Did Pirates Really Wear Eye Patches?

  • Vintage pirate illustration
Vintage pirate illustration
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Author Kristina Wright

April 29, 2026

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Picture a pirate and you may think of the costumes you’ve seen in films and on Halloween: a tricorn hat, a parrot on the shoulder, a peg leg or a hook hand, and of course, that iconic black eye patch. The one-eyed pirate is such a familiar image that it’s easy to assume it must be rooted in fact — but is it?

Pop culture has played a powerful role in shaping our idea of pirates, but there’s little evidence that these seafarers commonly wore eye patches. So where does this image come from? And were eye patches really a defining part of pirate life?

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Covering Battle Injuries

Life at sea was undeniably dangerous, so the most straightforward explanation for how pirates became associated with eye patches is also the most historically plausible: the possibility they had lost an eye. Naval battles, splintered wood, and the routine hazards of shipboard life could all lead to facial injuries. And it would be expected for a sailor to cover the damaged eye to protect it from further injury and infection.

There are a few historical examples that support this possibility. Richard Griffin, a member of 17th-century English naval officer Captain Thomas Pound’s crew, survived having an eye shot out during the fight at Tarpaulin Cove in Massachusetts (though there is no evidence he wore an eye patch). Another supporting case is Captain Samuel Burgess, a pirate active around Madagascar in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, who lived for years after losing an eye, though the loss resulted from disease rather than battle. In other words, pirates sometimes lived for years with missing eyes, making the occasional use of an eye patch entirely likely.

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7 Myths About the American Revolution

  • Declaration signing, 1776
Declaration signing, 1776
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Author Fran Hoepfner

April 23, 2026

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The American Revolution was one of the most significant conflicts of the 18th century. It not only led to the 13 original colonies gaining independence from Great Britain, but also helped establish democracy and representation as a path for governments around the world. Today, schools teach the famous events and figures from this chapter of American history year after year, from the rebellious Boston Tea Party to Paul Revere’s “midnight ride” to the “shot heard round the world” during the Revolutionary War. But the storied details of the nation’s founding aren’t always completely accurate, and there are plenty of myths that persist to this day.

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Myth: The American Colonies Went to War Solely Over Taxes

The phrase “taxation without representation” is a popular and easy-to-remember slogan of the American Revolution, based on the argument laid out in Patrick Henry’s Virginia Resolves in 1765. Henry wrote a series of resolutions that were passed in Virginia’s House of Burgesses in response to the Stamp Act, which levied additional taxes on the British colonies in America. Though taxes were a major point of contention between the colonists and the British crown, they were not the sole reason for the conflict. Mounting tensions between American colonists and the British were also caused by disputes over land distribution — the British planned to reserve the western part of North America for Indigenous peoples, angering colonists with plans to expand outward.

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Myth: Paul Revere Was the Only Rider Who Warned About the British

Paul Revere’s “midnight ride” was immortalized by painter Grant Wood’s 1931 depiction of the event, “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” which was inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1860 poem “Paul Revere’s Ride.” While Revere did ride out the evening of April 18, 1775, to warn Sons of Liberty leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock of the arrival of British troops, he wasn’t alone. Patriots William Dawes and Samuel Prescott also rode on different routes through the greater Boston area. All three riders were stopped by the British, but managed to escape and complete their task, warning the rebels that an attack was coming.

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Was Aesop a Real Person?

  • Aesop, legendary Greek fabulist
Aesop, legendary Greek fabulist
Credit: © Universal History Archive/Getty Images
Author Kristina Wright

April 9, 2026

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For more than two millennia, readers have enjoyed the brief, morally pointed tales known as Aesop’s fables. For many of us, these stories were among the first we heard as children, alongside Mother Goose rhymes and the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Long before we knew anything about ancient Greece, we learned that a steady pace could win the race, that dishonesty would cost us others’ trust, and that pride often comes before a fall.

Stories such as “The Tortoise and the Hare,” “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” and “The Lion and the Mouse” have circulated in classrooms, children’s books, and popular culture. Their appeal lies in their simple, short narratives, often featuring animals with human traits, that deliver clear, memorable lessons. And they tend to stay with us — many of us can still recall a favorite fable and the moral it carried.

