. Thank you, Joe.
And in case no one has told you, I love you Long Bong Silver OG. The world could really use more silver bongs that are long...
I am from India, whenever joe says "Indian" my brain took 10 sec to process the fact that he not talking about my country. loved your content, I have been following you since 2017.
Whats the consensus on this? Is it still common / acceptable to call native Americans as Indians? Its like the west Indies, misnomer but still kinda called like that; which is nonsense!
@@filippoeich1180, it was just throwing me off
From the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian:
"All of these terms are acceptable. The consensus, however, is that whenever possible, Native people prefer to be called by their specific tribal name. In the United States, Native American has been widely used but is falling out of favor with some groups, and the terms American Indian or Indigenous American are preferred by many Native people."
americanindian.si.edu/nk360/faq/did-you-know
Obviously there are as many different opinions on this as there are members of native tribes. But my understanding is that the terms "Indian" or "American Indian" have come back into favor when you don't have a specific tribe name to use. Like a lot of our historical terms, it's an ever-evolving thing.
@@joescott thats very interesting Joe, thanks for the reply :)
@@filippoeich1180 while many may not flinch at the use of "indians" because we grew up with the word and were not aware of how dismissive it was of their native heritage & various cultures, I'm pretty sure the day of saying "indians" is past. Using "Native Americans" simply and respectfully acknowledges them authentically and not as misplaced people from India.
I appreciate the content warning. I waited for my kid to go to bed before watching this.
Awww I was watching faces of deaths at 9 years old. It builds character.
Serial killer in the title wasn’t enough for ya?
Is anyone able to see this comment or am I still on the ol shadow banned list still
@@phourtwenteephorlife I can see you
What?
I can't put my finger on it but your presentation is so easy to listen to. Lots of information and not even close to overwhelming. Love that I found you
Your closing thoughts/editorial on this was brilliant! Really hope you take some time to ruminate on those points! Thank you for always posting (mostly) unbiased content, citing documented facts!
Studies show that abused women are most likely to be killed when they try to leave. Could you imagine trying to leave a monster who murders so casually, even his own child? Those women were probably terrified on a level we can't even imagine. Also, there was no mention of them participating in any of the murders.
Yeah…….women back then didn’t leave because they had nowhere to go. Like literally nowhere. Women couldn’t own land, vote or work. At this time in history all women were property of some man be it father, husband or brother.
As a counterpoint, women don't generally directly participate in murder, even when they're a complicit actor. Plenty of cases exist where the woman does the luring and the man does the killing.
Should have just split while the two were in jail. But what, they waited around and met up with them? Lol. They’re not naïve, and it’s honestly insulting to women you’d imply that.
The disregard for human life these guys had is genuinely disgusting. Amazing video!!!
That's how the white man treated blacks for 350 years.
Yeah kind of like in the Middle East, africa, Central America, Haiti and black American cities today.
It's sickening, they were basically wild animals not people.
@@MrJbuzz19black american cities? Lol have you seen southern white americans?
@@MrJbuzz19 send more tears
I just found this channel and now I'm addicted and can't stop watching. Thank you for your hard work
Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Cowpens! Also, my 5th great-grandfather, Henry Skaggs, pursued the Harpe brothers in 1799 but didn't catch them. Skaggs was a longhunter whose expeditions across the Cumberland Gap got the interest of Daniel Boone. Skaggs Trace is named after him.
In my College Sociology class we read a book called “killing time”, or something like that. It went through many serial killers and mass murderers. It gave the gruesome details but had a sociological conclusion or hypothesis to it all.
I remember one student asking in class one day, “Is it ok that I like reading this?” Everyone nodded hesitantly, like were thinking the same thing.
I believe you’re referencing the novel, Just Killing Time, by Derek Van Arman. It came out in 1993. It was a fictional account of serial killers, but the author went into depth in the histories of serial killers and how they have been with us for quite a long time. Easier to hide in today’s society versus hundreds of years ago. He brought up how the Nazi era brought them out into the open. A great book that I have gone back to read again over the years.
@@19sl57 sounds great but not the book we got. Mine had 2 parts. Serial killer and Mass killers.
Each chapter highlighted a different one, many you’d know like Bundy and Dalmer.
I remember is started with a French aristocrat from about the time of the revolution. He would kill peasant children. He actually lectured the parents of his victims about good parenting during the trial.
