In 1914, Spanish historian Julián Juderías coined the term “Black Legend” in his book La Leyenda Negra to describe the unfavorable image of Spain and Spaniards as cruel and intolerant that was promulgated by many non-Spanish and especially Protestant historians during the 16th century. Juderías defined this phenomenon and its repercussions thusly:

“[The “Black Legend”] is the environment created by the fantastic stories about our homeland that have seen the light of publicity in all countries, the grotesque descriptions that have always been made of the character of Spaniards as individuals and collectively, the denial or at least the systematic ignorance of all that is favorable and beautiful in the various manifestations of culture and art, the accusations that in every era have been flung against Spain.”

Ironically, the origins of the “Black Legend” drew upon criticisms first voiced by the Spanish themselves. Bartolomé de Las Casas, the former Bishop of Chiapas, sowed the first seeds of the “Black Legend” when in 1552 he published a scathing and enduring indictment of Spanish behavior toward Indian populations in the New World. As admirable as his concern for the beleaguered Indian population was, his proposed solution was significantly worse than the problem he was trying to solve: use slaves from Africa instead!

Casas reasoned that, given the drastic decline of the Indian population and the reluctance of Europeans to perform heavy agricultural labor, that African slaves would be the ideal alternative labor force. Thus, the Spanish could have their cake and eat it too: African slaves would maintain Spanish prosperity, free of charge, thus giving the depleted Indian populations the chance to replenish their strength and numbers. Suffice it to say, his astonishingly tin-eared suggestion helped to kick-start the horrors of the slave trade. To his credit, Las Casas came to regret his role in encouraging the slave trade. Although he rejected the idea that slavery itself was a crime or sin, he did begin to see African slavery as practiced as a source of great evil. Unfortunately, Las Casas’ apology was not published for more than 300 years.

During the sixteenth century, when the House of Habsburg presided over an empire that included Spain, Austria, Italy, Holland, and much of the New World, Spain’s enemies created an enduring set of ideas known as the “Black Legend,” which drew heavily from Las Casas seminal work. What gave the “Black Legend” its strength and resiliency was not Las Casas himself, but the printing press. By the third quarter of the 16th century, Las Casas’ writings had been translated into French, Dutch, and English. Propagandists from England, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands jumped on this opportunity to churn out works which portrayed the Spanish as a corrupt and cruel people who subjugated and exploited the New World Indians, stole their gold and silver, infected them with disease, and killed them in numbers without precedent.

In 1580, William I, Prince of Orange (1533-1584), who led Dutch Protestants in rebellion against Spanish rule, declared that Spain “committed such horrible excesses that all the barbarities, cruelties and tyrannies ever perpetrated before are only games in comparison to what happened to the poor Indians.” Thus, the “Black Legend” provided a powerful ideological justification for English involvement in the New World. By seizing treasure from Spanish ships, staging raids on Spanish ports and cities in the Americas, and enlisting runaway slaves known as Cimarons to prey on the Spanish, Protestant England would strike a blow against Spain’s aggressive Catholicism and rescue the Indians from Spanish slavery. But it is a pointed historical irony that the very English seamen, like Drake and Hawkins, who promised to rescue the Indians from Spanish bondage, also bought and enslaved Africans along the West African coast and transported them to Spanish America, where they sold them to Spanish colonists.

To be clear, the “Black Legend” was not an inaccurate portrayal of Spanish rule in the New World. Rather, it was used as a self-serving cudgel but those who really just wanted to benefit from the spoils of exploiting native populations the exact same way that Spain had. Thus, the “Black Legend” is more notable for the blatant hypocrisy of its proponents than it is for unfairly slandering Spain.

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Before the Anatomy Act of 1832 was passed in the United Kingdom, the only legal supplies of cadavers available for dissection were of prisoners who were sentenced to death by the Courts. While hundreds of prison inmates had been executed for trivial crimes during the bloodthirsty 18th century, by the 19th century only about 55 people were being sentenced to capital punishment each year, medical students be damned. However, with the expansion of the medical schools, as many as 500 cadavers were needed a year for dissection. To make matters more difficult, there was no electric power to supply refrigeration at that time, so bodies would decay rapidly and become unusable for study. Therefore, the medical profession turned to the grisly art of body snatching to supply the deficit of bodies fresh enough to be examined.

So arose the sinister trade of the Body Snatcher and so good were they at their gory trade they also earned the nickname of the ‘resurrectionists’. So widespread was Body Snatching in Edinburgh that certain graveyards erected large walls, railings and watchtowers, such as St. Cuthberts at the foot of Lothian road and that of the Canongate Kirk. Some graves had added protection against the exhumation of their occupants by having their own walls and railings.

William Burke and William Hare (often colloquially referred to as Burke and Hare), are probably the world’s most famous (infamous) grave robbers… even though some historians dispute whether they actually ever robbed a grave at all. The Irish duo had initially travelled to Scotland to work as laborers on the building of the Union Canal. However, the two ambitious chaps grew weary of spending their evenings digging up corpses, and many of the bodies they exhumed were already in poor condition and weren’t worth much money. However, a fresh, well preserved corpse could fetch as much as ten pounds, a LOT of money in those days. This led Burke and Hare to settle on an obvious, albeit grisly tactic: murder!