Yet while the fables themselves are widely known, the figure to whom they are attributed — Aesop — remains uncertain. Was Aesop a real person? And if so, who was this mysterious fabulist?

Credit: Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; object no. RP-P-2016-49-18-19

The First Mentions of Aesop

Ancient sources place Aesop in the Greek world of the late seventh to mid-sixth centuries BCE, often describing him as an enslaved storyteller. But the evidence is limited, indirect, and sometimes contradictory — a mix of early references, later embellishments, and literary tradition, making Aesop one of antiquity’s more elusive figures.

The earliest surviving mentions of Aesop appear in Greek texts written more than a century after he supposedly lived. The fifth-century BCE historian Herodotus refers to Aesop as an enslaved person on the island of Samos and notes that he was killed at Delphi. The account is brief and lacks detail, but it is widely treated as the earliest historical reference.

In the fourth century BCE, Aristotle mentions Aesop in Rhetoric, portraying him as a storyteller whose fables could be used as persuasive examples in political contexts. Aristotle cites a fable attributed to Aesop, involving a fox and a hedgehog, as an example of how storytellers can employ moral tales to persuade or instruct in political contexts. This suggests that by Aristotle’s time, Aesop was already linked with a recognizable body of moral storytelling used for public argument and instruction.

Later ancient writers expand on these details, portraying Aesop as an enslaved man who gained freedom through intelligence and wit and who used fables to comment indirectly on social and political life. However, these accounts vary in detail and reliability, and none provides a verifiable biography.

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6 History ‘Facts’ That Aren’t Actually True

  • Napoleon Bonaparte circa 1811
Napoleon Bonaparte circa 1811
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Author Michael Nordine

March 24, 2026

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Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, but what about those who think they’re learning history but are actually reading myths? A number of well-known historical anecdotes are either exaggerated or completely false, making the task of discerning fact from fiction all the more difficult. From apocrypha to popular misconceptions, here are six historical “facts” that aren’t true.

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Myth: People Were Burned at the Stake During the Salem Witch Trials

Though 20 different people were indeed convicted of witchcraft during the infamous Salem hearings of 1692 to 1693, none of them were burned at the stake. Nineteen of them — 14 women and five men — were hanged, five died in jail, and one man was pressed to death with stones after refusing to enter a plea. The confusion stems from the fact that those found guilty of witchcraft in Europe (where it was treated as heresy) were burned at the stake. “Burning was supposedly a way to purify the convict, and also as a threat to uncover conspiracies,” according to The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History author Peter Hoffer. Hanging them, meanwhile, was punitive.

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Myth: Cleopatra Was Egyptian

Though she ruled over Egypt as its last pharaoh and was born in the ancient kingdom, Cleopatra wasn’t ethnically Egyptian. As part of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was actually a Macedonian Greek believed to have descended from one of Alexander the Great’s generals. Her name came from the ancient Greek Kleopátra (Κλεοπάτρα), meaning “honor of the father” or “glory of her father.” She was, however, the first of her line to learn the Egyptian language and is known to have made other efforts to embrace her subjects’ customs. 

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What’s the Real Story of Ben Franklin’s Kite Experiment?

  • Painting of Ben Franklin by Benjamin West
Painting of Ben Franklin by Benjamin West
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Author Timothy Ott

August 6, 2025

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It’s one of the most well-known moments in American history: Ben Franklin attaching a key to a kite during a thunderstorm to demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning. Yet, like a centuries-long game of telephone, the details of the celebrated 1752 experiment have been exaggerated or misinterpreted through countless retellings, creating a popular myth that may be more fiction than fact.

Look no further than the oil-on-canvas work “Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity From the Sky,” painted by Benjamin West in the early 19th century. In the painting, a confident Franklin raises his fist to receive a charge from a key suspended by a kite string, hair and cape billowing around him, as a team of cherubs wrestles with the string and another pair engage with some sort of electrical apparatus in the background.

This work of art encapsulates much of the myth surrounding the famous experiment. The dramatic portrayal clearly isn’t meant to be taken as a historically accurate re-creation, and West took several liberties with his depiction of the event. For one thing, Franklin was actually assisted in this endeavor by his young adult son William, not a team of cherubs. The inventor was also a relatively spry 46 at the time, not yet the wizened elder seen in the painting. And he likely undertook his experiment from the shelter of a shed, as opposed to being exposed to the elements of a thunderstorm.