I have a relative who fought in the revolutionary war with his son. They both were awarded plots of land for their service after the war. The elder decided to scope out the plots and travel by himself to Ohio. The story is that he was killed by Indians along the way. The body never recovered by my family. But now you have me wondering, what if he was killed by others that just made it look like he was killed by Indians? That seems like a plausible way to get away with murder in that time.
I must say it's fantastic how I like your videos and know they will be good even during the first seconds. That happens with few channels only.
This is the first time I've seen your channel Sir. To say the least, I'm inpressed! I hope to learn much more from you and the channel in the future! Fascinating story that wasn't sugar coated in any way but was still tastefully done. And you're right, we really need to start learning from history, now more than ever it seems. I live for the day when we don't keep redoing the same historical mistakes, different century! My Goddaughter and her husband and son deserve a much better world. ❤ We have the means of doing that!
You speak of frictions and divides that continue to this day. A few years ago we visited Lincoln New Mexico, home of the 1878 Lincoln County War, Billy the Kid, John Tunstall, Alex McSween and the Murphy-Dolan faction being the main actors. After talking with several locals who were descendants of some the original town's citizens, they admitted that there are still some hard feelings among those who's ancestors sided with the different factions. Truly eye opening and would make for an interesting video looking at it from this angle.
ln Scotland, centuries ago, the Campbell Clan killed dozens of the people of a nearby clan, think it was the Macleods.
The Macleods(if it was them)hate the Campbells to this day.
@@fredbrandon1645 As a Jew, I am not aware of Jews disliking modern Germany. Germany took the lead in teaching its children about the holocaust and prosecuting Nazi war criminals. My family has been there several times and felt welcomed. Wars shouldn't last forever.
@Fred brandon You note several historically events that informative on this. But you do so in a way that seems to imply that someone is sheltered for learning history 230 years later. They could just be young, too busy, had poor access to historical education, etc. And history is always learned later and should continue to be learned by the next generation. That is the whole point of it.
TL;DR: don't be a dick when informing curious people.
@@fredbrandon1645 You're absolutely right! That's why I hate absolutely EVERYONE preemptively, because I know that their ancestors were enemies of my own ancestors.
Ohhhh Lincoln is a trippy little place. I can always feel the energy there when I go. It’s eerie.
Yes! So glad you’re covering this!!!
I saw the Appalachian Storyteller’s doc on these brothers not too long ago, also very good and worth a watch. I was shocked that their story isn’t already well known with a streaming mini series, given our cultural obsession with true crime. So dark. Wild, wild shit.
Of course another event our country probably wants us to forget! Geesh
@@hnybee113 ok
A period piece about the Harpe brothers where a group of vigilantes that fought in the revolutionary war trace them down, with parts where we go see things from their perspective and the perspective of the Harpe brothers, or maybe their wives and it ends up being a trial or a retelling of the whole thing.
We begin with the young Harpe brothers, their family are loyalists and so are they. We see the dads teach them how to hunt and trading with the natives, learning some things from them. They accompany their dads to the markets and learn how to be men at the time. But things are also rowdy at the markets, as revolution is brewing. They get harassed and even attacked with rocks for being loyalists. But they get home relatively unscathed. Few days later, the cousins wake up some noise and light, the house is on fire. They wake up their parents, but their dads tell them to run out the back. The father of Big Harpe gives him a pistol and tells him to only use it to defend his cousin. The father of Little Harpe tells his son to do what his older cousin tells him. The fathers get their guns and start firing out the windows and the mothers try to put out the fires, but tell the boys they will be with them soon. The boys run and escape to the bush and wait, but the fires just keep growing and they hear the screams from their parents, as the muskets keep firing out.
They see their home collapse on itself before running deeper into the woods. One of the revolutionaries sees them and follows on his horse. Some of his pals see him run and follow him shortly after. He is able to catch up to the boys and grabs the younger one, saying he is dad is a traitor and as sons of loyalists, they should be hanged. The older boy grabs his pistol and aims it at the man, claiming he will shoot if he won't let his cousin go. The man refuses, but the younger boy kicks him and gets out of his grasp and as the man yells and is about to grab and beat him, the older one shoots him. We see a close up of his face and there is no regret. They then spot the guys following and start to run again as they hear musket fire.
