Slavery stretches back as long as human civilization (or perhaps even longer) and continues into the 21st century, where the modern slave population tops 20 million. Runaway slaves—often called “maroons”—have built fascinating societies noted for unique cultures and fierce military resistance. Their stories are riddled with hardship, and even today their histories are marked by hostile relations with national governments and ongoing struggles for land rights. In this roundup we showcase 10 remarkable communities founded by former slaves, each a testament to resilience and ingenuity.

10 Remarkable Communities: A Quick Overview

10 Cimarrones, Panama

The presence of Cimarrones in the Panamanian isthmus was first recorded in the 1520s, when slaves slipped away from convoys traveling between ports on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. In the 1550s, a ship carrying a Mandinko slave named Bayano was wrecked off the coast, and Bayano was then elected “King of the Blacks.” He spent the next five years harrying the Spaniards by preying on mule convoys carrying gold and silver. The Spanish eventually realized they couldn’t defeat the Cimarrones on their own terrain and instead settled on treachery. At a supposed peace negotiation, they poisoned several of Bayano’s followers. The king himself was exiled to Peru and later Spain.

Shortly thereafter, in 1572, the Cimarrones proved crucial allies in the privateering ventures of Sir Francis Drake. A group of 30 maroons guided Drake’s forces through the jungle, enabling him to ambush multiple mule trains, making off with much booty. The unnerved Spanish consequently launched several expeditions against the Cimarron settlements before coming to an agreement whereby the Cimarrones received a blanket pardon and their own self-governing settlement. In return, they were compelled to send back any future fugitive slaves and couldn’t ally with foreign powers.

9 Siddis Of India

While the history of East African slaves in India may go back to 628, they first arrived in large numbers in the 12th century. They were employed mainly in military roles, and in the 15th century, an Abyssinian briefly reigned as a sultan in Bengal. Malik Ambar was later a respected prime minister and mercenary general in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

One particular group of Abyssinian Siddis came into control of Janjira in the 1490s, either seizing it in their own right or being appointed governors by a local ruler. Supposedly, they Trojan‑horsed their way in, with their leader disguising himself as a merchant and then smuggling soldiers into the fortress in boxes. They quickly became the chief naval power on the northwest Indian coast, enriching themselves as mercenaries and pirates and through transporting hajj pilgrims.

Over the following two centuries, they operated in a loose alliance with the Mughals and fended off Portuguese, Dutch, English, and Maratha attacks before finally being defeated by the British in 1760 and accepting British suzerainty in the 19th century.

8 Black Cherokee

Actually, there are no black Cherokee. This is the opinion of the Cherokee themselves; they implemented a requirement of proven descent from a “Cherokee by blood” to claim citizenship and suffrage in 1983, but this was ruled unconstitutional by the nation’s Supreme Court in 2006. Unperturbed, they simply amended the constitution via a referendum. This amendment was upheld by the Supreme Court and expelled 3,000 freedmen. These are the descendants of the Cherokee slaves integrated into the tribe by law at the conclusion of the American Civil War, and the decision cuts them off from food aid and medical services.

Early in their history the Cherokee were known to accept escaped slaves into their tribe. But contact with the United States (particularly the Southern United States) and the Cherokee’s subsequent assimilation saw them adopt white racial prejudices. The richer Cherokee also employed African slaves and sided with the Confederacy—Cherokee Brigadier‑General Stand Watie was among the last Confederate officers to surrender.

The Cherokee Freedmen Controversy, as it has come to be known, is a fascinating issue that blends questions of tribal sovereignty, civil rights, the distribution of federal aid, voter turnout (only 8,700 of 35,000 eligible voters took part in the referendum), and the desire to paint over a slave‑owning past. The timing of the decision, just before a narrowly decided election for principal chief, also raises eyebrows.

7 Bushinengues, Suriname, And French Guiana

In Suriname, the sugar plantations were overwhelmingly situated on rivers, with slaves easily able to flee into the surrounding forest and swamp. Over time, they organized themselves into tribes who regularly raided plantations in search of weapons, ammunition, women, and food, with such success that most signed treaties with the Dutch by the 1760s.

