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hey Prime members you can listen to morbid early and add free on Amazon music download the app today
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hey weirdos I'm Elena I'm Ash and this is morbid [Music] [Music] thank you foreign
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[Music] I am back no this is just I'm sorry about my voice um it's Saucy and spicy again
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um yeah it's it's a lot but I'm just still we're we're in that fun time of year where me and the kids are just
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throwing back and forth illnesses it's a lot of fun it's really gross up in here
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yeah it's one of the I saw a tick tock the other day where parents were like this household has gone how many days
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without illness and I saw it it said two days and they were erasing the two to say zero and I was like that is the
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realest thing I've ever seen yeah because people without kids are like people who haven't been around kids will
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be like whining only sick and they don't believe you yeah they don't believe you
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and they want to just be like you're gross and it's like no like this is reality is you just live in a Petri dish
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for some parts of the year yeah and this is that part of the year for most parts
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of the year really yeah this especially is the like Primo yeah flu season is when it gets it really gives it its all
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that's why nobody really likes well like I don't know I'm generalizing but nobody
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really likes this part of winter like January February March it's tough it's rough yeah I used to like it I don't
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like it so much now though you used to yeah now that I'm like you know passing around germs with a fam but yeah we're
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gonna see how far we can get into this before I have to cough again yay um which is right now
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right now right now yep had to pause really quick uh you got that tail end of a cough
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probably but you know we're gonna start right in because I don't know how far I can get and how long this will take to
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get there so we're gonna talk today about something a little different there's mystery here there's a
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disappearance here there's some spooky Tails here but it is The Disappearance of Theodosia Burr Alston ooh now in case
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you don't know Theodosia Burr is in fact the daughter of Aaron Burr imagine that
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of Hamilton Fame uh this is gonna be really hard for me not to sing Hamilton songs but I think I will be aided by the
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fact that if I sing I Will cough so thank you Lord I was just gonna say so this is really just everybody someone up
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there is looking over us guys they are so maybe I'll just speak some of the lines every once in a while spoken word
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but this is a very interesting one because it is still unsolved we don't know what happened to Theodosia Burr oh
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which is very interesting it's like um oh what was the one you did where it was like that and you went through all like
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the ship manifestos and all that oh yeah Shenanigans um the ship manifests yeah yeah it's um
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Dorothy Arnold oh yeah yeah that was fun that was that was a lot of fun and sad but we'll just have like similar Vibes a
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little bit that that one was a little easier because there was actual like easier records to find but this is
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like we're talking about you know the the birth of the nation time here so this is like a little harder we're gonna
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get into more theories but with a little bit there is some stuff to back up some of the theories
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okay so let's start at the beginning on or not even at the beginning let's start
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at the the the act itself okay this happened on December 31st 1812. damn Theodosia Burr Alston who like I said is
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the daughter of former vice president and relatively notorious Founding Father Aaron Burr boarded a schooner ship aptly
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named Patriot ah um she was on her way to New York from um South Carolina uh she was going to
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meet her father Aaron they had planned a meeting and that's why she was going to
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New York because as we'll talk about Aaron had just come back from being um a little bit of a runaway in Europe a
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little bit for some reason some little reason so he was back so she wanted to visit him but once the ship had left
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port in South Carolina that was the last time anyone would see Theodosia Burr or
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the Patriot again ship was gone yeah so Theodosia in case like I said in case you don't know who this is
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um she was born into American aristocracy when this all began she lived a life young women could only
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dream of she was an aristocat she was an aristocat she was the daughter of one of
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our founding fathers America's founding fathers and she was literally there for the birth of our nation which is pretty
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wild what do you think about it pretty much and what's even worse is that like so she's there for The Birth of a Nation
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her father is like participating in all this and then she's there for the unprecedented scandal that followed her
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father's trial for treason so but either way we're gonna see that there's like I as I was reading this I was like no
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one's ever just good huh and I'm not talking about Theodosia I'm talking about Aaron Burr
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like obviously we know if you know who Aaron Burr is you probably know the one thing about him which is he shot and
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killed Alexander Hamilton yeah that's probably what you know about him and he was tried for treason but when you learn
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about how he was as a father and how he was as a husband you're like for a minute you're like wow like you're just
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such a good guy which like maybe he was but like then you get these Little Snips
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that you're like God damn it no one's ever nice like you're like [ __ ] you it's
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really wild it's just like damn it America but either way she was here for all of that but as an adult she married
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Joseph Alston so she didn't fall stray far away from politics because she had a childhood of political importance or at
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least very you know right next to political importance now she was the wife of a rising political star which at
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this time would have given her at the very least a pretty subtle role in post-colonial politics right up until
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her disappearance um because that was only a few months into the War of 1812 she disappeared so
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for two full centuries we have no idea what has happened to Theodosia Burr like we are all still scratching our head for
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answers to this day we don't know what happened all we can think of was she cat was she kidnapped by Pirates that's a
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very real that's a very real possibility and they just like destroyed the ship yeah like
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or they took the ship and we just didn't see it again they they took off the Patriot name and then we don't know that
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it's there you know was the ship lost at sea Without a Trace was there some kind
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of weather event we're going to talk about that what happened so let's go back to the beginning
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Theodosia Burr was born to Aaron Burr and Theodosia prevober in Albany New York on June 21st 1783.
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she was actually born just six months before the end of the American Revolution holy [ __ ] quite a birth
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um her father like we said was already pretty well known he had a lot of power a lot of influence
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um and he had actually entered the war as a volunteer Soldier but he had quickly risen to the rank of Lieutenant
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Colonel by the time that he was then forced to resign from the Continental Continental Army in 1776 but outside of
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all the military stuff Aaron was known to be super hard-working really influential uh he he went after what he
