What do a female Confederate spy, the illegitimate son of Thomas Jefferson, and a failed Hollywood tycoon have in common?
These disparate, fascinating personalities rest for all eternity in peaceful Wisconsin graveyards. Belle Boyd, the seductive Mata Hari of the Civil War, died in the Dells. Eston Hemings Jefferson, illegitimate child of President Thomas Jefferson, passed away in Madison. And Harry Aitken, the driving force behind D.W. GriffithsBirth of a Nation, eventually came home to Waukesha.
Maria Belle Boyd, born in 1844, was 16 years old when she began managing her fathers Virginia hotel. Her curvy, buxom figure enchanted Union soldiers when they arrived for lodging, or a meal and she overheard bits and pieces of private conversations as she waited on them. Belle gave General Stonewall Jackson this information on a regular basis with the help of a slave, Eliza Hopewell. The two used a hollowed-out pocket watch so Eliza could pass the messages safely across enemy lines.
When several intoxicated soldiers assaulted her mother in one of the hotels parlors, Belle pulled a pistol and killed one of the men. While awaiting trial for murder, Belle initiated a clandestine affair with Captain Daniel Kelly, and he helped her escape in the middle of the night. She was recaptured and sentenced to be hanged. Using another man, Belle escaped again, and with a set of forged documents, she arrived at the Generals camp. For her bravery, Jackson awarded her the Southern Cross of Honor. He also made her his personal aide-de-camp, which no doubt raised more than a few eyebrows.
For the next year, Belle avoided arrest by Union troops but was eventually apprehended and taken to Washington D.C.While in Old Capitol Prison, she seduced an officer named Samuel Harding and became pregnant. The couple fled to England where she supported Harding and their daughter as a music hall entertainer. Harding died unexpectedly just as Belle was finding success as an actress on Londons stages. At the end of the Civil War, she returned to the United States and earned a fortune in theaters and opera houses performing a racy melodrama of her life as a spy. She also married and divorced two ardent lovers and gave birth to four more children. Belle also published a highly fictionalized autobiography that became a bestseller. In 1900, she suffered a fatal heart attack while promoting her book in Wisconsin Dells. Only 56 years old, Belle Boyd was buried in the Dells Spring Grove Cemetery. Her autobiography and a few non-fiction books are still in print and range from $5 to $60 on eBay.
Stay on top of the news of the day Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
In 1827, Thomas Jeffersons will stated that five of his slaves be freed. Among them were his mistress, Sally Hemings, and two of the children he fathered with her. Jeffersons 400 other slaves were sold to pay off the considerable debts against his estate. Sally was only one-quarter black, and occasionally her sons could pass for white. Jeffersons illegitimate son Eston, already a skilled carpenter and proficient violin player, was 19 years old upon his release from Monticello. He found lucrative employment in a Charlottesville, Virginia woodworking shop and built a house for his mother and older brother, Madison. Both brothers married, started families and lived with Sally until her death in 1835.
A few years later, Madison and Eston moved their families to Ohio, a free state and an important part of the Underground Railroad network. When the Fugitive Slave Act was enacted in 1850, Eston moved hiswife and three childrenfurther north to avoid capture by the bounty hunters.Settling in Madison, Wisconsin, Eston changed his surname to Hemings Jefferson, and the family lived comfortably in the white community.
When he passed away in 1856 at age 48, America was preparing for a war. In the waning years of the 19th century, Estons children and grandchildren faced public scorn from a handful of influential voices who challenged the family legend that connected Eston with his famous father, Finally, in 1998, a series on DNA tests proved once and for all that Eston Hemings was indeed the son of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.
Born in 1877 on a farm near Goerkes Corners in Waukesha, Harry Aitken became fascinated by the shabby, turn-of-the-century storefronts that were outfitted to show the first silent movies produced by inventor Thomas Edison. Aitken studied the business model of a nickel theater and partnered with John Freuler, a wealthy Milwaukee investor. Violating the Edison companys patents, they made their own movies and delivered them weekly to hundreds of theaters in 45 cities.