They run, but can't outmanoeuvre their hunters. They collapse onto the tracks and the hunters catch up, but they argue if they should kill young boys, if they should only kill the older one or if they should just leave them in the woods. As they are arguing, we see the younger Harpe notice movement in the bushes and eyes looking at him. He freezes up in terror and his older cousin tells him to stay calm. Suddenly, multiple gunshots come from around the hunters and arrows fly into them. Then, 3 natives rush up to the surviving men and wound them, taking them hostage and free the boys. Some of the natives know their fathers and recognize the boys. The boys tell them what happened. One man, who hunted occasionally with the Harpe's, becomes full of rage and buries his hatchet in the face of one of the murderers. The others get their throats slit for their crimes.
We cut to a few years later, where the boys have been adopted into the native community. They are taught everything they need to know and show hatred towards revolutionaries.
I could see Rob Zombie or Woody Harrelson directing this.
@@loke6664 A good candidate would be Tim Burton. 👍🏻
Just discovered your channel and it’s awesome totally freaking awesome. Please don’t stop making videos man pleaseeee
I really appreciated the amount of thought put into this video. Is so good to see someone trying to see all sides to history. Seeking truth matters.
Joe is like the big brother who always has something interesting to talk about. It doesn't matter what the subject is, and also doesn't get bogged down in semantics. Although I discovered Joe primarily based on the Space (both scientific and fictional or speculative) related videos, the videos that have the sweetest aftertaste are of these historical mini stories related to some serial killer or murder mystery.
You can tell Joe is smart because he has a bookshelf behind him.
I was born and raised in Webster County, KY and still live here . Never did I think I'd hear my home come out of Joe's mouth lol. I've always been interested by the Harpe Bros because my grandfather used to tell me stories about them when I was a child. We would take the ferry to Cave-In-Rock multiple times a summer and picnic on the cliffs and I'd listen to him tell me about those who were thrown over. Great video as always.
Hello, fellow WCHS Trojan!
Did your Grandfather ever mention any of the Harpe family moving to Ontario ( Upper Canada back then) ? Being they were loyalists, many ended up here in Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry. My family were loyalists and came here about that time and the next old family spread north of me is Harpe and they too were loyalists.
if you're ever on a cliff listening to somebody tell stories about people being thrown over back away slowly
The “Timesuck” podcast has an episode on the Harpes. Definitely recommend it.
Spencer, my maiden name is McCormick. I know that there were 6 McCormick families that emigrated to America back in the day. From what I’ve read the clan sided with Bonnie Prince Charles in the Jacobite Uprising and were sent from Scotland to Ireland. Then these six persons or families came to America. Because my g-grandfather died in an unknown place, I haven’t been able to find out exactly which of the six we belong with. Anyway, I just wanted to say hello from Arkansas where my family settled after the civil war. Brenda McCormick Penepent❤
Dude. This is legit. Thank you for your monologue right before the sponsor. Appreciate it.
Excellent video. I like that you presented history not as a neat and tidy series of events presented for a high school or college class, to make it better understandable. History can be a complicated train wreck with many different factors causing the accident.
This is the first time I watch a Joe video this year, so, before anything else, happy new year Joe! Hope is one of the greatest ones for you, me, and all of your beautiful audience 🎉❤
Thanks man! Same to you!
@@joescott happy New year Brother!! . I have a question for you , what type of coffee do you drink ?. Thank you for your content,it is amazing.
I think the observation that some of the fractures we currently experience date back to the early days of this country rate more as "correlation" than "causation."
For instance, I grew up in southeastern Kentucky until age 13, and while I don't remember hearing about the Harpes, I did learn *some* local history.
Much of Appalachia was settled by Scots-Irish immigrants, and that may describe the Harpes. The ancestors of those people had originally been "encouraged" to move from Scotland to northern Ireland, so as to help secure British rule.
That went about as expected, and a lot of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren got sick of being the heels of the boots on Irish throats. They headed off to the new world and disappeared into the deep, dark hills of Appalachia.
Other Scots-Irish went, too, for different reasons, but they all mixed up together. For obvious reasons, the entire culture of the region developed in such a way as to favor self-sufficiency to the point of nigh-total isolationism, as well as a bitter resentment of distant authority that borders on the surreal.
Throw in the fact that life, there, has never been anything other than tremendously difficult, and it's hardly surprising that people from the area sometimes explode in incandescent fury.
