Hey there, it's Nate.
I'm going to have an old favorite episode for you this week
because I am that's under here as I'm getting on the LA subway to go to my jury service.
I'm on a case and I will see you on the other end of that.
A new episode in a couple weeks.
Bye.
This is the Memory Palace.
I'm Nate DiMeo.
Hercules was a real live man.
There are a number of reasons we know for sure.
His name, just the one name, just Hercules, shows up in tax records.
He's there among a list of taxable property.
In a census of slaves conducted in 1787, he is listed as a cook.
He is mentioned in a handful of diaries and letters.
There is a portrait that people think is him, a black man in a white chef's coat,
his dark hair barely contained in his tight white chef's hat.
It is probably him, but it could be someone else entirely.
But Hercules was a real man, and we have the evidence.
And we have that evidence, those records, the diaries,
the probable portrait, because George Washington owned him.