I grew up thinking that Wyatt Earp walked on water, mainly based on Lake’s biography of him and the TV show.
Then I started reading some new research, such as Tefertiller’s book. Turns out old Wyatt wasn’t as saintly as Lake made him out to be.
Freddy the Pig, thanks for the information.
If we limit ourselves to 1800-1900, I’d vote for Abraham Lincoln, second only to George Washington (who died on December 14, 1799, so he’s off the list by a mere matter of weeks) as a great and visionary President; Thomas Edison, a great inventor with an amazing intellect; John Ericsson, the brilliant Swedish-American engineer and inventor who designed the innovative ironclad USS Monitor; and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a brave soldier, skilled educator and courageous statesman.
I’d also add a personal hero, now unfortunately obscure: William B. Cushing, a crazy-brave and lucky naval officer: William B. Cushing - Wikipedia
Oh, and another vote against Robert E. Lee. As Ken Burns noted (and for which comment he was expelled from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, IIRC), Lee was directly responsible for the deaths of more loyal Americans than Hitler and Tojo combined. After the war he said all the right things about accepting the verdict of the battlefield and bringing the country back together again, for which I respect him, but his tragically wrong-headed decision in 1861 to throw in his lot with the Confederacy forever bars him from any list of “great Americans,” IMHO.
Since you asked, it is IMO not heroic to murder people and to use violence as a means for change. And being caught, tried, and executed for such violence does not make one a martyr. It’s also not heroic to be crazy as a shit-house rat.
There’s enduring controversy over John Brown and the value of his actions. Certainly some people consider him a hero but I do not.
Well, this is the real question. I’d always read that Brown was a crazy guy, and one demonstration was his murdering of several folks in Kansas.
but recently, scholarship has been more even-handed on Brown, pointing out that he was replying in kind in a bloody geuerilla war in Kansas, and pointing out that he wasn’t the patriarchally=bearded wild-eyed loony he is often depicted as (he grew the beard late in life, and doesn’t look wild-eyed at all in his pictures). Historiam Loewen goes as far to the other side as to say that, if you think Brown was a loon, it shows your ignorance of history and your prejudices (which I think a needlessly provactaive and indefensible position, myself. There’s still roomk to question Brown and his
Benjamin Franklin has to be at the top of the list for the 1700s. The man was literally revered worldwide for his philosophy and his inventions and received the equivalent of tickertape parades wherever he went. He conceived the idea of the American nation and singlehandedly secured the help of the French, without which Americans would probably still be speaking the king’s English. Major thinkers of the time held him in awe, and royalty begged for audiences with him.
Well, I admit I’m not up on the latest John Brown scholarship; he’s never interested me much. It would have to be some damn fine revisionism to make me consider him a hero, though. But I never said no one else could consider him a hero, I just said he’s not a hero to me, which just goes to show how subjective a call “heroism” is.
If we can go to the Revolution, I’d mention Peter Francisco, the Yankee Hercules.
Also that single person who left his stamp most clearly on what America is today: P.T. Barnum.