That decade also saw the rise of the belligerent Boni maroons, who carried out a concerted guerrilla war for 30 years. The Boni ultimately migrated into French Guiana and only signed a treaty with the Europeans in the 1860s, after a century of intermittent warfare. Back in Suriname, the maroon population grew substantially, and the six tribes today make up 10 percent of the country’s population. In doing so, they have often resisted the modernization and resettlement attempts of the central government and military, culminating in a six‑year guerrilla war from 1986–1992. More recent years have seen them try to assert their land rights in the face of mining and hydroelectric projects.

6 Jamaican Maroons

The Jamaican Maroons have their genesis in the Spanish abandonment of the island in 1655, wherein many slaves fled into the mountainous interior as the British occupied Jamaica. Here, they coalesced into two groups, the Leeward (in the west) and Windward (in the east) tribes.

Over the following several decades, relations with the British remained tense. The British resented the harboring of runaways and undermining of their authority. Regular slave rebellions further destabilized the situation, as did the growth of the Maroon population and consequent demand for land. This boiled over into open conflict in the 1720s, but the Maroons proved skilled in guerrilla warfare, using the terrain to their advantage.

In 1739, they came to a negotiated peace with the British. This stipulated that the Maroons would capture and return runaways and defend Jamaica against foreign invasion. In return, their freedom and land rights were recognized, and they were allowed to govern themselves.

Peace was maintained until 1795. Spooked by the slave revolt in Haiti, the belligerent British governor elected to punish one maroon group, Trelawney Town, for minor infractions. Though no other maroon communities came to their aid, Trelawney’s 300 maroons (and a few hundred runaways) held out against 10‑to‑1 odds for eight months. When finally defeated by sheer weight of numbers and an intensive fort‑building program (plus, the British brought in hunting dogs), some 500 maroons were deported to Nova Scotia. Unused to the climate and farming conditions, they quickly grew restless and were sent to newly established Sierra Leone.

5 Fort Mose, Florida

In 1693, King Charles II of Spain (otherwise known for being ridiculously inbred), issued an edict granting freedom to fugitive slaves seeking refuge in St. Augustine, the capital of Spanish Florida. This weakened their English rivals (the runaways came from the Carolinas) and strengthened themselves by marshalling the ex‑slaves’ support and military power. The importance of defending sparsely populated Florida is reflected in the preconditions a fugitive had to accept: to protect St. Augustine, swear loyalty to Spain, and convert to Catholicism.

The British grew increasingly incensed, sending agents to demand the return of their property and initiating a series of raids and counter‑raids. This occurred especially during Queen Anne’s War (1702–1713), the American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession. When these proved insufficient, Georgia was established to serve as a slave‑free buffer state.

In 1738, the increasingly assertive freedmen were given their own autonomous settlement at Fort Mose, the first of its kind. Its population soon numbered 100. The following year, hostilities with England resumed in the War of Jenkin’s Ear, and the English, after suppressing a rebellion of their own slaves, attacked Florida. As a result, the freedmen were forced to withdraw from Fort Mose to play a pivotal role in defending St. Augustine, serving under black officers and receiving pay equal to their Spanish comrades. Fort Mose was then retaken in a devastating surprise attack that forced the British invaders to withdraw.

In the long run, however, the British attained Florida in 1763 at the conclusion of the French and Indian (or Seven Years’) War. The freed black community evacuated to Cuba.

4 Palmares, Brazil

Palmares was founded in 1605, allegedly by an Angolan princess who escaped slavery. It came to consist of 10 large settlements and up to 30,000 people. This number is roughly equal to the population of British North America at the same time and was ruled over by a “great lord” or king, governed according to a mishmash of central African customs. By the 1630s, the ruler was Ganga Zumba, and Palmares continued to flourish in the face of Portuguese and Dutch pressure.

An eyewitness to a Dutch expedition in 1645 described the towns of New and Old Palmares as being surrounded by stakes and gates sealed by fallen trees. It had a range of buildings including churches, smithies, and fountains.

The constant strife, however, took its toll on Ganga Zumba. In 1678, he agreed to a treaty with the Portuguese, obliging him to stop accepting fugitive slaves and acknowledge Portuguese suzerainty. This compromise was rejected by Ganga Zumba’s military commander or nephew Zumbi, who chose resistance. Zumba died, possibly of poison, shortly thereafter. Zumbi then managed to fend off six consecutive Portuguese attacks from 1680–1686 before Palmares finally fell in 1694 and was destroyed in its entirety.

