Today I thought I'd (mostly) take a break from the American Revolution. So we'll be spanning several different eras and events with one of my favorite topics: Historical People You've Probably Never Heard About (For One Reason Or Another). Today we'll be going over seven; not an exhaustive list by any means, but a good starting place. As a coincidental bonus, none of the people on this list are white men.
And so, without further ado, here we go! (With Part One. This got longer than I expected it to, so this is just Part One. Part Two will contain the rest of the list and some additional sources you can look into.)
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1. James Armistead Lafayette (1760 - 1830)
We all know the stories. America never would have won the Revolutionary War without two things: French involvement and the superior strategy of America's leaders. These two things culminated at the 1781 Battle of Yorktown, where American and French forces combined to pen the British in on all sides at Chesapeake Bay. But what most people don't know is that this victory was facilitated, in part, by a black spy named James Armistead.
James Armistead was a slave when, in 1781, he volunteered to join the American army. He ended up serving as a spy under the Marquis de Lafayette. Since the British army had successfully one-upped the Americans by offering freedom to any slave who joined their army, it was easy for James to pose as a runaway slave and "join" the British army under Benedict Arnold--yes, that Benedict Arnold. And apparently, James was such a good spy that Benedict Arnold, a longtime spy himself, trusted him completely.
In the spring of 1781, Arnold went north and James Armistead repeated his ruse, this time with Cornwallis. Cornwallis also fell for it hook, line, and sinker, and James was free to travel back and forth between the British and American camps, carrying information to the Americans and feeding misinformation to the British. Much of the information he carried to other American spies was instrumental to the American success at Yorktown.
After the war, though there were some legal provisions for freeing slaves who had served in the army, James was denied this because ~technically~ he'd only served as a spy, not a soldier. (Yeah, I have no idea how they told him that with a straight face, either.) Fortunately, James was able to petition the Virginia Assembly for freedom in 1786. With the help of a testimonial Lafayette wrote for him in 1784, he was manumitted. At that point, he changed his name to James Armistead Lafayette in honor of his commanding officer.
(In 1824, while Lafayette was touring America, he and James ran into each other again and had a joyful reunion. At this time, Lafayette wrote another testimonial on his behalf.)
In conclusion, most people know about the decisive American victory at Yorktown, but most people don't know that if not for James Armistead Lafayette, we might never have won that battle.
2. Queen Liliuokalani (1838 - 1917)
Also known as Lydia Kamakaeha, Lydia Liliuokalani Paki, or Liliu Kamakaeha, Queen Liliuokalani was the last monarch of Hawaii before it was annexed by the United States. She was raised in a high-ranking family, receiving a modern education and spending time touring other countries in the Western world. In 1862, she was married to John Owen Dominis, an official in the Hawaiian government. In 1874, her brother, David Kalakaua, was chosen as king. After her second brother, the heir apparent, died in 1877, Liliuokalani was named heir presumptive. After Kalakaua died in 1891, Liliuokalani became the first female ruler of Hawaii.
Liliuokalani regretted the loss of power the crown had experienced under her brother, and did her best to recover some of that power. This move alienated the foreign businessmen who had set up shop in Hawaii, and they promptly tried to annul the queen's power. Eventually, the Missionary Party, led by Sanford Dole, basically led a takeover of Hawaii by requesting Liliuokalani's abdication and then setting up their own government, after declaring her deposed. Liliuokalani went along with it to avoid bloodshed, but submitted a request to President Cleveland to reinstate her. Cleveland granted her request and withdrew support for Dole, but Dole--determined to get his own way--rejected Cleveland's authority on the matter and set up a government independent of the U.S., the Republic of Hawaii. An 1895 insurrection against this government, in the queen's name, caused Liliuokalani to be placed under house arrest.
Liliuokalani fought bitterly against U.S. annexation, but it happened anyway in 1898. The former queen then wrote and published a book: Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen. She also composed "Aloha Oe".
In conclusion, Liliuokalani was both the only female monarch of Hawaii and its last ruler. She fought for her country in her own way and though she was eventually defeated by the U.S., she never stopped loving her country. It's a shame that she is remembered by so few people.
3. Lise Meitner (1878 - 1968)
Lise Meitner was a Jewish, Austrian scientist who was instrumental in the discovery of nuclear fission and how particles behave under bombardment. Her story was--is--exceptional almost from the beginning. To begin with, women in Vienna were not allowed to attend public institutions of higher education; but Lise's parents were supportive and she still managed to get an education in physics. Secondly, Lise was allowed to attend the lectures of physicist Max Planck, even though Planck had until that point turned away women asking to attend his lectures. Lise then went on to become Planck's assistant; it was in this position that she met and worked with Otto Hahn, a chemist. This was the beginning of Lise's career in science.
Lise went on to work with Planck and Hahn. She achieved much; during World War I she worked as a nurse, pioneering x-ray use along with people like Marie Curie and her daughter Irene. After the war she became the first woman in Germany to assume the post of full professor. She also participated in countless experiments with radioactivity and new elements. When Hitler came to power she, and other Jewish scientists, were forced to leave the country; she eventually ended up moving to Sweden.
Lise went on to participate in Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann's discovery of nuclear fission. However, when Hahn won a Nobel prize for the discovery, both Lise and her nephew Otto Frisch were excluded from the award. Though she won other awards, Lise's contributions to physics and chemistry have largely gone unsung. However, in 1997, the element meitnerium was named in her honor.
4. Lyudmila Pavlichenko (1916 - 1974)
Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a Soviet Russian sniper during World War II. Her journey began at fourteen, when she moved with her family to Kyiv and joined a shooting club and began developing her skills as an amateur sharpshooter.
Lyudmila was twenty-four when, in 1941, Germany began its invasion of the Soviet Union. She was among the first volunteers to join the army; when given the opportunity to become a nurse she declined, instead becoming one of about two thousand female snipers in the Russian army. She was one of roughly five hundred of those snipers who survived the war.
Lyudmila was credited with three hundred and nine kills during World War II, thirty-six of which were enemy snipers. in 1942 she was wounded and withdrawn from active combat. She went on to tour the U.S., Canada and the U.K. to speak on the war effort; she also trained other snipers until the war's end. After the war, she became a historian and a research assistant to the Chief HQ of the Soviet Navy. She died in 1974, having accomplished more in fifty-eight years than many do in a hundred.