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wanted especially he had a successful law practice Yeah he maintained a really big social network that really had some
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of the most powerful people in New England in it so he was living he was living one might say slithering there
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you go one being who Paris Hilton is that of course you got to get a new mom yeah she like trademarked that right we
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gotta like all anytime you say you have to be like TM para Sultan yes of course so I think she did anyway maybe she
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might as well if so theodosia's parents had a somewhat um unconventional path to
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marriage especially for colonial era people like first living so has anyone seen Hamilton raise your hands oh yes
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raised now Aaron and his wife Theodosia senior met while Theodosia senior was still married to a man named Jacques
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privo who was a British officer with the Royal American regiment that's number good remember that part of Hamilton
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where bur sings Theodosia writes me a letter every day okay I'm keeping her bed warm while her husband is away oh
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yes he's on the British side in Georgia he's trying to keep the colonies in line
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but he can keep all of Georgia Theodosia She's mine oh sauce I kind of love their
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love yeah it's like it's a it's a um what's the word when is it like star-crossed lovers is that
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yeah is that what it is very Romeo and Juliet you're not supposed to be together I do love their love I have to
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say that so after pravo's Unexpected death from yellow fever in 1871 which by the way throughout this entire thing
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they very openly had an affair yeah like it was it was like happened like I mean
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did you like you said those lyrics yeah like he's just keeping the bed warm all right yeah it's fine but like I I want
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the girl but they ended up marrying after he died he kicked it they were like all right it's our time now Aaron
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played the long game you know rip he did you know rip despite the couple carrying
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again like I said an open Affair before he died you know what they really didn't really
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get a ton of [ __ ] for it yeah which is pretty cool um you know they're they made a lot of
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sacrifices like patriotic sacrifices during the war that I guess people kind of were like all right we can still
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respect you okay we can still hang out with you they admired them their Social Circle really didn't fall apart at this
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time good of course there was a little bit of Gossip it's not like people were like oh we don't give a [ __ ] at all yeah
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well there also was like not that much to talk about anyway so like of course you're gonna talk about that so I think
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it was one of those things where it was like everybody was just like oh [ __ ] like you had an affair with a [ __ ]
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British officer's wife that's wild dude yeah but like do you want to come to this dinner party like it wasn't it was
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like like hey Aaron's coming he has street cred he has street cred now now usually people back then were marrying
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for very practical reasons that was why you got married it was first station it was for getting you in a better
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situation but they legit married purely out of love oh which and like love mutual respect and just like their their
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likes and dislikes were very aligned they had like very much an intellectual companionship like this was one of those
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things where you look at it and you go yeah that was was like fate yeah you know what I mean if you believe in fate
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of course or like these were soul mates so I feel like they they weren't meant to see each other
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they both shared a real love of arts and culture that wasn't really common at the
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time and for like a woman and a man to find each other right yeah and it was cool and I mean Burr
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adored his wife and everyone knew that around them like after little theodosia's birth in 1783
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he lost his mind like he in like a good way like he just and everybody was like the love he had for his wife just
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trickled right down into his into his daughter um and historians have actually said it
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was the so that she was the soul of her father's Soul oh that's how they were like how beautiful isn't that really
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beautiful and like a man said that now unfortunately the birth of young Theodosia was very traumatic for both
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mother and baby as was a lot of births back then yeah but this one was really bad they both did recover but Theodosia
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senior dealt with a lot of After Effects um and when they did Burma like when they were you know both up and running
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Burr moved his family from Albany to a rented house at number three Wall Street where his law practice could really grow
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just exponentially faster and during that period Aaron Burr became one of the most sought after lawyers in New York he
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earned a ton of money and the good news with this was in his case was that now he got to spend time with his family
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right he didn't have to be away from them traveling all the time at the time and he could really invest in their
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future make sure that they were set up beautiful at the time he was killing it he's operating his own legal practice
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he's serving as a New York state assemblyman between 1784 and 85 and Theodosia senior like I said was
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unfortunately dealing with a lot of uh after effects from the traumatic birth so at the time he was limiting himself
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traveling and would just kind of remain at home and tend to his family which was
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a little different and when they were apart Burr would just write love letters like fall to his wife and to his
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daughter like these letters were just like them talking about how much they loved and missed each other all of them
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like all three of them like the sweetest thing ever yeah that's beautiful so in 1785 Theodosia senior gave birth
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to a second daughter who they named Sally cute now before Sally and after Theodosia the birds had dealt with two
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stillbirths tragically yeah so Sally was celebrated immensely just like little children yeah and although Burr was
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traveling a lot during this time he really did try to spend as much time as he could with his family and just kind
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of keeping up what was happening with in New York but unfortunately in 1788 Sally
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ended up dying of an unknown illness oh [ __ ] yeah and it was only what three years after I think she was only three
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or four she was young yeah so after Sally's death young Theodosia became even more the apple of her parents house
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of course more lavish with attention and praise than ever and Burr just exploded
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all over her whenever he could in a good way and her parents like he didn't just
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like scream at her yeah um her parents were just so thankful to still have her and the birds put a lot of attention on
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her education as well which was different for girls of them 100 Burr was actually the main teacher for Theodosia
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but Theodosia senior took over when he had to travel and she took classes in Reading dance music
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that's very much what young girls would be learning back then but much unlike young girls of her age at the time Aaron
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insisted that she also have classes in math writing and language good he wanted his daughter to have everything she
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needed or wanted in this life and he knew that she needed to be prepared and she also needed to carry on then a
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legacy of him being a very well educated man so it was like a double-sided tipping here but his letters while he
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was away would often just be him being like how is her education progressing do you need any help he would offer to like