What’s more, the kite and key story, retold to countless schoolchildren over the past two centuries and often repackaged as Franklin’s “discovery” of electricity, may not have taken place at all. While that’s certainly a more extreme interpretation of what happened, it also underscores the scarcity of verified details about the most famous experiment from one of the most famous figures in American history. So what really happened?

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Franklin’s Theories on Electricity 

As told in Walter Isaacson’s Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, the titular polymath, then best known as a Philadelphia printer, turned his considerable intellectual gifts toward exploring the little-understood properties of electricity in the 1740s. Conducting an array of experiments with a Leyden jar, a simple capacitor fitted with a cork and wire, Franklin formed what became the single-fluid theory of electricity with his observation of a flow between “positive” and “negative” bodies with an excess or absence of the fluid. 

Franklin also became intrigued by the similarities between electrical sparks and lightning, and devised ways in which to demonstrate their shared nature. In a 1749 collection of notes, later relayed in a 1750 letter to Franklin’s London business partner Peter Collinson, Franklin described how such a demonstration could be administered: “On the top of some high tower or steeple, place a kind of sentry-box, big enough to contain a man and an electrical stand. From the middle of the stand, let an iron rod rise and pass bending out of the door, and then upright 20 or 30 feet, pointed very sharp at the end. If the electrical stand be kept clean and dry, a man standing on it when such clouds are passing low, might be electrified and afford sparks, the rod drawing fire to him from a cloud.”

The European scientific community began seriously considering Franklin’s work around this time, particularly after a series of his letters and notes were published in the 1751 pamphlet Experiments and Observations on Electricity. In May 1752, French naturalist Thomas-François Dalibard followed Franklin’s proposed instructions for drawing sparks from a storm cloud, his success inspiring colleagues to produce their own demonstrations that proved the American’s theory that lightning is a form of electrical energy.

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Was Homer a Real Person?

  • Greek poet Homer
Greek poet Homer
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Author Bess Lovejoy

July 9, 2025

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For centuries, people have pondered one of the most enduring mysteries in literature: Was Homer, the legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, a real person? Or is “Homer” simply the name we’ve given to a sprawling oral tradition, shaped and reshaped over time? The short answer is: No one knows for certain. But the long answer — rooted in a rich blend of linguistic clues, ancient traditions, and the remarkable staying power of two epic poems — is far more interesting. Here’s a look at the fascinating history and enduring legacy of Homer.

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The Singular Homer

If Homer was indeed a real person, he likely lived around the eighth or ninth century BCE, possibly in Ionia, a region on the western coast of modern-day Turkey. Many ancient writers depicted him as a blind bard — much like the character Demodocus in the Odyssey — and tradition often claimed he was illiterate and his epic poems were passed down orally. His name first appears in the written record in the seventh century BCE, and several Greek cities, especially those in Ionia, claimed him as a native son.

There is no surviving contemporary biography, but ancient Greeks believed someone named Homer composed — or at least shaped — the Iliad and the Odyssey. These epics, delivered orally in a highly stylized and formulaic language, show what could be signs of a single organizing mind. Repetitive phrases like “rosy-fingered dawn” and “swift-footed Achilles” suggest a poet well versed in the techniques of oral storytelling, using set expressions to maintain rhythm and fluency in performance. 

Still, not everyone has been convinced that one poet alone could have composed both the Iliad and the Odyssey. Even in antiquity, scholars noted that the two poems differ in style and subject: One is martial and tragic, the other picaresque and magical. Aristotle famously proposed that the Odyssey was the work of Homer’s old age. Others have suggested that the poems were built up over time by many voices, with Homer serving as the principal architect — or perhaps just the most famous name attached.

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Was Lady Godiva Real?

  • Lady Godiva painting
Lady Godiva painting
Credit: IanDagnall Computing/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Tony Dunnell

May 1, 2025

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Britain is a land of countless myths and legends, including King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men, and King Canute commanding the tide not to rise. Many of these staples of British folklore mix fact and fiction, blurring actual historical realities and often leaving readers somewhat confused as to which parts are based on truth. 