In 1908 Aitken and Freuler went to Los Angeles and built a large movie studio of their own. They offered British vaudevillian Charlie Chaplin $10,000 a week to make 20-minute comedies for their rapidly growing theater chain. When Chaplin discovered his films were grossing more than $5 million annually, the popular comedian demanded a percentage of the profit. Instead, Freuler and Aitken sold the motion picture studio, divided the considerable assets and dissolved their partnership.
Aitken used his assets to finance a groundbreaking two-hour movie proposed by a talented filmmaker, D.W. Griffith. Based on a popular racist novel,The Clansman, Griffiths epic film was titledThe Birth of a Nation, and it sold out wherever it was shown.
Without informing Aitken, Griffith made a back-door deal with Louis B. Mayer, a shrewd Boston businessman who operated a large scrap metal yard. Mayer had seen the film and immediately sensed its potential. After lining up engagements at hundreds of theaters inConnecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, Mayer gave$25,000 in cash to Griffith. The investment returned nearly $250,000, money that legally as well as ethically should have been used to retire Aitkens outstanding loans.
Mayer became the CEO of a tiny California movie studio that he transformed into the world-famous MGM. Unable to pay of his debts, Aitken declared bankruptcy and returned to Waukesha a defeated man. His attempts to start businesses in Wisconsin were only marginally successful. The one-time movie mogul died in 1956 and was buried in Prairie Home Cemetery near the farm where he was born.
Is Harry wandering along the freeways that devoured the streets of his childhood? Is Belle still using her charms on behalf of the Confederacy? Does a man once owned by a United States president roam the town where he became truly free? Its possible
LEARN MORE
Continued here:
- Letter to the editor: Honor Black citizens with grand counterpoint to Confederate monument - The Augusta Chronicle [Last Updated On: January 25th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 25th, 2021]
- Graham Selby: Here's why the Confederate battle flag is offensive - Conway Daily Sun [Last Updated On: January 25th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 25th, 2021]
- Andy Schmookler: The issue of the Confederacy in America today - Northern Virginia Daily [Last Updated On: January 25th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 25th, 2021]
- Gwinnett County to vote today on removing Confederate monument in Lawrenceville - 11Alive.com WXIA [Last Updated On: January 25th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 25th, 2021]
- Name of Virginias Camp Pendleton will be changed from that of Confederate general; new recommendation due next month - WAVY.com [Last Updated On: January 25th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 25th, 2021]
- Debate to remove the Confederate Monument outside of the Iredell County Government Center - Greensboro News & Record [Last Updated On: January 25th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 25th, 2021]
- Confederate relics still standing at many Texas universities - The Texas Tribune [Last Updated On: January 25th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 25th, 2021]
- Review: How an ex-slave and a Confederate hero joined forces during the Jim Crow era - Waterbury Republican American [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2021]
- The Real Reason the Confederate Flag Bothers Me | Opinion - Harvard Crimson [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2021]
- An Atlanta Suburb Removed a Confederate Monument That Featured an Apparently Fake Winston Churchill Quote About Heritage - artnet News [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2021]
- 2 Confederate statues were removed in Georgia within 3 days - CNN [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2021]
- 6 Confederate memorials could be removed from the Texas Capitol if state bill passes - KXAN.com [Last Updated On: April 20th, 2021] [Originally Added On: April 20th, 2021]
- Local Sons of Confederate Veterans camp to hold memorial - The Albany Herald [Last Updated On: April 20th, 2021] [Originally Added On: April 20th, 2021]
- Allendale shouldnt have a Confederate statue any longer: Activists call for its immediate removal - MLive.com [Last Updated On: May 29th, 2021] [Originally Added On: May 29th, 2021]
- Social Studies: Hollywood economics, the power of Confederate street names, and untimely arrests - The Boston Globe [Last Updated On: May 29th, 2021] [Originally Added On: May 29th, 2021]
- The Confederate Flag A Symbol of Twisted Thinking - Voices of Monterey Bay [Last Updated On: May 29th, 2021] [Originally Added On: May 29th, 2021]
- There are 9 Confederate memorials among the military academies, but their fate is unknown - Military Times [Last Updated On: May 29th, 2021] [Originally Added On: May 29th, 2021]