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hire tutors at like twice the amount just to make sure she could like keep up with everything yeah and she was
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actually able to read and write pretty fluently by five years old holy [ __ ] like like not like oh I'm starting to
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learn how to read at five it's like no I can literally read anything you give me
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pop off Theo yeah and again it like I said this was kind of a double thing like he loved his daughter he wanted his
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daughter to be you whatever she wanted to be but again according to Richard Cody who is a historian he said quote
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theodosia's education was a direct extension of her father's so the drive for her to succeed was definitely also I
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it was one I want you to be a well-educated free thinker on your own but it was also you need to uphold my
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reputation yeah which I guess but you know he also had a lot of instruction for her like this is how you
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are a good person which is good this is how you teach your kid to be a good person you don't lie you don't cheat you
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don't steal it didn't always extend to his own life yeah no because which could be a problem
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yeah um because while he was away as much as he loved his wife he had several extramarital affairs
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uh not great Aaron and that's what I mean when I say like you were doing so good right why do you have to cheat on
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your wife that's never never a good choice why do you have cheated on your sick wife worse like come on man like
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why can't you all why can't you just be good like Bully like fully good but I guess no one can but like bummer so
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great father loved Theodosia senior but like he was a founding father so they would
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tell her like you know like in that room oh yeah so there's that so in 1789 Aaron
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Burr became the third Attorney General of New York which luckily meant he was gonna have to travel less so that's
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great in his background in law and his huge network of super powerful politically
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political friends made him an instant success in the political realm um but there was a lot of pressure and
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it was taking a huge toll on his health like he was exhausted he was stressed and then at home Theodosia senior's
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health is still declining she's not doing great everything so he's stress coming from like all angles yeah exactly
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and she had struggled obviously since the birth of Theodosia yeah there you go and she had struggled since the birth
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which was at this point about 10 years earlier she was still struggling from that and by 1793
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um it was kind of apparent that she was really going to continue to decline she was apparently quote in a um an almost
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constant choke and she would she would just be coughing like constantly and she would have like daily she was dealing
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with nausea and vomiting a lot of stomach pain Burr's friend Dr Benjamin Rush actually recommended that she takes
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small doses of Hemlock to treat this which uh I'm here to tell you that that's probably what killed her
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yeah one more thing at least hastened mightily the death yeah it's like how George Washington they were like let's
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just bleed you for this cold it's fine and continue to bleed you yeah and then they just killed him from trying to fix
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him it's like guys I know you weren't like up on it in the 1700s but like my God but you just like really weren't at
00:19:04
all yeah you really weren't on it now in the months leading up to her death they
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actually prescribed her so like I said Hemlock at one point they prescribed her Chocolate and Wine [ __ ] prescribe me
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chocolate and wine at any time you need to which of like was that just to make her comfortable 100 but no matter what
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they did even Mercury at one point they prescribed which probably wasn't great strangely none of it did anything to
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relieve her pain unfortunately Theodosia senior died in the family's New York home on May 18
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1794. what is believed now to have been either stomach or uterine cancer you know when you were describing her
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symptoms I was wondering if it was some kind of cancer yeah it was really sad now at the time Aaron Burr was away in
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Philadelphia oh man so as she was in this final stages in pain and suffering alone
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theodoria no she had her daughter who was only 11 at the time though and was in the like caring for her mother and
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she was the one who was there oh my God and I don't even think she had turned 11
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at this point she was still 10. oh man so she was there at the end and she was there when it happened so that's a lot
00:20:17
for a 10 year old now in the wake of Theodosia seniors passing this is when um or excuse me don't yeah Theodosia
00:20:25
seniors passing young Theodosia had to step into the role as woman of the house now
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um so now Not only was she taking on new responsibilities but she was also now the full Center of Aaron Burr's world so
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I guess this was it um and he had a lot of influence over her but he was but it was like pretty
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good influence I would say I don't think she turned out really great so um he was very much pushing her to be
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the best she could be continuing her education giving her a lot of moral instruction despite no not adhering to
00:21:00
it himself but she was killing it she was doing amazingly she was achieving far more than her peers were so prefer
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good for her and although she was like the center of his world this was a good thing and a bad thing because she was
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also lonely yeah she was she was kind of there to take on all the role of her mother so she was there just kind of
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walking through this like sprawling mansion by herself when he was gone that's awful and also just she had to
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when she got old enough she had to like host the dinner parties and the social events and manage the staff and you know
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by the way they were also enslaved people on this property so that's what I mean when like you can look at like all
00:21:38
these things like oh he's such a good dad you know and if there's a where you're like oh and [ __ ] I forgot we're
00:21:44
in the 1700s yeah but she took on all of that and by the time she reached the age of 18 in 1801
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she had received more and better of an education than men twice her age had received back to the yeah oh wow doing
00:22:03
the things I just told you she's doing managing a household managing the social stuff like doing all of that stuff on
00:22:10
top of grieving her mother yeah at like 10 years old like she's a she's a badass
00:22:15
she really is a testament to the whole the whole upgrade bringing she had um [Music]
00:22:31
decades before Anna delvey began scamming her way into High Society Christian Carl gerhart's writer was
00:22:37
infiltrating America's most elite circles with little more than a fake name and a lot of charm bold ruthless
00:22:43
and willing to kill gerhart's writer embarked on a keeper across the West Coast successfully evading the FBI for
00:22:49
decades hi I'm Sachi Cole co-host of Wondries podcast scam flinters where we unpack the lives and schemes of some of
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the biggest scammers and con artists in our recent two-part series three weddings and a funeral High society's
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top Social Circles become a playground for a fraudster follow scan fluencers wherever you get your podcasts you can
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listen ad free on the Amazon music or wundery app Jill Evans has it all a big house fast
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car and a great career as a decorated police sergeant in Wales but when it comes to love she can just never seem to
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00:23:29
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the outside there may be some red flags but Jill doesn't care he's the one in just six months in Jill finds out she's
00:23:45
pregnant and they make plans to spend the rest of their lives together but the night after Halloween Jill receives a
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shocking text that will change everything and what she reads threatens to take away her dreams of Happiness her
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Jill and Dean and how opposites really do attract follow stolen hearts on Amazon music or wherever you get your