Love this, fascinating and illuminating. Thankyou!! I look forward to watching more
You have a great way of narration while the content writing is also very smooth. Just came across your videos by chance and am glad I did. Subscription done ✔️
History is a messy subject of which should not be taken lightly. I love watching “the hateful 8” because it captures (I think probably realistically) the mentality of early days of post civil war U.S…..It would be neat to hear you talk about your investigation of Hawaii how became a state….Thank you🤙
Fiction
@Noobovsky So, what, Hawaii didn't really become a state, or Hawaii doesn't really exist? 🙄
@@joe3eagles a lot of people feel it was just taken….which…sadly…. I think is probably true
The Hateful 8 is just a product of Quentin Tarantino's diseased mind
@@thomasreto2997 no one cares about how you feel,we wanted somewhere tropical to vacation without a passport no shame in that. It also was a great tactical location for military bases so we had to take it before Japan did.
Seeing a new Joe Scott video always makes my day. Best delivery on RUclips. Thanks Mr Scott, keep them coming!
Love the way you told this story. I subscribed.
Glad to hear about Samuel Mason! I heard about him through his brother Isaac who started one of the first iron foundries west of the Alleghenies and also built one of the first iron suspension bridges in the US. I was at a dead end with Samuel because when I searched for more information I was stuck on him being called Meason. I also thought that Mason was a serial killer, not a pirate but considering that when he was arrested they found 20+ scalps, maybe that was deserved. Thank you for an interesting story!
Life long Tennesseean, here. I can't believe I've gone my whole life without hearing about these psychos before now. What a story. Brings a few things around here into a whole different perspective.🤔 I'm surprised that this hasn't been made into a movie or streaming series by now. Twisted. I wonder how many descendants of theirs still live around here? Actually, I'm not sure I even want to know that, come to think of it.😬
Great vid, as usual, Joe. Happy New Year to you! Hope this is a good one for you, and the rest of us. 🤗
Joe is by far my favorite person on youtube telling history stories and stories in general. It's a shame youtube seemingly doesn't want me to watch your channel! They seem to have stopped recommending your videos to me.
I only found your channel and subscribed this evening.
Your videos are so good I have watched 5 in a row.
Cheers mate
Thank You, always informative content.
Read about the Harpe’s when I was in grade school,but that story was a little smoothed over.Thank you for your work,history IS brutal.
I really appreciated your historical perspective in this video and its obvious connection to present day. Superb work!
Your "most caffeinated fish of all time" goldfish pic is my new spirit animal. I'm glad I'd just finished my cup of tea before that quip; cheers!
An eye opening presentation. Well presented.
It's funny that you'd say it was a time of "legends" like Daniel Boone because Boone and the Harpe Brothers were contemporaries who some records show may have even been present, on opposing sides, for a Revolutionary War skirmish
Do we know which skirmish?
@@SojournerBurns Battle of Blue Licks, very end of the war.
My husband's family are descended from the Boones. My mother's people are from Tidewater Virginia and didn't stir very far.
I missed these types of videos so much. I’m glad you got around to making one again
EXCELLENT! Thank You for Great videos! Awesome History. Also - Do not forget: The Battle of Alamance, which took place on May 16, 1771, was the final battle of the Regulator Movement, a rebellion in colonial North Carolina over issues of taxation and local control, considered by some to be the opening salvo of the American Revolution. Named for nearby Great Alamance Creek, the battle took place in what was then Orange County and has since become Alamance County in the central Piedmont area, about 6 miles (9.7 km) south of present-day Burlington, North Carolina. the "First Attempt for the Revolution". ~ Be Safe out there folks. Peace & Health to Us All.
This video is like really well made :0 how have I not discovered this channel before !
The ends of your videos feel like saying goodbye to family as you’re making your way to the door (in a good way). So many RUclipsrs do a really sudden ending after the content is over and it’s nice that you take your time with it a bit, it feels more personal.
It's been awhile since I've watched one of your videos and I'm glad I decided to today. Looks like in about to go into a Joe watching hole today. Keep up the great work!
Great take. I thought I knew history but you learn something new all the time.
What an entertaining history teacher! He is gifted!
I've never heard about these guys. Interesting. Thanks for the great video Joe!
Well done Joe. Loved the tie in to present day division and the reminder how messy history really tends to be unlike the neat time-line we often imagine it.