One of Burke and Hare’s main clients was Edinburgh University professor Dr Robert Knox. His anatomy classes were more akin to entertainment than science and could attract as many as 500 “students”. He needed a steady supply of corpses. From 1827 Burke and Hare went on a killing spree around Edinburgh. No-one knows exactly how many of their victims ended up on Dr Knox’s table however it could be as many as thirty. Luck finally ran out for Burke and Hare with their killing of Irish immigrant Mary Docherty. Questions were asked and Mary’s body discovered in Doctor Knox’s possession. Links were made back to Burke and Hare who were both arrested. Hare agreed to testify against his buddy Burke in exchange for his own freedom. In the face of the overwhelming evidence against him, Burke confessed to some sixteen murders but always denied having ever robbed a grave.

Burke was found guilty and hanged in January 1829. Hare was released and reportedly died a pauper in London. Knox never faced trial. With wonderful irony, Burke’s body was given to the Edinburgh medical school for research purposes.

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The Easter Bunny is a fictional character depicted as a rabbit bringing baskets filled with colored eggs, candy and sometimes also toys to the homes of children on the night before Easter. Depending on his fancy, the Easter Bunny will either put the baskets in a designated place or hide them somewhere in the house or garden for the children to find when they wake up in the morning. The character of the Easter bunny has its origin in pre-Christian fertility lore. The Hare and the Rabbit were the most fertile animals known and they served as symbols of the new life during the spring season.

The bunny as an Easter symbol seems to have its origins in Germany, where it was first mentioned in German writings in the 1500s. The first edible Easter bunnies were made in Germany during the early 1800s. These were made of pastry and sugar. The Easter bunny was introduced to American folklore by the German settlers who arrived in the Pennsylvania Dutch country during the 1700s. The arrival of the “Oschter Haws” was considered “childhood’s greatest pleasure” next to a visit from Christ-Kindel on Christmas Eve. The children believed that if they were good the “Oschter Haws” would lay a nest of colored eggs. The children would build their nest in a secluded place in the home, the barn or the garden. The use of elaborate Easter baskets would come later as the tradition of the Easter bunny spread throughout the country.

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The Barbary Pirates were an alliance of Muslim pirates and privateers who operated along the coast of North Africa (known as the Barbary Coast) from the time of the Crusades (11th century) until the early 19th century. Based in Berber North African ports such as Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers, Salé, and other ports in Morocco, they sailed mainly along the stretch of northern Africa; however, at the height of their skullduggery in the 16th and 17th centuries, their predation extended throughout the Mediterranean, south along West Africa’s Atlantic seaboard, and into the North Atlantic as far north as Iceland. In addition, they engaged in Razzias, raids on European coastal towns, to capture Christian slaves to sell at slave markets in places such as Algeria and Morocco.

Flummoxed by this well-organized scourge the plagued the High Seas, Europe did not muster the courage to fight back against the Barbary Pirates for some times. However, the pirates sustained a serious blow to their “empire” following the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna in 1815, when European powers agreed upon the need to unite to bring down the Barbary pirates. Moreover, the involvement of the United States Navy in the First and Second Barbary Wars to protect US interests (1801–5, 1815) all but assured the end of their watery reign.

Still, even the United States had to compromise with these powerful pirates in order secure their ships by signing several treaties with the Barbary States between 1786 and 1836. In fact, it was not until the second war with Algiers, in 1815, that naval victories by Commodores William Bainbridge and Stephen Decatur led to treaties ending all tribute payments by the United States, and European nations continued annual payments until the 1830s.

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April Fools’ Day or All Fools’ Day is a day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, enemies, and neighbors, or sending them on a fool’s errand, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. The exact origins of the holiday are not clear but it is known that the tradition of practical joking and mischief-making dates back to ancient Roman times. Moreover, it would appear that the festival is closely related to the coming of spring. Ancient Romans and Celts celebrated a festival of practical joking at about the time of the Vernal Equinox, as do millions of India’s Hindus. The French also mark 1 April but instead of April Fools they call it Poisson d’Avril (April Fish).

Traditionally, in some countries, such as the UK, Australia, Canada and South Africa the jokes only last until noon, and someone who plays a trick after noon is called an “April Fool”. Elsewhere, such as in France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Russia, The Netherlands, Brazil, and the U.S., the jokes last all day. The earliest recorded association between April 1 and foolishness can be found in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1392). Many writers suggest that the restoration of January 1 as New Year’s Day the 16th century was responsible for the creation of the holiday, but this theory does not explain earlier references.

