In keeping with the theme of flamboyant Colonial orators, we'll end with a Harvard lawyer who was born in West Barnsdale, Massachusetts, in 1725. To oppose Writs of Help, regulations that permitted agents of the crown to search anywhere in the colonies for signs of smuggling, he quit his position as Massachusetts' advocate general in 1761.

He enraged the laws and the monarchy itself in a passionate five-hour address on February 24, 1761, which rallied many Bostonians to the cause of independence. John Adams, a participant and the second president, wrote that the revolution "was then and there born." Throughout the 1760s, he continued to make similar statements against other arbitrary royal power abuses and even teamed up with Samuel Adams to write letters of protest that enraged King George III.

Otis was known for experiencing extreme mood swings between wrath and hopelessness. Unfortunately for his historical significance, when he challenged a royal commissioner in 1769 at the British Coffee House close to Boston Wharf and was seriously injured by loyalists, he was in a sense beaten into submission.

He was too traumatized by the mugging to continue advocating for causes or doing other types of political work, therefore he was forced to abstain from the revolution in the 1770s at its most crucial years. The most significant feature of his final years was that he publicly expressed a desire to be struck by lightning, which is exactly what happened. Even while that may have been satisfying, he deserved better.

Born: February 5, 1725, Barnstable, Massachusetts Bay, British America
Died: May 23, 1783 (aged 58), Andover, Massachusetts, U.S

Benjamin Lay was so far ahead of his time that he did not experience the same gratification as Charles Burleigh, who lived to see the (somewhat) end of American slavery. Born in Essex in 1681, he first worked as a glove maker before switching to farming and finally becoming a sailor in 1701. He arrived in America in 1717, joined the New England Quaker group, and soon started upsetting it by disrupting meetings, promoting vegetarianism, never donning shoes, and refusing to drink tea.

When he visited Barbados in 1731 and saw the horrifying treatment of slaves there, he became even more outspoken while also becoming exponentially more righteous. He then returned to Quaker settlements and denounced the Peculiar Institution. After being widely printed in 1738 by none other than Benjamin Franklin himself, his most important work, All Slave-Keepers That Hold the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates, became a founding document for the Atlantic abolitionist movement.

He was also completely unrestrained when it came to more aggressive criticisms of slavery. He once donned a cloak to attend a service before ripping it off to expose a military uniform and a hollowed-out bible. The bible was hollow because, in one of the few religious lectures with a splash zone, he stabbed it while ranting about the evils of slavery, releasing a bladder full of red liquid that he then splashed on the present slave owners. He was expelled from the Quaker community as a result of these and other actions, but by the time of his death in 1759, he had lived to see the society start to embrace his position widely and was buried in a Quaker cemetery.

Born: January 26, 1682Copford, England
Died: February 8, 1759 (aged 77)Abington, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Gouverneur Morris was, in many ways, John Randolph's opposite. He was a towering, muscular man known for his relationships, and he was a major proponent of a strong federal government in the early days to the point where he drafted the preamble to the US constitution and oversaw the wording of the rest of the text.

However, he was significantly opposed to the constitution he worked so hard to draft by 1812 and thought his home state of New York should secede. The only similarity he had to his conservative junior Randolph was that he had lost a leg and had once almost burned his arm with hot water.

When I say that he was well-known for his relationships, I'm talking about things like his liaisons with writers like Adelaide de Flahaut at the Louvre and in her governess' convent. Also, he had a rather peculiar propensity of scaling church steeples. You'd think a man with his stature and accomplishments wouldn't feel the need to overcompensate in such a blatant manner.

Born: January 31, 1752Province of New York, British America
Died: November 6, 1816 (aged 64)New York, U.S.

Recently, there has been a rise in interest in the more tenacious abolitionists like Nat Turner and John Brown. Charles Burleigh and other newspaper editors and columnists didn't have such exciting lives, but they nonetheless made substantial contributions. The 25-year-old native of Connecticut gave up a legal career in 1835 to serve as the public face of the Middlesex Anti-Slavery Society.

When he was attacked by 20 pro-slavery vigilantes during a speech he was giving in Mansfield, Missouri in 1836, the fallout still increased the abolitionist ranks by 200 people, which was crucial in preventing Missouri from becoming a fully slave state before and during the Civil War. He was so successful in promoting the cause and organizing abolitionist movements. He coordinated the Underground Railroad's routes and Samaritans as well.