The Harps in our country originally came from Baltimore. One branch went North and the other South. They changed their name to Earp along the way. Wyatts family was part of the Northeren branch
Great presentation. Thank you
It's Beaver Creek in Tennessee near Knoxville....Where I lived growing up, Beaver Creek ran right behind my high school and even ran through my friends backyard! Didn't know about this history taking place right in my own neighborhood...thanks Joe!
I really like the focus on individual lives in a 'familiar' historical setting. I also really like the Tangent Cam. Good to see your skills still growing.
I lived in Southern Illinois for a while and went to Cave in Rock. Never knew the Harpe Brothers were there! Thanks for the info!
Wow...I've always wondered about travelers during that era.
Thank you for the video.
This is a phenomenal video. Love how you went about telling this piece of history. You’re quite the storyteller. Thoroughly enjoyed this one.
16:15 "arent we all decendants of the Harpe brothers?"
Every non-american watching this: No, no were not
My 5th great grandfather who was born 1752 in Green Bay Wi, travelled all the way to Montreal, and also reached St Louis. I find that truly impressive given the time period.
Very cool info. Thanks!
So this is (I suspect) where the inspiration for RDR2's Skinner Brothers came from, at least in part. Fascinating!
I think rockstar confirmed that
I was thinking about while watching the video that I wouldn't be surprised if this influenced the creation of one of the more bloodthirsty gangs in Red Dead 2.
I find the Harpe Brothers crazy but fascinating. I like hearing people's take on their story. I think some of it is probably made up by the brothers but they were definitely bad dudes.
As far as their wives go, I'm guessing some, if not all, of them went willingly in the beginning but were not so willing after a while. Sally Rice (one of the wives) was allegedly charmed by Wiley and married him when she was 20. It was her father who performed the ceremony.
Yeah, that's a definite possibility.
The thought also crossed my mind that at some point there may have been a little bit of Stockholm going on...?
Why "not so willing after a while"? Women are not pure good if you need to be told. As long as dudes provide for them many women are just fine to stick around. Many examples of history. Not least Eva Braun et al.
@@TV-xm4ps I don't think anyone is claiming or under the delusion that women are pure good. But it does seem likely that they didn't know what they were getting into, and most likely lived in fear. How could you do otherwise when you see them kill their own children? We don't know for sure, obviously, but it's certainly a good possibility.
@@TV-xm4ps no matter how charmed a woman might be at the beginning, very few will stick around willingly after seeing multiple children murdered by your vicious husband of a serial killer, lest you end up like them.
My family has been in that Logan county area since the 1700s. I grew up with lots of stories about these guys.
I too appreciate the 'content warning'... saved it for when my 'kid' got home from school... and we ENJOYED every minute of it TOGETHER. ('History deserves to be remembered!')
As many murder stories as I've heard, I've yet to hear this one. Great work, Joe!
more murder stories joe!
@@jgunther3398lmao
Joe, love your channel, and especially love content like this. Hope to see more, happy new year!
I grew up in Dixon and always heard about Harpes Head. Spooky story I never gave much thought about until finding your channel.
As far as the state and condition of the roads way back when, almost 4 years ago, I went with some family members overseas to Ireland (No. and Republic of). The vehicle we rented, we got the add-on Garmin navigator, *and good thing we did!* I particularly remember one road we needed to take - it was *maybe* what we'd consider a goat path, maybe not even THAT! Yet THIS was the state of legitimate *roads* over there! I was just glad I wasn't driving...
As a non-American this was insightful and entertaining fun and interesting. Thanks for another nice episode!
I love all the videos you make, but your forrays into mystery and history are so well done. Well researched, written and presented.
It's terrifying to think someone could just bash you over the head or shoot you with something out of nowhere, take your money, your kids, your wife. No forensics, no law. This was the case for so long. I remember the scene from O brother where art thou when John Goodman just starts clubbing everyone. I was like yeah... that seems accurate.
I appreciate you still did the video knowing it might be demonetized. Also appreciate the content warning. 💕
I want a 3hr movie of the Harpe Brothers. Historically accurate accents and setting, highly-researched. Nick Cave involved.
I could imagine Nick Cave writing a good song for a movie about this, maybe even a whole album that could be part of the movie.
Nah cause the family gonna sue
Sounds like you should write it.
Also, just across the O. River from Cave-in-Rock was the home of James Ford, AKA Satan’s Ferryman. Killed many a trusting party going west by raft or such other conveyance. Dumped bodies in a crevice in the limestone near his house. See “Satan’s Ferryman”, by W. D. Snidely and Louanna Furbee.