On April Fools’ Day in 1957, the distinguished broadcasting network BBC played one of the most infamous hoaxes on the unsuspecting British public about “spaghetti crops” in Switzerland. The “mockumentary”, narrated by distinguished broadcaster Richard Dimbleby, featured a family from Ticino in Switzerland carrying out their annual spaghetti harvest. It showed women carefully plucking strands of spaghetti from a tree and laying them in the sun to dry. Mr. Dimbleby explained how each year the end of March is a very anxious time for Spaghetti harvesters all over Europe as severe frost can impair the flavor of the spaghetti. He also explained how each strand of spaghetti always grows to the same length thanks to years of hard work by generations of growers.

Some viewers (probably the ones who were taken in by the joke) failed to see the funny side of the broadcast and criticized the BBC for airing the item on what is supposed to be a serious factual program. Others, however, were so intrigued they wanted to find out where they could purchase their very own spaghetti bush. In 1957, spaghetti was not yet a widely-eaten food in Britain and was considered by many to be an exotic delicacy. The “Spaghetti Hoax” is believed to be one of the first times that television was used to stage an April Fools’ Day hoax.

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During the hellish Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937 – September 9, 1945), an estimated 7,643 people died of the bubonic plague in the outbreaks that exploded after the Imperial Japanese Amy Air Service deliberately bombed parts of Hunan and Zhejiang provinces with fleas infected with the bubonic plague. The fleas were specially raised by the imperial army’s Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Unit, better known as the notorious Unit 731. Japanese doctors infected yellow rats with the plague and dropped them into flea-filled oil drums. Workers then loaded the weaponized fleas into ceramic shells designed to burst open over the population of these provinces. Japanese generals hoped that a nation-wide plague epidemic would collapse China’s grain harvest and its army would be starved into surrendering.

The Bubonic plague, caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Yersinia pestis, is a flea-borne infection that enters the skin and ravages the lymphatic system, killing about two out of three of infected patients in 2-6 days without treatment. Scientists believe that this nasty bacterium was probably the cause of the Black Death, which killed more than a third of the European population (more than 25 million people) in the 1300s.

The horrors of Unit 731 came into sharp focus on Aug. 27, 2002, when Tokyo judge Koji Iwata issued a landmark decision on a class-action lawsuit brought by 180 Chinese victims of the 1940-41 plague, who sought damages for the biological horrors inflicted by Unit 731. Despite the flood of testimony from alleged victims and even some of its perpetrators, the Japanese government has long denied the allegations leveled at the much-loathed Unit. However, Hon. Iwata found that “The deployment of biological weapons was a strategic part of Japan’s war plans and was carried out under orders from the central army,” and that Unit 731 was responsible for planning and carrying out these atrocities. However, he stopped short of granting the aggrieved parties any compensation, ruling that there is no international law that enables individuals to sue for war damages.

Thanks but no thanks, Judge Iwata.

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In the fateful year of 79 AD, the ‘lost’ city of Pompeii (Italy) was a thriving metropolis of approximately 20,000 inhabitants, located near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania. A cosmopolitan and bustling city at the height of the Roman Empire, Pompeii was a popular vacation destination for wealthy Romans on holiday. Sadly, the city became petrified proof that geography is destiny, after the glittering city was completely destroyed and buried in lava after a catastrophic two day eruption of the nearby volcano Mount Vesuvius. The raging Vesuvius left the once-great city submerged under a whopping 66 ft. of ash and pumice, where it remained ‘lost’ for an astonishing 1,600 years before its accidental rediscovery is 1592. Since then, its excavation has provided an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city at the height of the Roman Empire.

While excavating an entire neighborhood block in Pompeii in 2007, a group of British archaeologists noticed an unusual dearth of tableware and formal dining or kitchen areas within the residents’ homes. Instead they found only a few isolated plates, many of which were located on the floor of sleeping quarters. These findings indicate that the decadent image of wining and dining that we associate with ancient Romans mostly just applied to the elite (shocking!).

The archaeologists did find some clues about the culinary lives of “ordinary” denizens of the city, including multiple small barbecue type fire boxes that indicate that they enjoyed firing up the grill (just like any self-respecting, red-blooded and salt-of-the-earth American does). Moreover, a number of what appear to be fondue-style pots were also unearthed, providing more evidence that the 1970’s were not a particularly culturally original decade (except for film of course). In addition, they discovered what appeared to be numerous fast food style restaurants in the lost city, described by one of the archeologists as “a cross between Burger King and a British pub or tapas bar.” Thus, it appears that ‘grabbing food on the go,’ better suited the hectic lifestyles of the typical Pompeian.

It is hard to ignore the striking similarities between the culinary proclivities of ancient Pompeii and contemporary America. Thus, I couldn’t shake the inevitable nagging question: “Were the ancient Pompeians overweight too?” After all, they gorged on fast food, ate in bed and loved barbecue and fondue too boot. I am surprised that Girl Scout cookie boycotter Meme Roth, the proudly anorexic and unabashedly psychotic founder of the National Action Against Obesity (NAAO) organization, hasn’t yet capitalized on these findings in her ceaseless crusade to rid the world of all palatable food (disguised of course, behind a mere loathing of fat people). I mean, maybe more of the ill-fated residents of Pompeii could have outrun the lava, if they had only stuck to a low-calorie diet of whole grains and salad…..

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