We’ve all heard tales of the youth of Abe Lincoln – the “Rail Splitter” – known for his strength and prowess with an axe.

His hard work on the frontier strengthened him not only for the mental challenges that would one day be required of him as President during the nation’s most trying time, but also a physical strength that was proven on many occasions as a frontier wrestler.

It’s hard to picture Abe as Hulk Hogan in “The Little Wrestling Ring on the Prairie,” but in many ways, he was just that. His exploits as a brawler built him a reputation that preceded him.

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We’ve all heard tales of the youth of Abe Lincoln – the “Rail Splitter” – known for his strength and prowess with an axe.

His hard work on the frontier strengthened him not only for the mental challenges that would one day be required of him as President during the nation’s most trying time, but also a physical strength that was proven on many occasions as a frontier wrestler.

It’s hard to picture Abe as Hulk Hogan in “The Little Wrestling Ring on the Prairie,” but in many ways, he was just that. His exploits as a brawler built him a reputation that preceded him.

William Herndon was a personal friend of Abe, and wrote a comprehensive biography of the 16th President. Some historians question the almost mythic tales – and whether they are true or legend, the spectre of Lincoln is known for an extraordinary strength.  Here are some excerpts from Herndon’s writings.

“By the time he had reached his seventeenth year he had attained the physical proportions of a full-grown man. He was employed to assist James Taylor in the management of a ferry boat across the Ohio River near the mouth of Anderson’s Creek, but was not allowed a man’s wages for the work. He received thirty-seven cents a day for what he afterwards told me was the roughest work a young man could be made to do.”

“In June the entire party, including Offut, boarded a steamboat going up the river. At St. Louis they disembarked, Offut remaining behind while Lincoln, Hanks, and Johnson started across Illinois on foot. At Edwardsville they separated. Hanks going to Springfield, while Lincoln and his step-brother following the road to Coles Country, to which point old Thomas Lincoln had meanwhile removed”

“Here Abe did not tarry long, probably not over a month, but long enough to dispose most effectively of one Daniel Needman, a famous wrestler who had challenged the returned boatman to a test of strength. The contest took place at a locality known as “Wabash Point”. Abe threw his antagonist twice with comparative ease, and thereby demonstrated such marked strength and agility as to render him forever popular with the boys of the neighborhood.”

“He enjoyed the brief distinction his exhibitions of strength gave him more than the admiration of his friends for his literary or forensic efforts. Some of the feats attributed to him almost surpass belief. One witness declares he was equal to three men, having on a certain occasion carried a load of six hundred pounds. At another time he walked away with a pair of logs which three robust men were skeptical of their ability to carry. “He could strike with a maul a heavier blow – could sink an axe deeper into wood than any man I ever saw.” is the testimony of another witness.”

Herndon tells another story of Lincoln’s strength.

“…Jack Armstrong, a hardy, strong, and well-developed specimen of physical manhood, and under him they were in the habit of ‘cleaning out’ New Salem whenever his order went forth to do so. Offut and ‘Bill’ Clary – the latter skeptical of Lincoln’s strength and agility – ended a heated discussion in the store one day over the new clerk’s ability to meet the tactic of Clary’s Grove, by a bet of ten dollars that Jack Armstrong was, in the language of the day, ‘a better man than Lincoln’. The new clerk strongly opposed this sort of an introduction, but after much entreaty of Offut, at last consented to make his bow to the social lions of the town in this unusual way. He was now six feet four inches high, and weighed, as a friend and confident, William Green, tells with impressive precision, ‘two hundred and fourteen pounds’. The contest was to be a friendly one and fairly conducted. All New Salem adjourned to the scene of the wrestle. Money, whisky, knives, and all manner of property were staked on the result. It is unnecessary to go into the details of the encounter. Everyone knows how it ended: how at last the tall and angular rail-splitter, enraged at the suspicion of foul tactics, and profiting by his height and length of his arms, fairly lifted the great bully by the throat and shook him like a rag ….”

“Mr. Lincoln’s remarkable strength resulted not so much from muscular power as from the toughness of his sinews. He could not only lift from the ground enormous weight, but could throw a cannonball or a maul farther than anyone in New Salem.”