Oh. Oh. Snively not Snidely
I like how Joe waits it out to make sure the kids leave.
You are a great researcher and great story teller. Thank you for what you do. If they FORGET about history we are bound to repeat it. Neal Apollo Beach Florida
Yes, I read about them many years ago. Apparently the Natchez Trace was a particularly dangerous and gruesome route to and from Mississippi and Tennessee. There were quite a few nasty predators en route.
Can't get enough of your videos, Joe. You make learning new topics an adventure. Also, kinda cool that you live in my city as well. Keep the content coming; it's well received :)
The most amazing thing to me about this time is how much people managed to travel, basically on foot, and how many people they ran across while doing so in such a sparsely populated area...
I live very close to the murder location in Knoxville.
Story is it happened a mile south of Knoxville on Old Sevierville Pike. The Holston river is of course close. I have an log cabin AB&B close by and frequently tell this story. Especially around Halloween:)
Excellent video. The title of it threw me off a bit though. I was expecting to see general reasons and examples about why traveling was dangerous back then. Instead, the video focused on two serial killers.
Regardless, I watched it all and learned something. Good stuff. I never knew about them before.
Just found your channel. Love your story telling approach to history and the connections you make to today
Fascinating tale, especially about something new to me - many decades of being interested in history makes that sort of a rare thing these days, even though obviously there will be "regional lore" that I have never heard of. Spending most of my life in the Western most states, I can tell you all kinds of stories from California, Nevada, Arizona and Oregon... but much of the rest of the country remains "unexplored" by me other than the broad brush strokes taught in formal academic history.
I love learning more, and this is why my wife and I decided to just travel around the country during our retirement - there is enough to explore in the US to last several lifetimes. 😋
I have heard some horrific stories about these monsters. So bad that the worst killers in NA did not want anything to do with them, that for killers they were too much for psycho killers
I had never heard of Little Harpe until today when I was watching Gunsmoke and now I came upon your video. Quite a coincidence.
Fascinating! I'm pleased with how you touched on how divided people actually were in America over their revolution for independence. There are actually histories here in Canada about entire towns founded in places like New Brunswick made from loyalists fleeing from the American Revolution, hence the province's motto "Spem reduxit" ("Hope restored").
Does Sperm really mean Hope?
@@BadWebDiver Pretty sure I see "Spem" written down.
I have been aware of much of this story and it is an interesting twist in history. I was actually hoping to hear of various ways in which traveling any colonial road was treacherous and the difficulties of traveling both long and short distances. At this time in our history for example my family packed up an ox cart and walked 350 miles from western Mass to northern Me. I wonder what their journey was like. Other brothers of the same generation walked to central Vermont, and NY. Asa's daughter became the 1st wife of Brigham Young. On the other side of the family the Crawfords had a son who was killed by the natives whilst walking home from the harbor in Amesbury, Mass. What joys and tribulations were experienced by those in the early years of our nation before the westward migration which has been written about in depth? Anyone looking for a thesis topic?
You should read Blood Meridian
I love this ! Thank you for not sugarcoating the truth. We need to remember everything we can. Thank you!!!!!
I’m reading “The Frontiersman” by Allen W. Eckert and it’s an awesome historical fiction set in late 1700’s Ohio/Kentucky. It’s seriously fantastic, everything the author depicts was researched through journals of frontiersman as well as Native Americans, so it’s all inspired by true events!
An author named Alan W. Eckert (sp?) wrote a supposedly true multi-volume history of the relationships between the American Indians and the Europeans beginning in the 17th century and ending several volumes later in the 20th century. You might want to consider trolling through there for some more stories like this one, which I found to be quite interesting. Been following you for a while now and you're consistently delivering good content. Well done!
Close it's Allan W Eckert. His stuff is historical happenings of how this country was born and changed. The Indians and frontiersman being large parts of his stories.
Alan Eckert never mentioned the Harpe Brothers dummy 😢😢😢
Read Eckerts books during my high school days. Most library's had a set of his work. Enjoyed his writings immensely.
For a second I thought you'd just used a picture of Kyle Hill for the thumbnail and I was like...yeah, that tracks.
I love this channel so much my inner nerd really comes out
Lol, love the intro. I actually did let the kiddos watch your linked video while I enjoyed this one, but we all got a kick out of your warning.