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podcasts hey Prime members you can binge the entire series ad free on Amazon music download the Amazon music app
00:24:21
today [Music] and this is when in 1801 this is when she was finally 18 so she was finally
00:24:32
able to move into another part of life which is married life especially back then you were expected to enter into
00:24:39
that life so she her marriage was you know she liked her husband they got along like because it's a good start you
00:24:49
know that's but it definitely had a lot more to do with like Legacy political strategy but I think it was one of those
00:24:57
things where love and and respect and adoration formed out of that okay so it wasn't
00:25:05
like it all went bad you know like he was just a [ __ ] and they hated each other and that was it they made do she
00:25:11
married Joseph Alston in 1801 um and again like I said they definitely turned into they more than tolerated
00:25:19
each other I love that for them so that was a good thing and in the end when you hear how
00:25:25
Joseph speaks about her he loved her okay very much it's like I said began definitely with the cold the where
00:25:32
Legacy political strategy we this is what we do and it ended up with being like wow I think he really looked at her
00:25:39
as like this extraordinary woman because in the end he basically says like I felt
00:25:43
worthy of being in her presence like I I didn't feel worthy for so long and then
00:25:48
I finally felt worthy like so he really looked at her as like she's a badass yeah and like I should be respected her
00:25:54
yeah like I'm lucky to have entered into this so Theodosia met Joseph Alston during the
00:26:00
presidential campaign of 18 1800 actually Burr was using Alston as kind of a middleman to convey information
00:26:07
from the north to the Republicans in the South uh and you know like many men that
00:26:14
came into theodosia's presence he was immediately very much enamored with how smart she was she had a very she was
00:26:21
quiet but she was like quietly confident like she had this error about her that like I know how great I am but like not
00:26:27
annoying um and she and also I love this because he blatantly says that she he was never
00:26:33
put off by her lack of skill in the women womanly Arts which wasn't gonna like makeup and stuff how good of you
00:26:40
and I think it was like in like folding laundry oh and like [ __ ] cooking dinner
00:26:45
you know like the ones really Arts she was doing better [ __ ] those are the womanly arts and she she was too busy
00:26:50
getting an education to really yeah you know she learned that stuff but it wasn't what she was into and he he
00:26:56
wasn't put off by that kind of folding either Thea you know now once the election was finally you know over
00:27:03
Jefferson was President bur was his vice president Alston proposed to Theodosia but she said no
00:27:12
she says I love this this was in a this is in a letter she said Aristotle judged
00:27:18
a man to a mature for marriage before age 36. hell yeah I feel like disagree Theodosia I love it and they had these
00:27:27
letters back and forth that are very like sassy like she's just like you're too immature sorry about it call me when
00:27:32
you're 33 36 is like such a random name she was like that's what Aristotle said so I'm gonna listen to him because I am
00:27:38
educated a lot of people think that you shouldn't get married until after you're
00:27:41
30 because that's when you have your return to Saturn which is like when the next thing is supposed to kind of like
00:27:46
it's also like a really shitty period in your life it can't be like because everything gets like mismatched and then
00:27:51
falls into place you know I'm doing it I'm gonna go ahead and get rid of it before I got married before 30. I didn't
00:27:59
have kids until 30. so yeah I think my goal is kids at 30. but either way Joseph traveled from South Carolina
00:28:05
where he was living to Upstate New York in February of 1801 and that's when he convinced Theodosia to marry him was he
00:28:13
36 he was not 36 but he he did a lot of convincing he did the leg work yeah he traveled so you know that traveling was
00:28:20
not easy back then so shortly after they got married Theo and Joseph went on what
00:28:25
was called a bridal tour what the [ __ ] is that uh they traveled around with this Entourage of servants into the more
00:28:32
rural parts of the New York State and they reached their destination which was Niagara Falls this trip was
00:28:39
apparently kind of a celebration of the marriage so it was almost like a honeymoon kind of thing okay
00:28:45
um but it also gave Theodosia kind of a break from running the house in New York
00:28:50
and like doing all the things this was like a vacation yeah and back then vacations were not a thing you didn't go
00:28:56
on vacation goodbye like you didn't it was not common for people to be like I'm just gonna go to Niagara Falls to look
00:29:03
at it because it's pretty they were just like not like it was like if you were traveling you were traveling for a very
00:29:09
distinct person for war because for war to go declare battle on someone but yeah
00:29:14
she she needed this like nice little rest period and she wrote a letter to her sister-in-law and she said if you
00:29:20
wish to have an idea of real Sublimity visit the Falls of Niagara they are magnificent I love it the Falls I love
00:29:27
that and again this is like it's pretty significant because it's like one Theodosia is now transitioning into
00:29:33
adulthood she's not child anymore and it's also the first time that anyone really went to Niagara Falls
00:29:40
for recreational purposes that is kind of crazy so she was just like breaking stereotypes everywhere apparently and
00:29:47
this actually began that trend of Lexington cool [ __ ] for no reason so she invented sites same kind of like in a
00:29:55
way like this is a [ __ ] I invented vacation ushering and like you can just go look at [ __ ] wow for vacation you
00:30:03
don't need to be going there for a purpose put it directly from theodosia's Diary you can just go look at it you can
00:30:09
just go look at [ __ ] the Falls of Niagara Niagara are [ __ ] magnificent that's what she wrote so then she
00:30:15
stamped her little name yeah her big old name but you know what she's still in that life she grew up in she's she's an
00:30:21
aristocat as you said she's still she's in South Carolina now um it's all money politics a little bit
00:30:28
of Domesticity in there yeah um Joseph took over a lot of the doting that her father had done on her okay because he
00:30:35
really did start to really just dote on her they hosted dinner parties they had social events at their home they they
00:30:41
would go back to New York in the summer to visit her father it was all very what
00:30:45
you would think of you know like you're just like oh like so fancy So Glamorous fanciful in the spring of 1802 just a
00:30:52
year into their marriage Theodosia gave birth to a boy they named Aaron Burr Alston oh uh she was so happy she called
00:31:00
him the crowning blessing of her life oh my God [ __ ] me up isn't that adorable
00:31:05
I'm gonna call my kids that no unfortunately this birth was also pretty traumatic for both of them because like
00:31:11
I said birth was pretty traumatic back then um she ended up dealing with what is now
00:31:17
recognized as a prolapsed uterus oh [ __ ] yeah and at the time it just went untreated and unnoticed because they
00:31:25
didn't know what it was oh my God so the pain must have been outrageous and it was unrelenting daily to her well is
00:31:33
that just like that doesn't fix itself so she just like went on the rest of her life she was just going with it and she
00:31:40
went to tons of Physicians she went to Specialists she was just unable to find any relief for this because they didn't
00:31:45
know what that was and after this and the in the pain that followed from the whole thing Burr wanted Theodosia and
00:31:52
the baby to come to New York and he said you can get away from you know the crazy
00:31:57
heat in Charleston I would you know I want to be here for you I want to take care of you too like yeah just come here
00:32:03
so they started going every summer and in the fall months actually to New York to visit Aaron it was just like with the
00:32:09
baby like this was a whole thing Aaron visiting Aaron yeah but unfortunately like she loved it but she also was
00:32:16
lonely there because she missed Joseph because like I said they were starting to like you just gonna say they like
00:32:22
each other and in a letter in 1802 she wrote I would I had rather been ill on Sullivan island with with you than
00:32:28
separated from you even my amusements served to increase my unhappiness for if anything affords me pleasure the thought
00:32:35
that were you here you also would feel pleasure and thus re-double mine at once put it's an end to my enjoyment oh baby
00:32:42
that's love they love each other yeah they absolutely what started out is like we gotta get married this is just what
00:32:47
we do it's like I really like you when you start finding amusement and things but you're like not with your partner
00:32:53
and you're like that makes you sad yeah and when you're like just thinking about
00:32:57
the fact that you would find pleasure in this but you can't and like I would be doubly feeling good if you were here
00:33:03
like that makes me sadder it's like that's when you know now the first several years of their marriage were
00:33:10
very happy like I said very happy very Blissful there wasn't really a lot of trauma happening like she was dealing
00:33:17
with the pain but she was going through it but then in 1804 again she was not having any treatment for what is a
00:33:24
prolapsed uterus she was starting to experience gruesome recurring uterine infections oh my gosh yeah which made
00:33:33
her incapable of having any more children and also made sex impossible oh um she was in physical pain all the time
00:33:43
she was also feeling very depressed from this constant physical pain yeah and at
00:33:48
one point she was she had a Suicidal Thoughts um also and you know that's taking a
00:33:55
toll in our marriage because they're not able to be intimate like yeah that's tough he's watching her be in pain he
00:34:01
can't do anything about it that's a lot it's a lot and then making things worse first there was a ton of infighting and
00:34:10
like political rhetoric happening surrounding the end of her father's term as vice president and he was becoming
00:34:15
like inflammatory and it you know it was dealing with Joseph Alston too because he was part of
00:34:20
the whole thing right so that was putting pressure on thing it was like the internet before the internet like