- Death threats and the KKK: Inside a Black Alabaman's fight to remove a Confederate statue - Reuters [Last Updated On: May 29th, 2021] [Originally Added On: May 29th, 2021]
- Neo-Confederates worked with other far-right groups in failed efforts to preserve monuments - The Guardian [Last Updated On: July 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: July 12th, 2021]
- 'Drug deal gone bad' leads to shooting on Confederate Drive - Port City Daily [Last Updated On: July 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: July 12th, 2021]
- More heat in the West, Wimbledon finals, Confederate statues' removal: 5 things weekend - USA TODAY [Last Updated On: July 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: July 12th, 2021]
- Mississippi might have to rethink Confederate statues in US Capitol - Stars and Stripes [Last Updated On: July 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: July 12th, 2021]
- Charlottesville Removes Confederate Statues That Sparked A Deadly Rally - NPR [Last Updated On: July 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: July 12th, 2021]
- Confederate flag enthusiast loses attempt to stop the return of beachfront property to the black family from which it was wrongly taken - Boing Boing [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2022]
- Settlement reached after Jefferson City sued for removing Confederate-related stones - KOMU 8 [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2022]
- The Wolf of Crypto and the Confederate Statue Remover: The Week in Narrated Articles - The New York Times [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2022]
- Tennessee County Gets Permission to Remove Confederate Flag from Seal - The Root [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2022]
- Williamsburgs historic Bruton Parish Episcopal Church to ... [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2022]
- '53% Of' review examining the similarities on different sides of the aisle - New York Theatre Guide [Last Updated On: June 29th, 2022] [Originally Added On: June 29th, 2022]
- What would you have done if a freedom seeker had knocked on your door? - York Daily Record [Last Updated On: June 29th, 2022] [Originally Added On: June 29th, 2022]
- How to open your eyes to racism in the United States | Opinion - Deseret News [Last Updated On: June 29th, 2022] [Originally Added On: June 29th, 2022]
- Reactions to a post-Roe world and more Virginia headlines - Virginia Mercury [Last Updated On: June 29th, 2022] [Originally Added On: June 29th, 2022]
- Civil War buffs to gather Saturday in Westminster for annual commemoration of Corbit's Charge, a Civil War battle fought on Main Street - Baltimore... [Last Updated On: June 29th, 2022] [Originally Added On: June 29th, 2022]
- Fairfax could rename Lee Highway, other roads due to Confederate ties - FOX 5 DC [Last Updated On: June 29th, 2022] [Originally Added On: June 29th, 2022]
- West Badin residents want street names linked to Confederacy renamed - The Stanly News & Press | The Stanly News & Press - Stanly News &... [Last Updated On: June 29th, 2022] [Originally Added On: June 29th, 2022]
- CoastLine: Tony Rivenbark, 1948-2022: "All I've done is theater my whole life." - WHQR [Last Updated On: August 5th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 5th, 2022]
- Warren Buffett's company part of historic deal after claims of racist jokes and redlining - Daily Kos [Last Updated On: August 5th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 5th, 2022]
- 62nd N.C. infantry: The remnant who fought on - The Mountaineer [Last Updated On: August 5th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 5th, 2022]
- Confederate flag spurs Olmsted County rental change, but commissioners don't see need for further action - Rochester Post Bulletin [Last Updated On: August 5th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 5th, 2022]
- US Army division to keep patch referencing the Confederate Army - Fox News [Last Updated On: August 5th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 5th, 2022]
- Oklahoma history: Why the Tribes sided with the Confederacy - Norman Transcript [Last Updated On: August 5th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 5th, 2022]
- Council to consider limiting powers of the mayor after removal of Confederate statue | Jax Daily Record - Jacksonville Daily Record [Last Updated On: January 7th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 7th, 2024]
- Gastonia's Confederate Monument: A Symbol of Division Amid Legal and Political Strife - BNN Breaking [Last Updated On: January 7th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 7th, 2024]
- 'Are they trying to push people out of here?': Confederate flag with 'Welcome to Harrison' sign sparks debate - WCPO 9 Cincinnati [Last Updated On: January 7th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 7th, 2024]
- What those Confederate statues really symbolize - Tampa Bay Times [Last Updated On: January 7th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 7th, 2024]