Despite the defeat of Palmares, maroon communities known as quilombos remained widespread in Brazil. Some 700 are identified today. Since the 1980s, they’ve been steadily working to attain legal title to their lands.

3 Great Dismal Swamp Maroons

The charmingly named Great Dismal Swamp of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina consisted of 3,200 kilometers (2,000 mi) of tangling vegetation over marshy ground with an array of bears, snakes, and wildcats. Its apparently inhospitable nature meant it was largely left alone by early European settlers and served as a haven for escaped slaves from the late 1600s through to the Civil War. Having established themselves on small patches of higher ground in the swamp’s interior, the maroon population soon grew to anywhere between a few hundred and 2,000.

However, by the latter decades of the 18th century, the tides of economic progress affected even the isolated and foreboding Great Dismal Swamp in the form of roads, timber companies, and a canal. Perhaps surprisingly, the maroons were partially integrated into this wider economy and found work on lumber operations, construction gangs, and as mule‑drivers. In doing so, they worked alongside slaves, some of whom stayed in the swamp after purchasing their freedom.

In the Civil War, the two sides competed for control of the Great Dismal Canal, which was eventually secured by the Union with help from black troops. Later campaigns in the area saw the maroons provide provisions and scouts for the Union troops and launched guerrilla campaigns into North Carolina. Following emancipation and the close of the war, the swamp was largely abandoned.

2 Miskito Sambu, Nicaragua

In either 1641 or 1652, a Portuguese slave ship sank off the Mosquito Coast in Central America, but a sizeable number made it ashore. Here, they were integrated into the local Miskito, forming their own distinct ethnic sub‑group. The Miskito Sambu (or Zambos), and eventually rose to command the tribe and the coast.

They also struck up an enduring connection with England, partly because a Miskito chief had sent his son, Oldman, to visit England during the reign of King Charles. They adopted the institution of monarchy and were ruled over by a series of kings with firmly British names, like Peter, Edward, Robert, George, Andrew, and even a Prince Wellington. The first of these, King Jeremy (first attested in the last decade of the 17th century) was at least part African, and so were his successors.

The affinity with Britain was confirmed by an official treaty of friendship and alliance in 1740 as well as the British establishment of a protectorate over the coast. It was in this guise that the Miskito harried Spanish territory with some success during the American Revolutionary War, but Britain’s ultimate defeat compelled them to withdraw from the protectorate in 1787. Following the independence of Spain’s colonies, both Honduras and Nicaragua asserted loose control over the Miskito, and Nicaragua annexed the place outright in 1894. The Miskito, many of whom are English‑speaking and Protestant, have sometimes had troublesome relations with their new governments, and fought against the Sandinista government in the 1980s. In doing so, they teamed up with the Contras, who are famous for receiving illegal funding from Ronald Reagan.

1 Black Seminoles

As we have seen, Florida was an attractive destination for many runaway slaves, but not all settled under Spanish authority. Instead, some established their own communities among the Seminole. Here, they lived in their own towns but gave the Seminole an annual tribute and served as translators in negotiations with Europeans.

Eventually, however, tensions with America over runaway slaves resulted in open conflict. Future president Andrew Jackson invaded in the First Seminole War (1817–1818), and Spain ceded Florida to the United States. This also saw a small group of black Seminoles flee the area to settle on Andros Island in the Bahamas, where their community endures to this day. Despite their initial victory, the Americans remained covetous of Seminole land, and their demand that the Seminole move west of the Mississippi River triggered the Second Seminole War (1835–1842). The maroons were a key factor in the dogged resistance encountered by the US Army, stirring up one of the largest slave revolts in US history.

Nevertheless, the Americans emerged victorious (though it cost the lives of 2,000 soldiers and up to $60 million), partly by exacerbating divisions between the black and Indian Seminole. Most were deported to Indian Territory. Dissatisfaction with conditions here led several hundred black Seminoles to take up a Mexican offer to serve as border guards in 1849. Most of these were enticed back in 1870 to serve as Indian Scouts for the US Army, setting up a unit that would last until 1912 and win four Medals of Honor.