“No little of Lincoln’s influence with the men of New Salem can be attributed to his extraordinary feats of strength. By an arrangement of ropes and straps, harnessed about his hips, he was enabled one day at the mill to astonish a crowd of village celebrities by lifting a box of stones weighing near a thousand pounds.”

“There is no fiction either, as suggested by some of his biographers, in the story that he lifted a barrel of whisky from the ground and drank from the bung; but in performing this later almost incredible feat he did not stand erect and elevate the barrel, but squatted down and lifted it to his knees …”

Lincoln was of course not known as a brawler once serving in the oval office, but he did often show feats of strength to the US soldiers, in order to bond and show morale. Francis Fisher Browne was a Union soldier who authored “The Ever-Day Life of Abraham Lincoln. He tells the story of Lincoln walking over to an axe, picking it up by the butt, and holding it out straight in front of him at an arms length, parallel to the ground for an extended length of time.

Browne says, “Strong men who looked on, men accustomed to manual labor, could not hold the same ax in that position for a moment.” 

According to William E. Glennap’s biography, Once, during a political speech, a fight broke out in the crowd. Abe left the podium, grabbed one of the assailants by the belt and the collar, and tossed him ten to twelve feet out of the crowd easily. 

Every time I bring up Honest Abe, some constitutional scholar out there is quick to point out that he expanded the powers of the federal government to trump over states rights, which they say is unamerican and dishonorable.

My response is that the reason for that move, was to end human slavery, and to preserve the Union. Slavery is abominable. While the rights of individuals, and the rights of individual states is important – we should all agree that no human being should be allowed to own another. Freedom for some is not freedom for all. Justice for some is not justice for all. If the rules of the land allow for slavery to exist, than the rules must be changed. So I stand behind Abe on this one.

Abe wrestled with the decision to emancipate. He knew the law, and knew the rules. It was a dangerous position to take – as a president, to challenge the constitutional authority of the states. It was a wrestling match he had to win, even though it would seem there was no winner.

He grew up tough. That toughness served him well. He was tough enough to lead. Tough enough to break the rules when they were not just.

In this episode of TESTICULAR FORTITUDE on the Manlihood ManCast, We’ll learn about Galvarino – A Mapuche Warrior who lost his hands as punishment from the Spanish Conquistadors. He came back to lead his people in battle with swords tied to this wrists! Testicular Fortitude: A Historical Portrait of MEN WITH BALLS.

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You might remember the movie “Edward Scissorhands” – and that story about a family trying to help a boy with scissors on his fingers feel normal and accepted is quite absurd, it’s clearly fiction, and no earthly good to anyone.

What if I told you that there is a story of a warrior with swords for hands that fought bravely against a conquering force for freedom?

In the 1500’s, the Mapuche Tribes lived in Chile and Argentina. The Spanish Conquistadors were doing what Spanish Conquistadors did, expanding the power of the Spanish Empire, conquering as much land as they could, raping, murdering and stealing the people and the land in South America.

The Mapuche united to fight against spanish governor Carcia Hurtado De Mendoza, and their native weaponry and tactics were no match for the firepower and strength of the Spaniards.

At the of Lagunillas, more than 150 warriors were captured. The invaders decided the best way to send a message to the tribes people that they needed to submit to the rule of Spain was to chop off their right hands and noses of some of these warriors. Several tribal leaders, and a man they called Galvarino were ordered to lose both hands.

Galvarino lost both hands on the chopping block without flinching.

The prisoners of war were supposed to cause the natives to shrink in fear and trembling, keeping any future rebellions at bay. But the spaniards underestimate the Mapuche.

Galvarino presented his wounds before his native general, and his cries for justice fueled an uprising.  He was placed in command of a squadron of fighters.

Knives were fashioned to fit Galvarino’s mutilated wrists, and he then essentially became a fighter with knives for hands. Some historians described the appendages as large as lances.

He led his troop of fighters alongside Mapuche general Caupolican through several battles, and at the  Battle of Millarapue, he fought against the very spaniard who had previously bested him and ordered his mutilation.