00:34:26
putting a bunch of pressure on that and there was a much publicized Battle of words that you guys might recognize it
00:34:34
was between Aaron Burr um and this guy who was like the Secretary of this uh or the former
00:34:39
Secretary of the Treasury his name was Alexander Hamilton yeah yeah they had like it was pretty publicized they're
00:34:45
they're back yeah there's like a pamphlet or something there was a lot of accusations being thrown around some
00:34:50
claims of impropriety I I won't get into it but like you can look it up if you want or listen to the soundtrack if you
00:34:57
want to find a little something and shockingly Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel oh we did yep July of 1804. I
00:35:05
thought that happened and what happened during that is that Aaron Burr shot and killed
00:35:10
Alexander Hamilton yeah uh at this point Theodosia was only 23 years old by the way she's gone through all of this at
00:35:17
23. now her dad is on the actual run like he's by gotta get out of here and on the run like I don't know in the
00:35:25
soundtrack he says on the Run he says someone told you told me you better hide and yeah they were right correct so he
00:35:34
he was out luckily he didn't put he didn't put his family in danger direct danger by coming to them because again
00:35:40
he's on the run from New York right you would think he would just toot down to South Carolina it's confusing though
00:35:46
because like aren't those the the rules of a duel like someone dies yeah but I think he first of all like the whole
00:35:53
thing is that um Alexander Hamilton put his his pistons in the sky yeah and then
00:35:59
I think more people were on Hamilton's side than burst uh yeah so I think so it since
00:36:08
Hamilton put his pistol in the sky that's Burr was also supposed to do that it it's one of those things I think and
00:36:14
I'm not an expert on duels but I believe it's one of those like you know um like like honor things where it's
00:36:22
like if you turn around and the guys got the pistol in the sky you shooting him would be pretty like low-handed like
00:36:28
it's like you see him not shooting you you're you should probably be like can you think of how like quick that happens
00:36:34
though like if he turned around prepared to not see I'm yeah sure he didn't think
00:36:37
he was gonna see Hamilton's gun in the sky of course yeah and if that's a quick movement if you listen to the soundtrack
00:36:43
he says that Alexander Hamilton was wearing his glasses why the [ __ ] would he wear those if he wasn't planning to
00:36:49
shoot him fair you know what's funny is I'm actually supposed to see Hamilton like next week there you go so this will
00:36:54
all be very relevant yeah it literally because he sings songs about both Theodosia senior and Theodosia yeah I've
00:37:00
only seen it on TV but I'm like seeing it yeah and obviously before I get emails that are like you know that
00:37:06
that's not like a historically like perfect thing I know it's a Broadway show I know this I'm just making jokes
00:37:14
um but this is all real and yeah I think it's one of those things where like you
00:37:19
are supposed to have like your seconds out of duel which they're supposed to talk to each other and try to be like
00:37:24
hey maybe these two guys shouldn't just try to shoot each other like maybe we should just like talk through this yeah
00:37:30
but some people are idiots and they don't like to negotiate they like to just go to boom boom trigger finger and
00:37:36
like [ __ ] everything up so yeah they did that gotcha and that's not a good way to
00:37:41
be never a good way so you should always try to negotiate you should always try to do that so and that's what they say
00:37:47
like your seconds are supposed to come in and be like we both know that this is stupid but it doesn't happen every time
00:37:53
it didn't happen with his son either Philip Alexander Hamilton's son yes and died yeah exactly so like there's a lot
00:37:59
of you know a lot of dumb that scene oh God destroy you yeah destroy you all right but this is about Theodosia he did
00:38:06
not exactly so he did not run down to South Carolina and endanger his whole family because that would have
00:38:11
endangered them and Joseph um instead he went out west sorry I almost coughed so my voice broke there I
00:38:18
didn't even catch it I'm okay I swallowed the cough so I went West you're crazy he went out west and he
00:38:24
hoped you know he could just buy I think he went like closer to Louisiana like not all the way out west
00:38:30
but like closer to Louisiana where he was like let's it's making his way to Mexico yeah just trying to get out of
00:38:35
here now by summer of 1805 she would Theodosia Jr was just kind of wandering around this giant estate you know her
00:38:43
husband was away all the time she's right back to when her mother died and it's like in her dad's not around now
00:38:49
she's sick it's a real parallel to like her mother's life it is yeah yeah and she was also dealing with her like
00:38:57
really declining health and she's raising a two-year-old boy yeah at the time like that's a lot so by August of
00:39:04
that year her pain was unbearable um she was at that point she was certain she was going to die before the end of
00:39:11
the summer like that's how bad it got so she actually wrote a letter to Joseph and gave him instructions for what
00:39:16
should happen should she pass away before the end of the summer she said quote after my death and before my
00:39:23
burial and she wrote basically this is my and testament she made instructions for where her belongings should go who
00:39:30
should care for her son she said to you my beloved I leave our child who was once a part of myself you love him now
00:39:38
henceforth love him for me also and oh my husband attend to this last prayer of my of a doting mother
00:39:46
oh like that's horrible [ __ ] me right up yeah Theodosia that's that's gonna work
00:39:50
the good news she did not die she was not sure she did she was dealing with the emotional and physical pain still
00:39:58
but she did not die she didn't have to live out that well and testament just yet
00:40:03
um but Burr was arrested for treason and was taken to Richmond Virginia to be tried I don't think I knew that yeah
00:40:10
um even worse many men were believing that because of burst position that he wouldn't or couldn't pay his debts so
00:40:18
they were now coming to Joseph Alston trying to get assurances that he was going to pay Joseph Alston wasn't able
00:40:25
to provide those assurances so a lot more [ __ ] was coming their way politics throughout this whole trial Theodosia
00:40:32
and Joseph relocated to a home in Virginia to be close to him actually during the trial uh it was a smaller
00:40:38
home that was good because it was kind of less for Theodosia to have to do and have to be responsible for right but she
00:40:45
was dealing with the stress and anxiety of the entire trial and everything that was going on and in the end the court
00:40:52
did determine that the prosecution hadn't made a strong enough case to find Burr guilty of treason so he was
00:40:58
actually acquitted on those charges okay but so now he's free he's free to move about the country he's free to do
00:41:03
whatever he needs to do but he's not gonna be welcomed back with open arms after everything he can't just
00:41:10
like go out there and be like hi friends what's up dinner party like no so he decided he was going to go to Europe
00:41:18
because why not right yeah you might as well go there and it takes a lot for anybody to go over there at this time so
00:41:23
he's like I think I'll be okay over there yeah [Music] foreign but sure Burrs released from trial you
00:41:44
know released from the charges but the Fallout was and he's over in Europe now but the Fallout was everywhere like they
00:41:50
weren't getting away from this right so while he was in Europe he relied a lot on Theodosia and Joseph to give regular
00:41:58
updates essentially on like American politics and also relied on them to spread disinformation among his
00:42:05
political Rivals ah he was very needy at this time it sounds like it now Birds neediness came at a tough time for
00:42:12
Theodosia because she was juggling her responsibilities managing the household raising a child dealing with the health
00:42:18
health issues and now by 1809 all of the constant physical pain was starting to cause neurological and psychological
00:42:26
symptoms um what was referred to as the most violent affections and it was hysteric
00:42:31
fits quote unquote periods of seeing colors and flashes of light but for her eyes wow she would hallucinate like see
00:42:39
people around her bed um she would hear strange you know like auditory hallucinations
00:42:45
and they would come and go it wasn't constant but like she was dealing with it and aside from this she was also
00:42:51
dealing with the depression her equilibrium was off she had a violently stinging mouth sore situation like sores
00:42:58
in her mouth she had exhaustion and the whole equilibrium thing was causing her to like have Falls yeah and one fall
00:43:06
caught she got a spinal injury that kept her immobile for like weeks oh my God she's like really going through it so by
00:43:13
1812 Aaron Burr had been you know wandering around Europe just kind of like going from one place to the next
00:43:19
place like running out of money like going to the next place and the stress on Theodore Dojo was enormous but in
00:43:26
1812 he had finally had enough of that and he wrote to tell her I'm traveling by boat to New York and I would love to
00:43:32
see you and my grandson like I need to see you but unfortunately that never no on June 30th 1912 as or 1812 excuse me
00:43:43
as Burr was making his way from Boston to New York by boat um ten-year-old Aaron Burr Alston
00:43:50
actually died from a summer fever or country fever oh man this was asber was on the boat home and again like the way
00:44:00
that her life mirrors her mother's life that's crazy I know and summer fever or country fever would now be malaria oh
00:44:08
fever some malaria um in 18th and 19th century South Carolina malaria was a huge contributor
00:44:15
to high mortality rates the climate the swampy conditions of that area they're just a breeding ground for swarms of
00:44:21
mosquitoes little Aaron had contacted this around May or early June and during the month of June he was basically in
00:44:28
like a stuporous state to make matters worse it was the early 1900s of it all so they used Mercury and just made him
00:44:36
rest to see if it would help that had never been a cure and wasn't a cure for that but they tried it out it did not
00:44:42