However, the US government reneged on a promise to give them land, mainly due to disputes over whether black Seminoles were entitled to Indian land. Some returned to Mexico as squatters, and others re‑joined their compatriots in the Indian Territory, which became Oklahoma.

Finally, following the disbandment of the Scouts in 1912, the 200–300 remaining black Seminoles settled in Brackettville, Texas next to the fort they’d been stationed in. Unfortunately, as with the Cherokee, the black Seminoles have subsequently faced questions over their right to claim Seminole citizenship and the benefits it entitles and have been involved in bitter legal disputes.

10 nobodies who defied the odds and reshaped the world are the focus of this tale. History often forgets the common folk, recording only the deeds of kings and nobles. Yet, every now and then, a forgotten soul bursts onto the scene, topples the elite, and builds an empire that rattles the ages.

10 Nobodies Who Changed History

10 Ya’qub The Coppersmith

Ya’qub al‑Saffar, known as “the Coppersmith,” began life as a poor metalworker in the mid‑ninth‑century city of Zaranj. His brother ‘Amr, a mule driver, lived nearby. At that time, eastern Persia was a cauldron of conflict as the Abbasid caliphs clashed with the radical Kharijites. Amid the chaos, local militias sprang up across the province. Ya’qub and ‘Amr volunteered for one such militia in Zaranj.

Over the ensuing years, Ya’qub seized command of the local forces, drove out bandits, and expanded his authority throughout the region. By 876, his Saffarid Empire stretched across present‑day Iran and Afghanistan. He seemed poised to capture Baghdad and topple the mighty Abbasid Caliphate.

However, fate intervened. The Coppersmith suffered a narrow defeat just fifty miles from Baghdad. Wounded in that battle, he died three years later. His brother ‘Amr succeeded him but could not sustain the empire and was executed in a Baghdad marketplace.

9 Rabih Az‑Zubayr

Rabih Az‑Zubayr entered the world in Sudan sometime in the mid‑nineteenth century. Sold into servitude as a child, he became a slave‑soldier for a local Sudanese ruler. When that prince fell to the Egyptians, Rabih fled into central Africa with roughly four hundred survivors, forming the nucleus of his future empire.

He marched from town to town, forging his rag‑tag band into a disciplined force of five thousand soldiers, complete with an artillery brigade. In the 1890s, he attacked the once‑great Bornu Empire and swiftly overran it, establishing a tightly controlled realm east of Lake Chad.

Rabih’s expansion eventually collided with the ambitions of the French. His outdated rifles and cannons could not match the latest European weaponry. Though he won several victories, including annihilating a French expedition at Togbao, he ultimately fell on the banks of the Logone River in 1900, ending his empire after less than a decade.

8 Nader Shah

The final great Central Asian conqueror, Nader Shah, was born into a low‑status herding family in eastern Persia. Though his beginnings were modest, a monomaniacal thirst for power drove him forward. He appears to have spent a brief stint as a slave before escaping and becoming a bandit. After his armed band helped defeat a local warlord, Nader attracted the attention of Prince Tahmasb, a pretender to the throne.

Prince Tahmasb appointed Nader as his commander, a decision that proved both brilliant and disastrous. Nader quickly distinguished himself as one of history’s greatest generals, amassing victories across the region. Yet his ambition led him to murder Tahmasb and seize the throne, forging an empire that stretched from Georgia to northern India.

In 1739, Nader launched his famed invasion of the Mughal Empire. After crushing the massive Mughal army, he sacked Delhi and captured unimaginable riches, including the famed Koh‑i‑Noor diamond. The spoils were so vast that he could cancel all taxes in Persia for three years. Unfortunately, Nader later displayed signs of mental decline, committing bizarre acts of cruelty. He blinded his oldest son in 1741, then pretended remorse. Alarmed, his own officers assassinated him in 1747, and his empire quickly crumbled.

7 Timur The Lame

Timur the Lame—often called Tamerlane in the West—followed a path similar to Nader’s. Born to a modest family, he began as a petty bandit. Early accounts recount that while stealing sheep, an angry shepherd shot arrows into his leg and arm, leaving him with lasting injuries, a fact later confirmed when archaeologists opened his tomb in 1941.

