I imagine some didn't care but I imagine some felt awkward or even resentful of the concept. I wonder, if that's the case, how they rebelled or protected their own kids. Was there any effort to formally overturn this policy? Did any places simply ignore the idea of the "one drop rule" and employ a more nuanced view of race?

It seems like it's difficult to assign humankind's control of fire to an approximate date. What I want to know is, was the discovery of fire earlier than stone toolmaking?

Thanks.

It seems to me that a long long time ago, life spans should have been short enough that you would die soon after giving birth to your child, and not live long enough to see their grandchild. Is there a record of who the first grandparent was then? How about great-grandparent?

I'm, specifically, interested in the state of nunneries during the reign of James VI and Mary I.

And how valuable were they to the noble families? I'm watching the Borgias and Pope Alexander VI marries his daughter and sons off to fairly important noblemen. Obviously the papacy can't be inherited, and with a median reign of 6 years it seems like kind of a risky thing to do.

Most Wikipedia (I know, I have sinned) articles regarding Jesus and his historicity say that it is a well accepted fact among historians that a historical Jesus existed.

However, I have only found the usual 2 sources relied upon which are Josephus and Tacitus.

The issue is that neither Josephus nor Tacitus were alive when Jesus was supposedly alive.

Moreover, I have read conjecture that Josephus' account in the "Antiquities of The Jews" was actually a much later forgery by Christian historians.

Finally, is the Bible historically accurate and can we rely upon it if there is no other extra-biblical reference?

This matter of a historical Jesus has ALWAYS confused me and I have been left with only more and more questions every time I touch the subject. Throughout my schooling though I was curious about the matter and was always told things like

"There's more evidence for Jesus than for Caesar" "Jesus existed, scholars agree on that, of course they disagree on his godliness"

But the strange thing is that I went to a non-denominatinal Grammar school which was strictly unaffiliated with any religion. So I took these assertions to have more weight as the people telling me weren't devout Christians.

I have seen several different answers about Japans surrender, some saying it was all the atomic bomb, some saying it was solely the shock of the Soviet Union invading Manchuria, and some saying it was several things. Hoping someone can clear this up!

So, take someone like Immanuel Kant or Karl Marx or Adam Smith, all of whom had massive works to their names. Did they employ special "tricks of the trade" to make writing more efficient and less tiring (outside of dictation)? Were there theories around in the time period before mechanical writing methods about how to write by hand more efficiently? Was shorthand widely used in writing book-length works? Are there any peculiar stories associated with philosophers (I'm interested specifically in philosophers for all of these questions, but please share any stories you might have about non-fiction writers in general) and their writing habits?

Thanks! (Before you ask, I have asked over at /r/askphilosophy -- they told me to come here.)

In US schools and media, communism is framed in a firmly negative light. Students are taught that China, Cuba, the USSR, and other communist projects have taken a heavy-handed approach toward dissenters by either jailing them, executing them, or throwing them into labor camps. Many in the West use this historical link between communism and repression as a way to shoot down the very idea of communism as a fair system.

Is there another side to this story? Has any communist leader or regime ever tolerated public criticism?

TL;DR: Many people argue that communism requires the government to stifle dissent. Please share historical evidence for or against this claim.

Like when the Romans sowed salt into Carthaginian fields (I'm guessing this actually happened) how long did these effects persist, were there any strategies affected peoples could use to try and recover the land, and how effective was the tactic at breaking morale / spirit of the victims?

I don't mean to the US; I mean to anywhere. Probably Brazil, since they were the last country to abolish slavery, and to bar the trade. But I'm having trouble finding real confirmation of anything. My main resources at hand are, unfortunately, Wikipedia pages.

The last slave ship to bring Africans to the US was either the Wanderer, in 1858, or the Clotilde, in 1859 or 1860, though documentary evidence for the latter is apparently scanty. Both of these ships, and presumably many others besides, were illegal, America having banned the importation in 1807.

Brazil presumably had a similar problem with illegal slave ships, after they banned the trade in 1831 and imposed more serious controls in 1850. I would like to know when the last one was.

One source, Ricardo Cachorro's Unknown Capoeira: A History of the Brazilian Martial Art, Volume Two says that "The schooner, Mary E. Smith, also known as 'the last slave ship to Brazil,' left Boston in 1855 destined for the coast of Espíritu Santo, where it arrived in January 1856, carrying 400 blacks who had been captured and bought in Africa. However, both the cargo and the crew were captured by the Brazilian authorities." Note that this is earlier than the last US ship.

However, the Wikipedia article for the country of Benin, which at the time was known as Dahomey, says that "this decline [in exported slaves] continued until 1885, when the last slave ship departed from the coast of the present-day Benin Republic bound for Brazil, a former Portuguese colony that had yet to abolish slavery."

This assertion of an 1885 ship appears uncited in many places on the web, but it is apparent that this is just the same story being repeated. What I want to know is, is there any documentary evidence or citation for this date, or other post-1860 slave ships?