work um Theodosia was obviously very devastated she was dealing with 10 years of
00:44:50
unrelenting pain and suffering and this is just the actual worst thing that could have happened like the one thing
00:44:57
that she just thought was most precious to her isn't it yeah and she's probably like distracting herself from everything
00:45:03
going on in her life by doting on her son yeah of course in a letter she wrote on July 12th to Aaron Burr she said I've
00:45:12
lost my boy my child is gone forever may heaven make you make you some amends for
00:45:17
the noble grandson you have lost and after little Aaron's loss theodosia's only real thing she could look for any
00:45:25
Solace she had was that she was going to be able to see her dad because now she was like you're gonna be back in New
00:45:30
York I can go see you I have she hasn't seen him in like four years he was like exiled in Europe for that long so in
00:45:37
December of 1812 she made firm plans with him I'm gonna come see you and alston's election in South Carolina
00:45:44
for um it was against the South Carolina governor on December 10th was in like full swing at this time so he would have
00:45:53
normally gone with her oh okay of course because she's in poor health too right but he couldn't because he was in the
00:45:58
middle of this whole thing so it just happened to be like a time when he couldn't come so she was gonna have to
00:46:03
do it alone Now by late December 1812 1812 the War of 1812 had been going for like six
00:46:10
months at this time so any Interstate travel at this time was pretty risky yeah this was not an easy decision to
00:46:18
make she had two options to go to New York one she could go by land in the Austin's Carriage which would have been
00:46:24
a two-week Journey at the very least or she could go by sea which would be way shorter but it carried the uh the added
00:46:33
much higher risk of being captured by British soldiers or even possibly Pirates right but still the idea of
00:46:39
spending more than two weeks being thrown around a carriage being driven by what who theodo a driver who Theodosia
00:46:46
referred to as a great drunkard oh no wasn't super appealing so she chose the sea I could see why yeah she was like
00:46:52
I'm gonna take to the Sea so by the winter of 1812 British warships had set up blockades in a lot of the major ports
00:47:00
including Charleston and had been capturing American ships as prizes on top of that [ __ ] Pirates and privateers
00:47:07
were also very active off the coast of the Carolinas which made things worse Joseph Alston really didn't like the
00:47:15
idea of her going into the sea especially because she is like a prominent figure's daughter and a
00:47:21
prominent figure's wife yeah I have a feeling that's what happened here yeah and it's like he was strongly protesting
00:47:27
this and they got in like months of arguments about this like he was really like please do not do it just get in the
00:47:33
carriage but finally she he was like fine you're not gonna listen so you gotta I'll just give you my blessing
00:47:40
sorry I had to stop to cough you probably heard the end of that I was like blessing but there we go she was
00:47:46
going but really he only agreed to this in the end the only thing that made him agree to it was he was really hopeful
00:47:52
that visiting her father was going to lift her spirits yeah and he thought that might translate into her physical
00:47:58
health as well because they didn't know anything about this back then so like maybe if she feels better she'll feel
00:48:03
better right but because of her health he was like I'm not gonna just let you go like without any provisions here so
00:48:10
Burr actually helped him arrange to have his friend Dr Timothy Green travel from
00:48:15
Boston to South Carolina and then accompany Theo to New York oh I see on a private Schooner the one named The
00:48:23
Patriot so his a private doctor was going to be on the ship to make sure everything went okay
00:48:29
on December 30th a day before they were leaving Joseph Alston walked Theodosia and Dr Green to the family's Landing in
00:48:36
Oaks Creek where they both were ferried to the Patriot in Georgetown Harbor the other thing that's contributing to this
00:48:43
I feel like is the name of the ship I I was thinking that too I was like oh you really put like a big Target on that
00:48:50
ship yeah it's carrying like you know it's carrying like a political daughter and it's also carrying like kind of a
00:48:59
pariah political's daughter like you know I mean there's a lot of layers here and it's called The Patriot yeah in the
00:49:05
high and like you said the wife of a political you know bigwig so it's a lot now the Patriot itself was a 63 foot
00:49:13
shallow draft Schooner okay um it was used as a pilot boat during the American Revolution before this oh
00:49:21
sure and it only needed like a small crew I think it only needed like three or four people to sail it uh this was a
00:49:27
private ship but it was considered a privateering ship so it had been authorized by the government to carry
00:49:33
guns as a means of protection against Pirates and British warships but this one in particular only had three cannons
00:49:40
in a civilian crew so it was really not gonna be helpful like even with the guns
00:49:47
it wasn't really going to be helpful this was a civilian crew awesome if they did run into Pirates they're probably
00:49:52
gonna be in some trouble a British warship yikes like not gonna be great but it records
00:50:00
indicate that the Patriots cannons had actually been weren't even going to be helpful anyways because they had been
00:50:05
dismounted and stowed below deck because they figured they couldn't use them anyway I think I know what happened to
00:50:10
Theodosia so even if they wanted to fend off Invader Invaders they definitely weren't going to be able to yeah well
00:50:16
they'll be another thing that'll kind of be like oh maybe that's what happened but Joseph Alston hadn't really chosen
00:50:22
the Patriot because he wanted it to be this like warship that was gonna get her there it was apparently very Swift
00:50:29
sailing very smooth it was like had a very good record of being safe and he figured this is going to get her there
00:50:36
quick in less than a week it was supposed to get her to New York oh wow because that was the whole thing was the
00:50:42
carriage was going to be like over two weeks right so the Patriots set sail out of Georgetown harmer Harbor at 12 noon
00:50:48
on December 31st 1812. that was again the last time anyone saw Theodosia Burr Alston Dr Timothy Greene the Patriot or
00:50:57
its crew when Theodosia failed to show up to New York a week later Byrne Alston were like a little alarmed yeah but they
00:51:06
weren't freaking out yet you know there were several reasons delay could happen so it wasn't super uncommon that this
00:51:13
was going to happen but then the second week came and no word was heard from the
00:51:18
ship or Theodosia and they began freaking out they were now seeking answers um apparently one of them who wasn't it
00:51:27
was I think it was Joseph or no it was um Aaron excuse me Aaron wrote to Theodosia in New York and wrote another
00:51:34
male and still no letter all that I have left of heart is yours all my prayer for
00:51:39
your safety and well-being now after three weeks Alston was beginning to suspect the worst and he
00:51:46
began casting blame actually towards Burr at this point he said in a letter he said tomorrow will be three weeks
00:51:54
since in obedience to your wishes Theodosia left me because again he was not happy she was
00:52:00
gone he's like you did this and he wrote gracious God is my wife too taken from me I do not know why I write but I feel
00:52:07
like I feel that I am miserable oh because he just lost his son too yeah now after several months now without
00:52:14
word from Theodosia or any of the people on the Patriot the men were they were forced to accept that she was gone
00:52:21
something happened here um and Aaron Burr wrote to a friend were she alive all the prisons in the world
00:52:28
could not keep her from her father when I realized the truth of her death the world became a blank to me and life then
00:52:35
lost all its value I mean I get that like he was he lost everything and he loved his daughter now Joseph Alston was
00:52:43
clearly obviously equally as [ __ ] up by the realization that he was never going to see her again and he also lost
00:52:49
everything yeah and in one of his final letters to Aaron Burr his anguish oh like this is this will destroy you get
00:52:57
ready he wrote my boy my wife both gone this then is the end of all the hopes we
00:53:03
had formed you may well observe that you feel severed from the human race she was
00:53:07
the last tie that bounds us to the species but the man who has been deemed worthy of the heart of Theodosia Burr
00:53:13
and has felt what it is to be blessed with such a woman's love will never forget this elevation
00:53:20
wow um like they just don't write like they used to they don't they don't make it
00:53:26
like yeah like he's tearing up in the coins that part got me yeah like I'm not oh my goodness
00:53:34
so what happened to Theodosia Pirates this was a big deal and or the British you know it could no this was a big deal
00:53:43
and of course there is there was no real explanation being offered they couldn't really come up with one so
00:53:49
there were a lot of theories that were having to be kind of like plonkered together this is on there's honestly
00:53:54
very little information about what might have been loaded onto the ship before it
00:53:58
left like they don't have a lot of Records saying like this is exactly what was on this ship but according to one of
00:54:04
um Joseph alston's descendants actually there were a lot of barrels of rice from
00:54:10
alston's Plantation aboard which were to be sold once the ship reached New York and it would offset the cost of this
00:54:16
trip okay and others have suggested that Theo carried with her the Burr family silverware which she planned to return
00:54:23
to her father okay this is just important to know that there were things on the ship the people you might have
00:54:29
wanted yeah it was also said that the ship's Captain who was William overstocks he had
00:54:35
painted over the name of the ship on the hall to avoid attracting any attention okay and that he also carried on the on
00:54:43
him with the ship quote the proceeds of her raids so money or like things of value money
00:54:51
and while these definitely make it like interesting yeah there is a weather thing to take a note to account here
00:54:59
when you say like it definitely was Pirates like it absolutely could have been pirates could have been British