All of this is in spite of his appearance, which even his peers claimed worked against him. He made the commitment early in his life that he wouldn't cut his hair until slavery was abolished in the US. As a result, he not only had some of the longest hair and the bushiest beard in the country, but he also wore his hair in ringlets, which was wildly out of style at the time, let alone for a public figure. The 19th Century was a time when a person might be a high profile success while flying their freak flag amazingly freely, if this examination of American history has taught us anything.

Born: November 3, 1810Plainfield, Connecticut
Died: June 13, 1878 (aged 67)Florence, Massachusetts

Going back to politics, John Randolph was born in Roanoke, Virginia, in 1773, and by the time of his death in 1833, he had served as an ambassador to Russia as well as a member of the US House of Representatives and US Senate. He was so divisive that he had disagreements with every president, especially Thomas Jefferson, whom he accused of reneging on his commitment to limited government.

He founded the "Old Republican" party in 1806 after breaking away from the Democratic-Republican party of the time, effectively creating the political difference that we are all familiar with and appreciate today. His impressive oratory abilities were largely responsible for his ability to accomplish this, which was especially remarkable considering that he was thought to have suffered from an illness as a child that prevented him from going through puberty and left him with a child's voice, a weakened immune system, and lifelong impotence.

Randolph had physical problems that were roughly on par with his oddities, which his congressional colleagues also had to deal with. A brief speech took him three hours because he openly drank in the chambers of commerce. The House Chambers were invaded by him and his dogs. When a meeting had to be postponed due to Randolph's ailing health, Willis Alston, one of his colleagues, commented, "The dog still wants respect!" Alston, if it were worthwhile, I would cane you, Randolph retorted. And I think I'll hit you with a cane. Then Randolph beat up Alston, decades before the historic Charles Sumner caning. You'd think he would have found such a designation flattering given his clear love of dogs.

Born: June 2, 1773Cawsons, Virginia Colony, British America
Died: May 24, 1833 (aged 59)Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Not everyone who was powerful in their era required the backing of the government or the military. In the 1890s, Edward Eastman, who was born in Lower Manhattan in 1875, was employed as a bouncer at the posh dance club New Irving Hall, where he developed a reputation among criminals for being strong and built relationships with Tammany Hall politicians.

His gang expanded to a startling 1,200 members, which was sufficient to scare voters and manipulate vote totals until Tammany Hall gained a decisive advantage. As a result of Eastman's battles, drive-by shootings became a common occurrence in America.

Despite the fact that the wars spiraled out of control to the point where Eastman was sentenced to five years in prison in 1904, he was able to make amends during World War I and eventually rose to the status of a national hero. Pretty bad for a man who once believed that the fact that he removed his brass knuckles before striking ladies was his greatest strength.

Notwithstanding his propensity for violence, Eastman was infamous for his preoccupation with pigeons. Not only was it the one legal position he had ever had, but he also owned thousands of them. He would physically assault those who mistreated any type of animal. That kind of person could lead a criminal enterprise that altered the course of politics.

Born: Edward Eastman, 1875, New York City, U.S.
Died: December 26, 1920 (aged 44–45)New York City, U.S.

General Charles Lee lives in obscurity whereas Harry "Lighthorse" Lee, another Revolutionary War general, is largely remembered. He was born in 1731 and served in the French-Indian Wars before being transferred in 1773 to the American colonies. He resigned to join the Continental Army and changed his allegiance to the Americans, where he quickly advanced through the ranks. He was regarded as the most experienced commander in the Continental Army before the beginning of the Revolutionary War, and he essentially saved it during the 1776 New York Campaign when he persuaded Washington to withdraw from a hopeless situation.

Lee was developing a reputation for being unpredictable even before the war. Adams referred to him as a "strange creature." When Lee wrote Adams to frankly acknowledge that he preferred dogs to people, he was expressing an opinion that he couldn't help but support. He was apprehended by the British in 1777 while eluding the Continental Army to look for a sex worker. He had to be freed as part of a prisoner trade.