Timur eventually entered the service of the Chaghatai Khans, rising through their ranks and ultimately usurping the throne. He assembled a massive cavalry that raided and conquered in all directions, creating an army that ruled “from Damascus to Delhi.” He defeated the Golden Horde, razed Baghdad, and even captured the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid the Thunderbolt, briefly crippling Ottoman power.

Timur became infamous for the brutality of his conquests. He erected towers of skulls, enslaved thousands, and razed ancient cities. He succumbed to a bad cold in 1405 while on his way to invade China, leaving his empire to disintegrate after his death.

6 James Brooke

James Brooke, the son of a reasonably wealthy British judge, might have expected a quiet, comfortable life. Yet he never felt at home in nineteenth‑century British society. When his father died, Brooke used his inheritance to purchase an armed schooner and set sail eastward.

In Singapore, he learned that the Sultan of Brunei struggled to control the island of Borneo. Brooke offered assistance on the condition that he be made governor of Sarawak, a vast coastal territory. Though the Sultan was hesitant, he felt pressured by Brooke’s false implication that he acted on behalf of the British government. Reluctantly, the Sultan agreed, and Brooke swiftly asserted his independence as the “White Rajah” of Sarawak.

Brooke solidified his rule by allying with the coastal “Sea Dyaks,” who brutally suppressed inland tribes that resisted. He funded his operation as a pirate hunter, claiming the Royal Navy’s £20 reward for each pirate killed, netting up to £30,000 per expedition. Critics note that many “pirates” were actually local opponents of Brooke. He cultivated a jolly English adventurer persona, yet his regime was founded on bloodshed, including the massacre of 1,500 Chinese in 1857. The Sarawak state outlived him, passing through two more “White Rajahs” before the British purchased it in 1946.

5 The Mahdi Of Sudan

Muhammad Ahmad was born on an island in the Nile near Dongola in northern Sudan. His family were humble boat‑builders, but he pursued a rigorous religious education and earned a reputation for intense devotion and frequent disputes with his teachers. In 1881, he summoned his followers to Aba Island and proclaimed himself the Mahdi, a messianic figure expected to appear before the Day of Judgment in most branches of Islam.

At the time, Sudan was ruled by Egypt, itself effectively a British protectorate. The dual foreign domination sparked heavy resentment, and it seemed miraculous when the Mahdi’s poorly armed followers defeated an Egyptian attempt to arrest him. His movement rapidly grew in strength, culminating in a stunning defeat of the British general “Hicks Pasha” in 1883.

In late 1884, the Mahdists launched the famous siege of Khartoum, defended stoutly by Charles Gordon—better known as “Chinese Gordon”—an eccentric British general likely sharing the Mahdi’s fanatical zeal. The city fell in 1885, leaving Muhammad Ahmad as the undisputed ruler of a religious empire spanning modern Sudan. However, the Mahdi fell ill and died six months later. Deprived of its charismatic leader, his followers could not repel a new Anglo‑Egyptian invasion in 1896.

4 Babak Khorramdin

More than a century and a half after the Muslim conquest of modern Iran, tensions persisted between Arab caliphs and their Persian subjects. Many Persians clung to Zoroastrianism and resented the Arab language and culture’s influence. The brewing unrest found a leader in Babak Khorramdin, a fervent follower of the Zoroastrian prophet Mazdak.

Babak began his career as a guerrilla fighter, launching lightning raids to seize isolated mountain fortresses, including his famously impregnable castle of Ghaleye Babak. As his reputation swelled, Persians flocked to his banner, and by 819 his forces could stand toe‑to‑toe with the Caliph’s armies in pitched battles. Over the next sixteen years, he defeated four Arab armies and earned a reputation as a protector of the poor.

Ultimately, the Abbasid Caliphate’s might proved overwhelming. Babak was driven from his mountain stronghold, captured, and gruesomely executed—his arms and legs were severed, and he was allowed to bleed to death. Shortly before his capture, he famously rejected an offer of amnesty, declaring it “better to live a single day as a ruler than forty years as an abject slave.”

