Description
In this throwback episode Sebastian was inspired by a recent controversy around the Assassin's Creed videogame series to revisit his series on Yasuke, the African Samurai. Near the end of Japan’s “Warring States” period a remarkable visitor arrived in the country with a group of European Jesuit missionaries. He was a soldier originally from East Africa acting as a bodyguard for the ranking Jesuit in Japan. The Japanese would come to know this man as Yasuke and through a surprising series of events he would go on to become the first non-Japanese person to be recognized as a Samurai. Unfortunately, sources concerning the life of Yasuke are few. With only a handful of primary sources and a few colorful legends how much can we know for sure about the African Samurai? Tune-in and find out how Indian slave-soldiers, brawling saints, and the Wu-Tang Clan all play a role in the story.
Trying to come an "objective" understanding of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot has proved difficult for historians. From the the outset the facts of the case were distorted to help serve the political interests of powerful English ministers. The details were massaged so that a group of Jesuits could be...
Published 11/06/24
There is an old English rhyme that implores every patriotic Briton to "Remember, Remember, the 5th of November." This was the date of a foiled attack on the English parliament known as the Gunpowder Plot. The man poised to light the fuse on the 36 barrels of gunpowder stockpiled under the house...
Published 10/22/24