Historical Figures That We Never Knew Were Extremely Problematic

We have come to find out that many of those famous names that we learned about in history class were not quite as they seem. From inappropriate relationships to discriminatory ideals, these historical figures are much more problematic than we ever knew!

However, what many people don’t know is that he was far from perfect. He held many racist views early in life and slept in bed with teenage girls as a measure to “test his commitment” to celibacy. Not to mention, he refused to let his wife receive western medicine which would have saved her life!

In an experimental case in 1915, a physician refused to operate on a deformed baby, in turn causing the child to die. Helen Keller expressed support for the physician. She justified her support by stating that the baby was sure to become a criminal.

However, she held some ideas that were pretty controversial. She believed that suffering brought people closer to God. She opened hospices that were basically meant for people to die in agony, thus bringing them closer to God. But, as soon as she was ill, she was off to the hospital for medical attention right away.

But, what the history books don’t talk about is the drama the brothers caused in the industry and how their attitudes held back aviation progress. They went after other inventors in the aviation industry with lawsuits to stall their progress so that they would be the sole inventors of the first airplane.

Most of his art came from his legendary factory. Unfortunately, many of the people he employed there were overworked and underpaid. The artists he employed earned no credit for the help they provided Warhol to make him a household name.

Apparently, Einstein was relatively uninvolved in his children’s lives. In fact, he forced his wife to give up their first child for adoption. Perhaps he felt they were a distraction from his work. Not to mention, he consulted on the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, but condemned the war afterwards.

It came out that he was infamous for treating the actors on his sets very poorly. He was also accused of sexually harassing Tippi Hedren on the set of one of his movies.

However, his son Julian has come out to say that Lennon was not the best father to him. Julian felt abandoned by his father and resented how much more involved he was with the child he had with Yoko Ono later in life. According to the housekeeper, he also left drugs lying around the house when Julian was young.

People have noted racist themes in some of his early work based on characters that echo racist stereotypes. Additionally, he cheated on his wife repeatedly. It’s hard to believe this was the man behind the beloved children’s stories millions of parents read to their children over the years.

However, many people don’t know the dark side behind that on-screen smile. In 1924, the actor impregnated a 16-year-old actress that was cast in one of his films. The actress came out later and explained that Chaplin was abusive towards her and that he tried to force her to get an abortion.

As it turns out, Thomas Edison was actually incredibly insecure and stole patents from other inventors. He feared another inventor would outshine him so he actually bullied and stole ideas from other creators.

His daughter came forward stating that he was a cruel father who denied that she was his child and refused to pay child support. In business he was also known for firing people without cause.

If you thought that wasn’t bad enough, he tried to use his power and fame to bribe a doctor to have his wife committed to an insane asylum in order to run off with said mistress.

However, his ideals were not ones that should be idolized. Apparently the man was an elitist who only listened to the ideas of the very wealthy and higher-ups in society. Also, he rejected democracy.

George Washinton owned slaves for almost his entire life. As his political career progressed, he stated that he had reconsidered his views on slavery but still refused to free many of his slaves even after it was legal to do so.

He wrote anti-semitic texts with hateful speech. Additionally, he had a creepy habit of surveilling his employees in their private homes to see if they were aligned with his “moral standards”.

He did cruel experiments to the people and animals in his show, locked them up anytime they weren’t performing, and made money off them all the while.

As it turns out, he actually plagiarized some of his own wife’s work! Furthermore, when she asked for a divorce he did the unthinkable and locked her in the house to try to prevent it.

But, he wasn’t exactly America’s sweetheart. The man took pride in his various connections and friendships with mobsters. He enjoyed spending his time with them in casinos and clubs drinking, gambling, and meeting women.

Tragically, Picasso was not such an upstanding citizen. He was known for mistreating and beating women. He went so far as to say “Women are machines for suffering”. Awful.

The order was meant to be a punishment for the Santee Sioux uprising in which 400 white settlers were killed. Interesting that a man who preached for equality would turn around and order an execution like this.

He held racist, sexist, and anti semitic beliefs which he used his work to “back up”. His beliefs made him overall disliked by the scientific community.

Unfortunately, Walt Disney had some racist ideals and he would frequently use language that perpetuated really harmful stereotypes. It’s sad to think that the man who created Mickey Mouse was capable of such things.

You must be pretty bad to earn a name like that from your own wife. He cheated on her throughout their entire marriage, and was even caught being unfaithful when was recovering from a stroke.

But he didn’t have a perfect record. He was responsible for a fire in Southern California that nearly wiped out the entire population of an endangered bird. He was forced to pay a fine for the damages, but it didn’t nearly cover what was actually damaged.

In fact, he even referred to them as “deformed males”, claiming that their only purpose was to make babies. He believed women were weak, irrational, and imperfect.

He was known for mistreating the women he was with and would explode in fits of rage often. Most people would not know this side of the jazz player.

He would often violate personal space and intentionally try to make people feel uncomfortable in an effort to see their “true feelings” about him. He didn’t have very many boundaries, which is not the best quality to have in a President.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t all too good to Ms. Monroe as they had a very publicly abusive relationship.