00:55:03
could have been any of these things but there's another little thing to think of
00:55:07
this is just to give you a little bit of the you know these things were on the ship so that's interesting now the most
00:55:14
likely explanation for what happened is kind of simple but really tragic okay um I it might have been caught in a
00:55:22
storm after leaving Port but they've never found it that's the thing and as of 2022 just to put it out there there
00:55:30
are over 10 000 shipwrecks in North America um and some this was some of it is from
00:55:36
battle but a lot of it was just caused by an experienced captains you know and unpredictable weather yeah
00:55:45
because at the time especially it wasn't easy to forecast right now in 1812 sailing relied entirely on analog
00:55:52
methods of operation so the odds of the miscalculation of some weather event coming are pretty good and this would
00:56:01
definitely be something that could sink a ship especially a schooner now interestingly on January 1st 1813
00:56:11
the day after the ship set out one weather event did come through and it quote blew up that night off Cape
00:56:18
Hatteras now about this is only about 400 or so miles north of Georgetown so interesting it is there and it's
00:56:26
believed that this could be the storm that maybe forced the Patriot off course maybe it hit rocks and it sunk to the
00:56:34
bottom of the Atlantic before anyone could get off it odd now this is pretty accepted by a lot of people they're like
00:56:41
that makes a lot of sense um this was the one that also in the beginning especially was the one that
00:56:48
was accepted by Aaron Burr and Joseph Alston when they didn't hear her from her in months
00:56:53
um in a letter written to her two weeks after she had left the port at Georgetown Joseph wrote I hear Too
00:57:00
rumors of a gale off Cape Hatteras the beginning of the month the state of my mind is Dreadful oh yeah now also
00:57:08
apparently General Thomas Pickney who was a family friend of the altons or the alstons met with an admiral from the
00:57:17
British blockade just off the coast of South Carolina China and this guy from the British blockade said he could
00:57:23
confirm that the Patriot was a loud safe Passage through the blockade just hours
00:57:29
before quote a violent Gale followed the same night oh okay but we're gonna go back to that because there's a little
00:57:35
mystery in that too yeah so that sounds all very like okay so people figured it out that's it like that's it it was a
00:57:42
storm but then in 1998 archaeologist James L might I think it's Michi or Michi I'm
00:57:49
pretty sure okay commissioned the study to uncover more evidence of what happened to The Patriot and after a ton
00:57:56
of digging his team was able to find that there was no record of the Patriot having passed through that blockade so
00:58:04
and why would they have let it well that did happen there would be like granted safe passage orders but it would have
00:58:10
been logged that would have been something that would have been very much logged right there is no record of them
00:58:16
going through that blockade yeah and that's interesting because they didn't they were able to verify that there was
00:58:23
a violent storm that passed over South Carolina on the coast on January 1st 1813 and according to Mitchy quote the
00:58:30
Gale was so severe that the warships furled and reefed most of their sail nevertheless the ferocity of the storm
00:58:37
stripped off top Gallant yards and mass snapped rigging and tore out chain plate
00:58:42
bolts from the hell to the hall excuse me so it's strange because they were not given safe passage at least not recorded
00:58:50
safe passage so that's often Shady because it's like did you do something yeah and you're pretending that you let
00:58:57
them through right but like did sense so it's absolutely could be the storm but it absolutely could be that they were
00:59:03
not allowed in safe passage and that that [ __ ] was taken right interesting now let's get on to little urban legends
00:59:10
like a little more urban D legendary Urban alternate theories here so more theories abound the most prominent and
00:59:17
dramatic theory that came out of the late 19th century early 20th century and came out of your mouth too was that and
00:59:24
mine as well was that she was seized by Pirates yeah that's what I found um but there it gets even worse like that makes
00:59:31
sense but this one's saying that she lived long enough afterwards to help direct the course of American History so
00:59:39
she stayed active in directing our history which wow um I was like oh you lost and what gets
00:59:48
interesting is that several Sailors throughout the 19th century said they had seen Theodosia among the Pirates and
00:59:55
one pirate said that he quote claimed to have actually laid the plank that Theodosia then walked all dressed in
01:00:01
white into the stormy sea oh that's not chilling wild another theory out of 1873
01:00:07
says that the Patriot was a victim of a trap laid by a pirate who went by Gibbs and who apparently confessed after being
01:00:15
sent uh captured and sentenced to hang the tail was wild because it said that Joseph and Theodosia were arguing over
01:00:22
the morality of her father's actions like his whole thing with Hamilton and that there was such a blowout that
01:00:29
that's why she decided to go to New York but we know she was fleeing and so this
01:00:33
is why this one is not really a good one this one also says that she took her two
01:00:38
children with her and she only had one and she didn't have any children at the time their child died of malaria but the
01:00:44
story says that Gibbs so you can take that and say people probably switched it but the story says that Gibbs heard of
01:00:51
this trip and through the [ __ ] and and thought that the ship was likely to have
01:00:56
tons of valuable [ __ ] on it so he said a trap captured the ship everyone on it
01:01:01
and it's a tale that in this tale many of the crew and officers were murdered and he decided to put all the survivors
01:01:08
to death as well by walking the plank okay um obviously this is [ __ ] um I would say I'm like okay I'm not
01:01:18
saying she wasn't captured by Pirates I'm just saying this one in particular was definitely not one I would think but
01:01:25
and they they very much like in all these stories they very much like romanticize it yeah like she walked off
01:01:31
the plane the Pirates and the wearing all white and all that um but a similar story appears roughly
01:01:38
10 years after the Gibbs story most of the same kind of plot points but this one says that a rough and hard looking
01:01:45
former sailor by the name of Benjamin Burdick was on his deathbed um and he was in uh Michigan when he was
01:01:53
on his deathbed and wished to unburden himself I'm confessing yes um but he wanted to confess his role in
01:02:03
the death of theodosiah the story was supposedly told to Mrs Parks the wife of a local Methodist Minister and it was in
01:02:13
I guess there was three witnesses there to hear it they are unnamed it's pretty vague egg and according to Burdick as a
01:02:20
boy in 1813 he was on board a pirate ship Who Came Upon the Patriot he said it was on January 3rd 1813 so three days
01:02:28
after they had set sail he said they kind of chased them the Patriot was captured by Pirates Burdick claimed that
01:02:35
they had taken everything of value off the ship and then they then compelled the captain and every passenger on board
01:02:41
to walk the plank into the sea and all perished hmm now they kind of he also kind of
01:02:48
romanticizes this you can read this in the montgom Montgomery County Sentinel from 1883. he said there was this one
01:02:56
lady on board who was a beautiful who was a beautiful appearing intelligent and cultivated person who gave her name
01:03:02
as Mrs Theodosia Burr Alston when her turn came to walk the Fatal plank she asked for a few moments time which was
01:03:09
gruffly granted to her I was like I don't think Pirates are letting her have time I don't think so either she
01:03:14
appeared pale yet beautiful as she retired to her birth and changed her apparel appearing again on deck in a few
01:03:20
moments clad in pure white garments and with a Bible in her hand she announced that she was ready she appeared as calm
01:03:26
and composed as if she were at home and not a Tremor crept over her frame nor did any pallor overspread her features
01:03:32
as she walked towards her fate as she was taking the Fatal steps she folded her hands over her bosom raised her eyes
01:03:39
to Heaven she fell and sank without a murmur or sigh a pirate said this beautiful yeah now he went on to say
01:03:48
that um it was his quote unhappy lot to be delegated by the captain to pull the plank from beneath her yeah and he said
01:03:56
he would have given his whole life to undo what had been done supposedly before he died he repeated this
01:04:02
confession to other men at the house saying I shall never forget the perfect confiding Faith which she which her eyes
01:04:10
expressed as she gazed up into heaven when about to take the Fatal step her pale face has haunted me ever since and
01:04:16
I see it now as plainly as I did on that terrible day oh interesting now let's get on to one of my favorite
01:04:23
theories is that she became a pirate Queen I do love that I don't see that but I
01:04:29
love I don't see that but I love it yeah now the rumors of the you know them being taken by Pirates
01:04:35
they began circulating almost immediately after it was announced that she had disappeared but it wasn't until
01:04:41
decades later that the story really like started gaining some footing and according to the one particular Legend a
01:04:49
group of researchers discovered evidence that the weather reports at the time of
01:04:53
theodosia's departure weren't actually what they said they were oh it seems like this Theory says that there was
01:05:01
something that was assumed to be a violent storm but it actually wasn't nearby to where they were okay and that
01:05:08
this is the one that says like okay so that didn't happen they were not lost in a storm so they were definitely
01:05:14
commandeered by Pirates and one of these Pirates was a pirate turned respected citizen oh by the name of Dominique
01:05:22
Frederick you I like that name now it said that you had been a member of a mysterious Fraternal Order
01:05:29
and that someone else was in this order Aaron Aaron Burr I had a feeling and apparently some of the the primary
01:05:37
tenets of this this Fraternal Order was quote the protection of daughters of members against all harm
01:05:43
which obviously Aaron Burr Theodosia Burr now if she had told you upon the time of