3 Mahapadma Nanda

Greek historian Curtius recounts that the mighty ruler Mahapadma began life as the son of “a barber who earned just enough to eat each day.” Yet he possessed a fine presence that won the queen’s affection. Leveraging this influence, he secured a position of trust, treacherously assassinated the king, and, under the pretext of protecting the royal children, usurped supreme authority.

Indian sources concur, describing Mahapadma as the son of a barber and a prostitute who rose from extreme poverty to become prime minister of a northern Indian kingdom, then overthrew the king and established his own dynasty. He became notorious for slaughtering rival nobles and rejecting aristocratic rules of warfare, earning the Puranas’ epithet “the destroyer of the princely order.” These ruthless tactics proved effective, and by his death in 329 BC, he had expanded his rule to form the most powerful empire India had ever seen.

2 The Slave Dynasty Of Delhi

Qutb al‑Din Aibak founded the “Slave Dynasty” that ruled northern India in the thirteenth century. As the name suggests, he began life as a slave in Nishapur, later sold to Sultan Muhammad of Ghor. As an adult, he was placed in charge of the royal stables and eventually rose to become a military commander, showcasing his talent by conquering Delhi and most of northern India.

After the Sultan was assassinated by unknown assailants, Qutb found himself perfectly positioned to seize power, which he did. Before he could become sultan, he had to secure his freedom, but his heavily armed soldiers made it unlikely his former owner would refuse. The Mamluk (“Slave”) dynasty he founded ruled the Delhi Sultanate until 1290, when a more aristocratic lineage replaced it.

1 Temujin

It’s impossible to imagine a harsher childhood than Temujin’s, the greatest conqueror the world has ever known. At twelve, his father was poisoned by enemies, prompting the tribe to abandon his widowed mother and orphaned children, leaving them destitute. His mother, Hoelun, kept the children alive by gathering food along a riverbank, while young Temujin hunted rats, marmots, and other small game. At fourteen, he killed his half‑brother after an argument over a small fish.

His fortunes worsened when he was captured by the Tayichiuds and forced to work as a slave. A failed escape attempt left him shackled in a cangue, unable to feed himself. He survived only because other slaves aided him, and eventually staged a successful escape by hiding in a river overnight.

Even as a young adult, Temujin led only a modest band, barely scraping a living on the steppe. It was only when his young wife Borte was kidnapped by the Merkids that he organized an expedition to rescue her, setting him on the path to becoming the immortal Genghis Khan.

It’s every entrepreneur’s hope that the business endeavors they undertake will be successful. No one likes being a failure and businesspeople especially like to succeed and make money off of their plans. While some entrepreneurs strike a chord with their customer base and get lucky, others seem to have the ability to make lightning strike twice, or even more often, and come up with multiple business ideas. Often these businesses are complementary and make sense but sometimes an entrepreneur will come up with businesses that are remarkably dissimilar such that you’d never guess the same person was behind each one.

10. The Founder of Atari Also Founded Chuck E. Cheese

Nolan Bushnell is clearly a guy who likes fun which seems to be the only common thread linking his two greatest business achievements. In 1972, Bushnell co-founded what can be considered the grandfather of the modern gaming world – Atari. Long before anyone had a PlayStation, an Xbox or even a Nintendo in their homes, they had the Atari 2600 and were playing extremely simple games like Asteroids and Pong. 

While introducing the concept of home console gaming seems like it should have been enough to keep anyone set for the rest of their lives, that was a long time ago and the industry was a lot different. So Bushnell had to keep working and his next big idea was something of a left turn. He was also the force behind Chuck E. Cheese which he developed at Atari.

Corporate overlords being what they are, the money men were not amused that Bushnell was making singing robots and otherwise wasting time and resources. He was actually kicked out of the company in 1978. Though he never made as big a splash again with his later work, his contributions to pop culture are certainly legendary and just a bit weird. 

9. Lee Byung-chul Founded Samsung But Started Out Running a Dry Goods Company

Samsung’s 2021 revenue was around $244 billion USD. They’re clearly one of the biggest electronics companies in the world and they make everything from phones to washing machines. This diverse approach is ingrained in the company as their origins are even more wide reaching thanks to the founder, Lee Byung-chul, and his dedication to selling pretty much anything. 