Spanish historian Jerónimo de Vivar wrote in Crónica:

He came commanding as a sergeant and animating his men this way: “Ea, my brothers, see that you all fight very well, you do not want be as I am without hands, so that you will not be able to work nor to eat, if you do not give it to them!” And he raised those arms on high, showing them to cause them to fight with more spirit and saying to them: “Those that you are going to fight with cut them, and also will do to whichever of you they take, and nobody is allowed to flee but to die, because you die defending your mother country.” He moved ahead of the squadron a distance, and said with a loud voice that he would die first and though he no longer had hands, that he would do what he could with his teeth.

Pedro Mariño de Lobera chronicled the words of Galvirno saying,

“My Brothers, why have you stopped attacking these Christians, seeing the manifest damage that from the day which they entered our kingdom until today they have done and are doing? And they still will do to you what you see that they have done and they are doing? And still they will do to you what you see that they have done to me, cut your hands off, if you are not diligent in making the most of wreaking destruction on these so injurious people for us and or our children and women.”

The handless  warrior faced off against the second in command of the spanish forces at the battle, and dispatched him without prejudice.

The Mapuche did not succeed in the battle, and 3,000 native fighters lost their lives. 

Galvarino was captured, and ordered to be executed. Some said he was thrown to the dogs, others report he was hanged. 

Galvarino’s resilience, determination, courage, and resistance against brutal oppressors is why he is featured today as a man with Testicular Fortitude.

Testicular FortitudeDo you have testicular fortitude? Do you want to embrace your life of courage? Join our elite group of powerhouse men who are changing the world. Manlihood.com/brotherhood

This Episode is Brought To you by HAINES KNIVES

Find your new favorite knife at HainesKnives.com/mancast or follow on social media @birdforge 

Testicular Fortitude means having deep seated masculine courage and strength. Balls. Guts. Manlihood. 

Testicular Fortitude on the Manlihood ManCast is where we take a look at men who have beat the odds, men whose courage has left a lasting legacy.

Viking Takeover

The Vikings, feared and ruthless raiders, who plundered and pillaged their way through Europe, spreading terror and destruction wherever they went. But among their ranks stood one warrior who rose above the rest, a man who was as feared as he was respected, a man known as Ivar the Boneless.

Ivar the Boneless

Ivar, son of Ragnar Lothbrok, was a Viking chieftain of Danish origin, whose life story is suffused with legend. He was a man who sought not only to plunder but to conquer.

In 865, Ivar and his brothers Halfdan and Hubba invaded Great Britain at the head of a large Viking force, known as the Great Heathen Army.

Their motivation was to avenge their father, who had died after being captured while raiding the kingdom of Northumbria.

The Battle of Nottingham

After capturing the capital city of York in 866, Ivar led his army to Nottingham, in the kingdom of Mercia. But the Mercian king Burgred called upon Wessex for assistance, and King Aethelred I and the future King Alfred soon arrived to besiege Nottingham. The Danes withdrew to York without a fight.

Ivar and his brothers remained in York for about a year, before returning to East Anglia where they defeated King Edmund in battle.

Scotland bound

Ivar did not participate in the Viking campaign to take Wessex from King Alfred in the 870s. Instead, he renewed his partnership with Olaf the White and entered what is now Scotland. Their army overran and destroyed Dumbarton, capital of the Strathclyde kingdom, in 870. The following year the two returned in triumph to Dublin. Ivar, by then known as ‘king of the Norsemen of all Ireland and Britain,’ died in 873.

The Testicular Fortitude of Ivar the Boneless

The meaning of Ivar’s peculiar nickname, ‘the Boneless,’ is not known with any certainty. It might refer to a hereditary skeletal condition such as osteogenesis imperfecta, or to an inability to walk.

It stands in contrast to modern times, when pain or any kind of disability almost gives us an excuse to surrender. Ivar isn’t known for his kindness, or his goodness. He was fierce and brutal. He took what didn’t belong to him. He ruled and reigned in the very ways a viking would expect. As with many of the men we highlight here, we can learn from their moral weakness as much as we can learn from their strength.

In the face of that debilitating pain, Ivar the Boneless was a Viking warrior unlike any other, a man of courage, strength, and determination, whose legacy lives on to this day.

Testicular Fortitude

Do you have testicular fortitude? Do you want to embrace your life of courage? Join our elite group of powerhouse men who are changing the world. Manlihood.com/brotherhood

This Episode is Brought To you by HAINES KNIVES
Find your new favorite knife at http://HainesKnives.com/mancast or follow on social media @birdforge 

Testicular Fortitude means having deep seated masculine courage and strength. Balls. Guts. Manlihood. 