Lee was removed of command because, in contrast to the aforementioned Vanderbilt, he was particularly outspoken about his disdain for Washington's leadership qualities. He was so severely mentally impaired that he spent his final days in squalor with his dogs. He died in 1782, before the Revolutionary War was formally over, making it too early for future generations to honor him.

Although Lee was court-martialed before he could carry out his intentions, it was eventually discovered through private files that he had been plotting with British leadership to betray the Americans in a way similar to Benedict Arnold. So, it makes sense that despite providing crucial service to his country, he is one of the Revolutionary generals who is rarely mentioned.

Born: 6 February 1732 [O.S. 26 January 1731]Darnhall, Cheshire, England
Died: 2 October 1782 (aged 50)Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

This tycoon, who lived around a century before the Vans, oversaw much more significant alterations to America's infrastructure. He was born in 1794, left school at the age of 11, owned a passenger boat in 1810, and later oversaw a government supply fleet for the War of 1812.

From there, he increased his shipping operations, and by 1829, he was competing with Hudson Bay Shipping for control. By the 1840s, he had become a millionaire. By the 1850s, he had expanded into rail ventures, making him and his family so wealthy that they held literally 10% of the world's currency.

Although his family members said he wasn't of sound mind when he made his will, many of his crazy habits and plans were revealed after his death in 1877. The most noteworthy of them was his idea to turn all of Central Park in New York City into the tallest man-made edifice in the world, a statue of George Washington. He even went so far as to commission designs for the project.

Despite all the commotion around the will, the family lost almost all of their riches within a single generation, which is why the names Rockefeller or Carnegie are often used as shorthand for affluent American dynasties.

Born; May 27, 1794Staten Island, New York, U.S.
Died: January 4, 1877 (aged 82)Manhattan, New York, U.S.

Oris and Mantis Van Sweringen, often known as "the Vans," began their careers in Cleveland, Ohio, as helpers in a fertilizer store. They were born in 1879 and 1881, respectively. They started working on a plan to turn the Cleveland neighborhood of Shaker Heights into a first-rate suburb by 1900. The Van Sweringens stumbled into railroad investing because they needed to construct high speed transport to draw in residents and give them fast routes to and from work.

By 1930, they would command the largest railroad empire in the world, spanning over 30,000 miles across the country, and completely change Cleveland. The brothers oversaw several renovations and standardizations as they grew to become some of the country's first billionaires, which was fortunate for the country since many train lines and other infrastructure components had fallen into disrepair in the wake of an 1893 economic slump.

But they were in no way gregarious. In reality, the brothers deliberately avoided self-promotion. They shared a bedroom in their Shaker Heights mansion and were both lifelong bachelors. They rarely appeared in public, but when they did, they were always seen together.

Sadly, the Van Sweringens' investments were in precisely the categories of property that suffered the greatest losses during the 1929 stock market crash. Their once $3 billion business would be sold off in six years for fire sale prices in 1935. Within a few years, both brothers passed away, leaving no wealth or heirs to continue on their legacy. As a result, all the properties they had once controlled were given new names, thus wiping out their enormous impact.

Oris Paxton Van Sweringen (April 24, 1879 – November 22, 1936) and Mantis James Van Sweringen (July 8, 1881 – December 12, 1935)

Lucy Parsons appears to have been launched on the path from rank and file labor organizer to history-making firebrand leader by a miscarriage of justice. She was born in a slave household in 1853 to what was then described as a mixed race family. Her husband was executed by hanging in 1886 for allegedly planning the Chicago Haymarket Riot, despite a severe lack of evidence in the case that led to the pardon of some of the guilty. She was so determined and influential that the Chicago Police declared her to be "more dangerous than a thousand rioters."

Parsons' use of harsh language set her apart from the majority of progressive/labor discourse as well as sanity. She actually declared, "Let us slaughter them without mercy, and let it be a war of annihilation without pity" in reference to the wealthy. She was enraged because she believed the New Deal was a half-measure and that only a complete revolution would suffice when Franklin Roosevelt's administration launched it in 1933. The New Deal achieved many of the aims that Parsons had pushed for. Thus, when she perished in a fire in 1942 at the age of 89, many people thought she had committed suicide.

Born: Lucia Carter, 1851, Virginia, US
Died: March 7, 1942 (aged c. 91)Chicago, Illinois, US