The legend of Lady Godiva is no exception. It’s a compelling tale of noble sacrifice and protest that has captivated the public imagination for centuries. And it’s a tale that blends historical fact with creative embellishment, which has led historians to debate what exactly happened. The most pertinent question, of course, regards our central character, Lady Godiva. Was she real? Did she actually exist? And if she did, did she ride naked through the streets of Coventry? Let’s take a look at this enduring legend and sort the facts from the fiction. 

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Lady Godiva’s Naked Horseback Ride

According to popular legend, Lady Godiva, an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon noblewoman, was disturbed by the heavy taxation that her powerful husband, Leofric, ​​Earl of Mercia, had imposed on the citizens of Coventry, England. She repeatedly pleaded with him to reduce this burden on the townspeople. After numerous refusals, Leofric finally agreed to lower the taxes but only if his wife accepted what he considered an impossible condition: She would have to ride through the streets of Coventry in the nude. 

Lady Godiva called her husband’s bluff and took up his challenge. She issued a proclamation that all citizens must remain indoors with their windows shuttered on the appointed day. She then mounted her horse, naked save for her famously long hair, which covered her body as she rode through the silent streets of Coventry. Impressed by his wife’s bravery and devotion to her people, Leofric kept his promise and abolished the oppressive taxes.

Later versions of the legend introduced another character who has endured to this day, and whose name has become a common expression in the English language: Peeping Tom. Tom, according to folklore, was a tailor who, unlike his fellow townsfolk, couldn’t resist looking at the beautiful Lady Godiva as she rode by his window. For this violation, he was allegedly struck blind instantly — a divine punishment for disrespecting Godiva’s noble sacrifice. 

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Was Uncle Sam a Real Person?

  • Uncle Sam Army recruitment poster
Uncle Sam Army recruitment poster
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Author Timothy Ott

March 19, 2025

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Even in an age when our eyes are bombarded with viral photos of cats or two-second clips of celebrities, the image of an elderly, bearded Uncle Sam beseeching us to join him remains an iconic visual for the masses.

Of course, the likeness of Uncle Sam easily predates the internet age, and unlike most currently circulating memes, the character stands for something beyond the brief gratification of a giggle, as the visual representation of the United States government.

But while Uncle Sam is a highly recognizable figure, his origins are lesser known. And while it’s natural to wonder if he was based on one of the Founding Fathers or some other influential figure, the answer to that, like the story of the nation itself, is complicated.

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“Brother Jonathan” Predated Uncle Sam

Well before the first appearance of Uncle Sam, the personification of the emerging identity of the American colonies took form in other characters.

Two such personas were women. America (or Amérique) was depicted as a primitive queen of the wild New World as far back as the 16th century. She was followed by Columbia, who was popularized in ode during the Revolutionary War by African American poet Phillis Wheatley, and remained a prominent allegorical symbol of the country until the late 19th century.

By the mid-1700s, the British were lampooning the colonists with the uncultured character of Yankee Doodle, best remembered in the song that endures to this day. But while the tune was intended to mock, the chippy colonists adopted Yankee Doodle for their own purposes, even singing the song in battle to antagonize the Redcoats.

Following the war, a new embodiment of the United States took root in the form of Brother Jonathan, a character supposedly based on the Continental Army-supporting Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull. However, for more than a century, “Jonathan” had also been a derogatory term for people opposed to the British monarchy, and the term may have been applied to the rebellious Patriots. 

As with Yankee Doodle, the Americans adopted the term for themselves, transforming an initial insult into a source of national pride. Variously portrayed in verse and on stage as a seaman, peddler, or trader, the feisty Brother Jonathan soon regularly appeared in comic form across American publications, typically clad in a long-tailed coat and striped trousers, and often found tangling with John Bull, the corpulent embodiment of Great Britain.

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Were John Smith and Pocahontas Really in Love?