Testicular Fortitude on the Manlihood ManCast is where we take a look at men who have beat the odds, men whose courage has left a lasting legacy. 

Hannibal of Carthage

The Roman Empire wasn’t a force to mess around with. Their soldiers were ruthless. Their armor and weapons were elite. Their strategy and tactics were forged and tested and refined.

And yet, one North African struck Rome like a hurricane, and we still tell his stories thousands of years later.

Today’s featured man with balls is – Carthaginian General Hannibal.

Carthage was a Phoneician settlement in what is now Tunisia in North Africa. They were building a different kind of empire in the ancient world. They had trading outposts from West Africa to Spain and Portugal to Italy. 

The Roman Empire, fueled by their worship of their Caesars, attempted to swallow the world and make it all Rome.

The Carthignians had already suffered defeat against the Romans in the First Punic War. Hannibal’s father was a general on that front.

After the war, his father went to strengthen his family’s wealth by raiding and subjugating the tribes on the Iberian peninsula.

At the age of 9, Hannibal begged his father to take him along.

His father brought him into a sacrificial altar, blazing with fire. (By the way – Carthignians were the descendants of Caananites. They worshipped Ba’al. They often sacrificed their children on these altars. Hannibal’s name actually means, “The lord ba’al is gracious.”)

So Hannibal’s father made him swear an oath at the burning altar.
Hannibal later recounted the oath he had said at the age of nine. “I swear so soon as age will permit…I will use fire and steel to arrest the destiny of Rome.”

Hannibal would continue to fight and lead after his father’s death nine years later. He led troops drawn from the Iberian tribes through the Pyrenees Mountains in 218 BC, then through Gaul, fighting the tribes as he neared the Alps. Some of the tribes ended up leaving their affiliation with Rome and joining forces with him.

Hannibal’s army of 38,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 38 North African elephants, ventured through the Rhone, and made their way through the alps. Many of those troops and most of those elephants would die along the trek.

They faced numerous difficulties, and according to one historian, they even had to excavate rockfalls on the journey. Using fire to heat the rocks, and then vinegar to douse the rocks, making them split into rubble so it could be cleared.

Hannibal’s army was making a bold and almost outlandish attack.

So crazy it just might work.

Historian Polybius recorded that Hannibal arrived in Italy with 20,000 foot soldiers, 4,000 horsemen, and only a few elephants. 

The Punic forces led by Hannibal fought several battles as they worked their way through Italy, but the Roman’s employed a different strategy. Rather than show force, they refused to fight in open battle.

Hannibal conquered towns and pillaged provisions, and Rome fought them by using a battle of attrition – they just tried to drag it out and wear him down.

For several years, Carthage had a strong outpost occupying Roman territory, gradually growing and taking more for themselves. led by the fiercely innovative and unstoppable General Hannibal.

Meanwhile, Rome pushed through Africa. In 203 BC, Hannibal was called back from Italy to fight the Romans on his home turf.  The 2nd Punic War came to a close in 201 BC with a tense peace agreement. 

Hannibal went on to become a statesman, and as he grew in power and wealth, the Romans sent an armed guard to deal with him. He went into voluntary exile, though he continued to work supporting enemies of Rome in the hopes of overthrowing the empire.

Hannibal caused such distress in ancient Rome, that whenever there was any kind of disaster, the Roman senators would shout, “Hannibal is at the gates!”  Romans feared and hated him so much that they built statues of him in the streets to celebrate after his defeat.

Militaries across the world still study Hannibal’s methods. His logistics, his strategies, his tactics, his courage.

And those are the reason that we salute Hannibal today, as a man with Testicular Fortitude!

Testicular Fortitude

Do you have testicular fortitude? Do you want to embrace your life of courage? Join our elite group of powerhouse men who are changing the world. http://Manlihood.com/brotherhood

This Episode is Brought To you by HAINES KNIVES
Find your new favorite knife at HainesKnives.com/mancast or follow on social media @birdforge 

Testicular Fortitude means having deep seated masculine courage and strength. Balls. Guts. Manlihood. 

Testicular Fortitude on the Manlihood ManCast is where we take a look at men who have beat the odds, men whose courage has left a lasting legacy.

