Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these, amazing tales are right there on display just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the cabinet of curiosities, our time on. This earth is often short disease and unforeseen circumstances can make it even shorter. Compared to the red sea urchin, which is known to live for as long as two hundred years, our lives can be seen as a blip, a gust of wind coming in and blowing out in an instant, it's rare for person to live pass. Ninety years of age, even rarer for ninety five and one hundred is reserved for only the most special people less than one percent

and of the american population lives to be one hundred, and that percentage goes down from their as their ages go up, but one man beat the odds. If someone had written a novel about him, readers would have called it science fiction he was a man out of time with first hand, knowledge of experiences that the rest could only read about in books, and his name was sylvester story is one of a kind. Born on a north carolina plantation in eighteen, forty one sylvester is younger years were tough. He was a slave, as were his parents and he worked alongside them until he turned nineteen. That's when his sold him to another plantation in mississippi when the civil war started. He assist The owner in securing guns for the confederate army, which automatically made the young slave a confederate soldier,

yeah sylvester, had unknowingly been enlisted the side trying to keep him a slave. It's not like he had a choice. eventually got the upper hand a few years later, when he escaped north and join the union army once from his own life. Sylvester soon found himself alongside almost scores of other soldiers as part of general grants, vicksburg campaign and the battle of champion hill. He had no fighting experience and he'd never been in a war before, but he held onto a space which helped him Some of the more frightened soldiers around him sylvester was freed after the war and went back to mississippi where he found work on a farm, eventually settling down to work at a local sawmill, and that's where historic ended well ended is the wrong. Word. Pause

is more like. It is. Many years later the people of collins mississippi held the birthday party for him. The five layer cake was brought in adorned with a lot of candles. That's because this party was held in nineteen sixty five Yes, the civil war veterans had lived the unheard age of one hundred, twenty four and naturally historic the historian name, Alfred Andrews, who helped get sylvester classified officially as a veteran of the civil war. Despite there being no record of his ever having served but sylvester didn't need, a piece of pay you're, saying he'd been a soldier. He told Andrews stories about the war about specific battles. No one else would have known. You spoke in exceptional detail about his experiences establishing himself as the old. And last surviving former american slave when you think about, life as long as Sylvester maggie's. You realize he didn't just survive one more. He also lived through two world wars: the korean war, envy

none at all. Finally, passing away in nineteen seventy one and what makes his or even more powerful is what elsie witnessed. He began his life in servitude only to see the end of the civil war and the end of slavery in the united states, one hundred years later He saw the signing of the civil rights act of nineteen sixty four, a law that prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. You watch the first black woman when an academy award. He saw schools, desegregate and sadly you live to see the assassination of doktor martin luther king. Despite the bad news he witnessed, though there was a lot of good too, and one thing is certain sylvester maggie. He lived a full life, perhaps more than any other american citizen. Time is a funny thing. After all,.

We managed to stick around long enough. There's no telling the kinds of stories will be able to tell Sylvester Magee knew that better than any one else, The Benjamin franklin is best known as one of america's founding fathers partly responsible for our independence from great britain, a politician inventor author and polly. Math franklin was a man with an insatiable curiosity. However, behind his striking wits and boundless intellect beat the heart of someone with more than a few secrets. Remember franklin's work took him all over the world.

Contains sixty four. He travelled to london to advocate, on behalf of the american colonists, against new taxes being imposed on them. For ten years he tried to make the case for lower taxes on his people back home, but found himself blocked at every turn However, while living in england during this period of time, franklin needed to occupy his days with other pursuits, he was used to expire in his mind, with scientific and artistic endeavours back in philadelphia. So he continued to invent and right But it was inside his london home that evidence of some of his more questionable work would be discovered over two hundred years later. in ninety. Ninety eight, a group calling themselves the friends of Benjamin franklin house, had started turning franklin's former london abode into a museum all about him, a worthy pursuit and a noble cause for sure a few weeks into the process, though one of the construction workers who had been renovating the basement came across a pit in the floor, big enough to hold a person.

It was in the middle of a room devoid of windows and position far from the street, a room that was, for all intents and purposes hidden and sound proof and down in the pit. Sticking straight out, like a weed, was a human bone. The worker called the police, who allowed a team to continue their work bit by bit. A team of workers carefully uncovered over one thousand bone, fragments in franklin's basement some which had been carved into while others had been side straight through, and there was evidence someone had drilled into several of the sculls they found the shards belong to ten victims, six of whom were children, all of which were over two hundred years old. Perhaps the charming diplomat who invented bifocals and the glass or monica, also pursued a career

As a serial killer, the police, upon learning of the age of the bones, chose not to pursue an investigation. After all, how do you prosecute a founding father, but historians were curious? They documented all the fragments and began running tests. It was clear something heinous had gone down in franklin's, home, well heinous by today's standards. No Benjamin franklin was not a serial killer. You didn't cut up. people in his basement. He let his friend William Houston, do that you said was a medical student with a passion for studying the internal workings of the human body, however, since he and his former teacher parted way, usin was left without a laboratory to continue his work. Luckily, his friend Benjamin franklin, live near by with a basement large enough for him to dissect his bodies in peace specimens were to come by so Houston resorted to grave robbing eats. Now The bodies in under cover of night perform his work and then

harry what remained so, he wouldn't get caught, trying to get rid of the evidence in ever build anyone on his own, but that didn't mean his methods were ethical. It's not clear whether franklin participated. Or even knew about the experiments going on in his basement when he Turned to america, he continued to let houston use the house for his work. If only his friend had been more careful in the spring of seventeen. Seventy four, while dissecting a cadaver, Dr Hewson, cut himself and contracted an infection which eventually turned into sepsis. He died a short while later, but don't worry, his bones were not among the others. in franklin's house doktor, William Houston was given a proper burial insane

and in the fields churchyard in london and franklin. Well, he really didn't have any skeletons in his closet after all, but he did keep quite a few in his basement. I hope you ve enjoyed today's guided tour of the cabinet of curiosity subscribe for free on apple podcast or learn more about the show by visiting curiosities, podcast dont come the show was create. By me, Erin monkey. In partnership with how stuff works I make another award winning show called lore witches upon cast book series and television, Joe, and you can learn all about it over at the world of lore, dont come and until next time stay curious.