01:05:51
being captured I am Aaron Burr's daughter I am Theodosia Burr he couldn't have done anything to bring her harm so
01:05:59
this is the one that says well she lived her days out happily among the Pirates and it says that she was smart she had a
01:06:06
very wide skill set especially for a woman of her time she was also youthful and beautiful and she had everything
01:06:13
that you need to be a pirate queen other than um that prolapsed uterus there's that there was that
01:06:20
um they said you know like she she also might have been really good to have around for like writing letters and
01:06:24
keeping accounts and keeping books because they're not really good at that you know so she wouldn't have to do some
01:06:29
of the heavy lifting doing pirate bookkeeping pirate bookkeeping now this is likely bullfit [ __ ] but it's
01:06:36
pretty fun yeah I would say that's a fun one disguise were not clear like that is
01:06:42
not true uh not by many of their weather reports at least and the legend kind of
01:06:49
just relies on a woman who matches theodosia's description being frequently seen in the company of pirates oh yeah
01:06:58
and actually not even just pirates pirates like there was a well-known pirate named Jean Lafitte
01:07:05
um he this is where like people saw a woman who looked like Theodosia in his company and he happened to be a close
01:07:12
associate of Dominique Frederick you so it's like a very much like eight degrees
01:07:16
of Kevin Bacon yeah like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon 65 degrees of Kevin Bacon kind of situation
01:07:23
um so because you would have to in order to connect these two people um you would have to
01:07:31
I it's it's even hard to connect them because you would have to be like okay so you is connected because he is
01:07:40
conveniently a part of this really vague Fraternal Order that apparently he and Aaron Burr were in even though there's
01:07:47
no real evidence to such and that this Fraternal Order would have had this weird like you have to protect Daughters
01:07:54
of members kind of thing but in reality like fraternal orders and societies at the time in America were
01:08:01
just like Social Clubs yeah like they weren't like the Skull and Bones like they weren't like you know the skulls
01:08:07
like yeah yeah there was no like really intense things and Pirates were not beholden to any code except the pirate
01:08:16
code which is just like Yoho which is just yo ho ho in a bottle of Rome so it's they were brutally violent
01:08:23
criminals right they were very much their whole life was outside of the law like I think I found the Pirates of the
01:08:30
Caribbean yeah it just they literally live their lives to avoid having to be bound by any kind of societal laws so
01:08:40
why would why like that doesn't make any that's just not a very probable not impossible but very not probable agreed
01:08:49
foreign [Music] now another one I'm going to talk about and I think is this is the last one I
01:09:05
will talk about is the Nags Head painting theory that sounds interesting so so the pirate narrative actually got
01:09:14
a little bit of credibility okay not the exact narrative that I've been telling like those can sound crazy yeah but like
01:09:20
the idea that she and the crew were captured by Pirates was not a weird or Wild Thing no and so it did gain a
01:09:28
little bit of credibility in the late 19th early 20th centuries when a woman who was living in Elizabeth City North
01:09:35
Carolina came forward and she had a painting and she claimed that this painting was of Theodosia Burr Alston
01:09:42
this painting was believed to have been on board the Patriot when it left port in Georgetown okay according to this
01:09:50
Theory a doctor named William Poole paid a visit to an elderly woman living in some cabin in Nags Head in the summer of
01:09:58
1867. and it was there that he discovered a painting quite quote quite quite quote
01:10:05
an oil painting on polished mahogany 20 inches in length and enclosed in a frame
01:10:11
Rich richly gilded the beautiful Patrician face the unmistakable stamp of arist aristocratic birth and refinement
01:10:19
was easily recognizable as Theodosia Burr Alston okay so when the doctor asked about where the
01:10:28
[ __ ] did you get that painting he literally he was like where the [ __ ] did you get that painting she because he was
01:10:33
like we're in a cabin like a remote cabin somewhere like very out of like this painting is sticking out like a
01:10:40
Thor Stone where the Thor's thumb wow girly girl a sore thumb I'm on cold medicine so excuse me but the woman was
01:10:48
like a little reluctant to give him the origin of it but finally she was like okay
01:10:53
this painting it was apparently discovered during the winter of 1812 and it was when America was fighting the
01:11:00
English and a small pilot boat had drifted ashore a few miles from Nags Head the woman said that the boat was in
01:11:08
perfect condition there was like literally a meal undisturbed sitting on the table it was
01:11:14
like it was just frozen in time and they said and she said it looked like it had
01:11:18
just been abandoned by everyone on board so she was like when I saw when we saw it we thought obviously Pirates yeah but
01:11:26
when the woman explored the ship that's when they found the painting of Burr hanging on one of the walls and they
01:11:34
also found like silk dresses they found flower like Wax flowers which were very like pretty and fancy back then
01:11:42
um they had like you know glass closures that were covering certain things there
01:11:47
was um a nautilus shell that had been beautifully carved out like all these things that would indicate that someone
01:11:54
of aristocratic birth life had been on this boat and so the shoe was like that's where we found it so we took the
01:12:02
stuff I have it here and that's the origin of it that's why I was a little reluctant to tell you because I kind of
01:12:07
stole it off an abandoned boat so the doctor was there obvious obviously to help her yeah and so in order to pay him
01:12:14
she was like okay well I just told you this whole story and she said you know do you want to take the painting as your
01:12:21
payment and he was like [ __ ] yeah I do because that's wild so somehow it made its way into the home of Mrs John
01:12:28
Overman of Elizabeth City North Carolina somewhere along the way and this story says that the painting was actually
01:12:36
originally intended as a gift to Aaron Burr that's why it was on the ship um and it was actually apparently
01:12:43
according to this was known to be among the cargo that was loaded onto the Patriot
01:12:49
um so it says that the Pirates boarded the ship they made everyone walk the plank they killed everyone and then they
01:12:55
got surprised in the middle of getting their Bounty off the ship by a government Cruiser ship and they
01:13:01
abandoned before they could take everything that I believe now this goes along with the dying confessions of two
01:13:08
criminals executed years executed years before in Norfolk Virginia okay so they said they were part of a pirate crew and
01:13:17
this is exactly what they did like they both gave those stories so now there's like two so two accounts of this even
01:13:24
three even more interesting is the painting is real yeah like Dr William Poole is real
01:13:31
had it in his possession after it was given as a gift he spent a lot of his later life trying to authenticate this
01:13:37
story for sure he never was able to it isn't confirmed but it isn't debunked okay this one kind of checks for me I
01:13:44
was gonna say I think so if it's not the storm this one could be it and how interesting would that be if there was
01:13:50
just like a painting of her on board I know I think that no matter what in my opinion Pirates were involved yeah I
01:13:57
think everybody just goes with pirates because I think you know humans really don't like Mysteries we like it but we
01:14:05
want it solved 100. we want it tied up in a bow and we will often do a lot of like loopy Loops just to get to that end
01:14:15
game and in the end Theodosia Burr Alston was truly a remarkable human absolutely she was brilliant she she was
01:14:25
afforded a lot of advantages in life but she took a lot of advantage of them as well yeah like she didn't just take them
01:14:31
and rest on her Laurels um and again like it seems like people loved her like you look at these letters
01:14:39
that were exchanged between people that were like courting her in between her father yeah and her and it's like people
01:14:45
were really really astonished at the charm she had the grace the wit the intelligence like they were taken aback
01:14:52
by her and for her to be able to Captivate that many people around her especially in that time as a woman yeah
01:14:59
you know where it was even like you were expected to be pretty and clean the house that's pretty amazing and
01:15:06
unfortunately her life ended very abruptly and we don't really have the conclusion and no matter what tragically
01:15:13
so I think it's important that even though we talk about these like you know Fantastical theories there's Pirates
01:15:18
there's pirate Queens there's all this craziness Theodosia should really be like the
01:15:24
story here just like what a badass woman like it's kind it's very like she's very feminist she's very
01:15:30
like and this was a very oppressive era like we said so I think it's she's an interesting lady I think it's really sad
01:15:38
that she had to go through what she went through in her personal life totally and
01:15:43
then to have her story end like this is like I hope they find what actually happened I know I do too because it
01:15:49
feels very unfinished you know what I thought it is and that is the story of Theodosia Burr Alston damn it's like a
01:15:57
really sad story from start to finish no matter what it's tragic yeah with like little inklings of happiness but not a
01:16:04
ton no there's really not it's a it's a tragic story tragic lives yeah you know with little glimmers of Hope in between
01:16:13
but and I know this one was a little bit of a different episode but I think it was a it was an interesting story and
01:16:20
it's a mystery yeah we don't know what happened so I just thought it would be a fun one to put in there yeah history
01:16:25
Buffs out there I really liked it good job um I would like to keep singing your praises and telling you how much I like
01:16:33
this but you need some [ __ ] team do because I'm about to cough again all right well with that being said y'all we
01:16:38
hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but that's so weird that coughs ready go
01:16:52
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