  • Disney’s “Pocahontas,” 1995
Disney’s "Pocahontas," 1995
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Author Timothy Ott

November 21, 2024

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Certain origin stories have embedded themselves in the American foundational canon despite — or maybe because of — the degree to which the truth was embellished or outright fabricated. The anecdote of George Washington chopping down a cherry tree was invented by biographer Mason Locke Weems. The midnight ride of Paul Revere to warn of approaching Redcoats was exaggerated by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. And the cross-cultural relationship between Pocahontas and Captain John Smith, originally documented with minimal romantic elements by the latter, has been twisted and reformulated enough times that most people have little idea of the true nature of their connection.

Of course, getting to the truth of 400-year-old events is always a little dicey, particularly when the relevant details have largely been passed down by just one person. But that hasn’t stopped historians from drawing conclusions from the available evidence, and we’ll take up the task here to determine whether Smith and Pocahontas were actually engaged in a romance, and why this unlikely love story has endured through the ages.

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Pocahontas Was an Intermediary Between the Settlers and Her People

First, the agreed-upon facts: Smith arrived in current-day Virginia with the rest of the English settlers at Jamestown in the spring of 1607. Toward the end of the year, the 27-year-old captain was captured by a group of Powhatan people, a confederacy of more than 30 Algonquian-speaking tribes. However, Chief Powhatan, also known as Wahunsenaca, ultimately released Smith to foster trade relations between the Indigenous peoples and the European settlers.

At some point around this time, Smith became acquainted with one of Chief Powhatan’s daughters, a girl of about 11 years old named Amonute, also known by her nickname, Pocahontas. Despite her young age, the smart and spirited girl served as a liaison between the two groups, and Smith recorded her presence at Jamestown in various manuscripts and letters.

Their paths diverged in 1609, when relations deteriorated between the settlers and Indigenous peoples, and Pocahontas was forbidden from visiting the settlement. That fall, Smith returned to London after being injured by an exploding keg of gunpowder.

In 1613, Pocahontas was taken captive by another English captain, Samuel Argall. It’s unknown whether the events that followed were forced upon her or in any way voluntary, but she went on to convert to Christianity, taking the name Rebecca at her baptism, and she married tobacco farmer John Rolfe, with whom she had a son.

In 1616, Pocahontas had a brief reunion with Smith during a visit to England with her husband and a Powhatans delegation. She died from an unspecified illness shortly before her planned return to Virginia.

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Did Pilgrims Really Wear Buckled Hats?

  • Pilgrims walking down path
Pilgrims walking down path
Credit: GL Archive/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Nicole Villeneuve

November 14, 2024

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When the Pilgrims began their 66-day journey aboard the Mayflower in 1620, they weren’t wearing the buckled hats and black suits and dresses they’re known for today. Sailing from Plymouth, England, to their settlement near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the Saints, as they called themselves (the term “Pilgrim” didn’t originate until the early 1800s), actually wore clothing more tailored to their arduous voyage. 

Common men’s garments included wool stockings, billowy knee-length pants known as breeches, and close-fitting jackets known as doublets. Women, meanwhile, wore waistcoats, long skirts known as petticoats, and a linen hair covering called a coif. Clothing was mostly made from durable wool and linen and was often layered to protect against the cold New England winter climate. 

Both men and women wore leather latchet shoes, and both, though primarily the men, also wore tall, wide-brimmed hats with a flat top — a particularly identifiable piece of the Pilgrim wardrobe that has become practically synonymous with colonial America. The truth is, however, that neither the shoes nor hats featured the overstated buckles we associate with Pilgrim attire. Shoes were fastened with a leather strap or laces, and hats were generally unadorned. 

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As for the dark-colored clothing, Pilgrims did wear black occasionally, especially on Sundays, but it was not part of the daily uniform. In fact, black dye was expensive and difficult to obtain and use, so dark clothing was primarily reserved for upper classes or very special occasions, such as portrait sittings. The 1651 painting of Plymouth Colony Governor Edward Winslow is believed to be the only portrait of a Pilgrim made from life; in it, he wears a black doublet and white collar and cuffs, feeding into the misconception that this is how Pilgrims usually dressed. In reality, it was a formal outfit for a rare event. Pilgrims actually wore quite colorful clothing in their daily lives. According to documents such as personal wills and cargo inventories from the Mayflower, everyday clothing was made in colors such as red, blue, purple, and green, all derived from plant-based dyes that were much more attainable to many families. 

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