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Testicular Fortitude 

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Geronimo

In World War II, paratroopers would yell “Geronimo!” as they jumped out airplanes into battle.
Growing up on Looney Tunes, I heard the shouting of that name many times over the years, and associated it with bravery and courage.

But who was Geronimo?

By all accounts in his day, he would have been seen as an outlaw. A rogue Apache on the run from the US Government. But his story is one of a man with an unquenchable fire to fight for freedom for his people.

He was born in 1829 in what would eventually become Arizona. His actual name, Goyahkla, means “one who yawns.”

He lived among the Chiricahua tribe of Apaches, and as he came of age, his people were at war with the Mexicans in the South and the US government to the North, as well as a constant war with the Comanche and Navajo.

In 1851, a group of Mexican soldiers led by Colonel Jose Maria Carrasco attacked his family camp while he was away, killing his wife, his mother, and his three children.

A voice in the wind

As was custom, he burned his family’s belongings and headed into the forest to grieve.  Goyahkla said he heard a voice in the wilderness that told him, “No bullet will ever hurt you. I will guide your arrows.”

Imbued with courage from this prophecy, He declared his own war, and stalked and killed the soldiers that murdered his family.

Historians aren’t sure where the name Geronimo appeared. It could be a mispronouncing of his name, or could be associated with the sound of Mexican soldiers crying out to Saint Jerome as they were being killed by the vengeful warrior – but somehow, the name Geronimo stuck in the cultural consciousness.

Eventually, Mexico lost its war with the US, and lost claims to Arizona as well. The US Westward expansion means that the land inhabited by the natives is considered property of the United States. Tension and skirmishes arise as the US attempts to relocate the apaches. In 1872, the Chiricahua were given a reservation which included some of their original lands, but they were later relocated to live with other Apaches at the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona.

Jailbreak

Geronimo broke out of that reservation three separate times, and he would evade capture for long periods of time each time. 

He believed bullets couldn’t kill him. He wasn’t afraid of the soldiers or the bounty hunters or anyone else who tried to force him to leave his homelands and live on the reservation.

His story got picked up by the sensational newspapers of the day, and he became an anti-hero – a symbol of courage as he bucked the system. Certainly some considered a villain, but even they couldn’t deny his courage and perseverance.

In 1885, a 55 year old Geronimo escaped the reservation again with 135 Apache followers, raiding Mexican and American settlements, and killing civilians for almost a year. He was forced to surrender to the US Army, but yet again, Geronimo and several of his men escaped, drawing the ire and causing the embarrassment of the US Government. 

The US Army sent 5,000 troops, along with 3,000 Mexican troops to capture Geronimo and his men. Their knowledge of the hill country allowed them to evade capture for 5 months.

Surrender

In 1886, Geronimo turned himself in at Skeleton Canyon.

He was eventually imprisoned at Fort Sill at the Commanche and Kiowa reservation in what is now Oklahoma.

He spent the last 14 years of his life at Fort Sill, with occasional government approved trips to attend Wild West Shows, where he was shown off – his reputation as an unbeatable rebel, now compliant, made him quite a draw for crowds.

Geronimo and Teddy Roosevelt

Geronimo was even invited to attend the inauguration of Teddy Roosevelt. Geronimo along with several other chiefs were paraded in full headgear and war paint in attempt to show that they had “buried the hatchet forever.”

The New York Tribune tells the story of Geronimo’s meeting with Roosevelt.
“Take the ropes from our hands,” Geronimo asked the President, with tears “running down his bullet-scarred cheeks.”

Roosevelt told Geronimo that the Indian had a “bad heart.”
“You killed many of my people; you burned villages…and were not good Indians.”  Roosevelt told him he would have to “wait and see” how well the Indians would “behave” on the reservation.

The meeting was quickly adjourned and Geronimo was shuffled back to the reservation in Oklahoma, where he died in 1909.

Geronimo’s fight for freedom ended in captivity and disappointment– despite converting to Christianity in an attempt to show Roosevelt that he could be a “good Indian” – he was still denied the only request he ever longed for.

His story resonated for generations… a rebel, refusing to capitulate, surviving against all odds with a heart that beat for his homeland and his people. And THAT is why Geronimo had Testicular Fortitude.