Month: April 2016

darktonystark:

even though literally no one asked for it, here are some things i love about aaron burr:

• he greatly appreciated women and believed that they should be equal to men, if not superior (as evidenced by the following bullets)
• one of his most prized possessions was a painting of mary wollstonecraft (mother of mary shelley) who wrote the book “vindication of the rights of women,” “wherein it was argued that girls should receive the same kind of mental training as their brothers, women being not only the equal but the superior of men”
• following the teachings of wollstonecraft, he had his daughter theodosia educated in multiple languages (latin, greek, french), piano, dance, and even skating all by AGE 10 and ofc then-some for years
• he even supported multiple plans to “spread land ownership (and consequently, the right to vote)” to more of the population, including women
• (the wikipedia page says he once proposed a bill to allow women to vote but i cant find a source on it, the land thing is the best i can find but there u go)
• he “never compromised a woman’s name, nor spoke lightly of a woman’s virtue, nor boasted of, nor mentioned any [sexual] favors he may have received from a woman” and has even been quoted as saying that he would “never kiss and tell”
• when a bill was introduced to gradually end slavery, burr wanted to make it faster so he “moved to amend the bill so as to totally abolish slavery after a certain day” and even though his amendment was rejected he still voted for the bill (which lost anyway)
• he apparently wanted to carve out a portion of the west (including parts of the louisiana territory) to make an independent republic and he was labeled a traitor (even though he was acquitted in the trial)
• but “whether it was treasonous or not, one could argue that Burr’s supposed plan was carried out by the founders of Texas, decades later” so uh.

story time:

• once he was traveling in the middle of winter on some country roads so at about 9pm he stopped at some old lady’s house and asked for hospitality so she took him in and the only ~personal item she had was a bust of HIMSELF when he was a young man, a colonel in the army, and he was like “What! have you got that vile traitor here?” just making fun of himself and she threatened to kick him out if he said another word against aaron burr. he never told her who he was.
• he once helped open a school for two young ladies and he didnt have any money so he pawned off his watch and sofa to buy the desks and chairs for them
• once a grandmother was worried about the two grandkids in her care because she couldnt afford heat or food so she went to burr and told him her story and he cried and said “Though I am poor, and have not a dollar, the children of such a mother shall never suffer while I have a watch.” and pawned it off and gave them the whole $20 it made him
• absolutely disgusted and angered by rape and spoke out against it often; in response to finding out a guest in his house raped one of his servant girls, he was absolutely DISGUSTED and said “a man who will so much as look with lustful eyes upon a servant is no gentleman; and if he does it in the house of a friend, he dishonors that house and insults his friend.”
• even a few weeks before his death he said, “Seduction is a crime like no other. No woman can lay her ruin at my door. If I had a son, and he were to bring dishonor upon a family by ruining a daughter, I would shoot him as I would a dog!”
• a woman once named him the father of her child even there was NO POSSIBLE WAY he was the father and, honored, he took the duty seriously and even named the child in his will as his own
• he always lost his umbrella (and if you dont believe this source, just ctrl+f the private journals of burr for umbrella. he loses it a lot.)
• this part in which he pulls a “no homo” in his own private journal: “In the public room, however, I have been amused for an hour with a very handsome young Dane. Don’t smile. It is a male!” 

tl;dr: aaron burr was a feminist who believed women were superior to men; an abolitionist who proposed and voted for bills abolishing slavery before the turn of the 19th century; a totally giving person who often sold his things to give money to other people; and maybe not a complete villain like history wants to remember him as but a human being with virtues to go with his faults.