That multi-billion dollar empire started with $25 back in 1938 when the future founder opened a dry goods store to sell things like dried fish and other food. The company sold goods from in and around the city of Taegu and had about 40 employees.Because they sold dried food; the company did well during the Korean War in 1950 and branched out. They moved into sugar and then textiles. That worked too, so they expanded into insurance, retail and by the 1960s they were manufacturing electronics. They’d go on to manufacture ships, telecommunications, and pretty much anything else you can think of. 

The family still runs Samsung today, and the company is obviously most well known for its cell phones and electronics, but the company likely wouldn’t exist at all without dried fish and noodles nearly a century in the past.

8. The Founder of Domino’s Also Founded a Law School

We already saw the founder of Chuck E. Cheese was behind Atari and it turns out pizza guys just have a lot of diverse interests. Tom Monaghan, the man behind Domino’s, also started his own law school. He invested $50 million of his own cash in the school back in the late 1990s. The school’s mission? To educate lawyers with a Roman Catholic perspective. 

Monaghan actually divested himself of the pizza chain to devote himself to Catholic causes. He sold Domino’s for $1 billion, so he certainly had the resources to follow his dreams. And the school really was built and still exists today. It’s been sanctioned in the past for having low entrance standards and is considered one of the most conservative law schools in the country.

7. The Inventor of the Lava Lamp Founded a Nudist Resort

Did you ever have a lava lamp growing up? Or, you know, right now? They are very symbolic in most people’s minds of hippie counterculture and the 60s and 70s, though they enjoyed a retro resurgence once or twice since those times. 

Lava lamps were invented in 1963 by a British accountant named Edward Craven Walker. Walker was known for only one other thing in his life and that was his penchant for nudity. The man made underwater nude films.

Prior to inventing the lamp, Walker had made movies with names like “Eve on Skis” which featured naked people doing things naked. One movie was presented as an underwater ballet. Water and nudity really seemed to move him, so much so that after achieving some success with his movies he bought an entire club and founded his own nudist resort. He then tried to ban anyone from showing up if they were overweight. He was quoted as saying he was again “fat fogies” and they were not what naturism was about.

6. The Co-Founder of Paul Mitchell Also Founded Patron Tequila

Paul Mitchell, more correctly known as John Paul Mitchell Systems, is a hair care company dating back to 1980 with an annual revenue of about $1 billion. It’s safe to say Paul Mitchell is doing alright. 

The company was founded by two men – Paul Mitchell himself, and John Paul DeJoria. Mitchell passed away from cancer back in 1989 and Dejoria continued to run the company from then on but he also managed to diversify his portfolio. In addition to the world of hairspray and brushes, Dejoria is also the man behind Patron Tequila, the third best-selling tequila brand in America. That works out to over 3 million cases sold in 2021 alone. Of course, Dejoria doesn’t need to worry about that anymore since he sold the company in 2018 for over $5 billion. 

5. Avi Arad Invented the Skip It and Later was Behind Marvel Studios

Before Kevin Feige was the Man Behind the Curtain at Marvel creating the MCU and more or less printing money for the Walt Disney Corporation, there was another man who put Marvel up on the big screen and that was Avi Arad. He was the producer behind most of those non-MCU films from the ’90s and early 2000s like the X-Men, Blade, Daredevil, Punisher and so on. 

Before Arad was giving us the joy of Nic Cage as Ghost Rider, he worked in toys. Specifically, he worked for a company called Tiger Toys and was the inventor of one of the most popular toys in history, the Skip It. That was a little hoop you hooker around your ankle attached to a ball on a string that would spin around your ankle, forcing you to skip it, hence the name, with your other foot. Arad, along with two others, filed a patent for their version of it in 1990. It was hugely successful and so was Arad. For a time the man was considered basically the biggest toy designer in America. And some of his biggest toys were based on comic books. 

He was already executive producer of cartoons like the X-Men and stated his goal was to “exploit” the Marvel universe characters in toys, shows and films. And that’s how he ended up kicking off the world of Marvel movies. Arguably the MCU would not exist today without Arad and the Skip It. 

4. The Founder of Wikipedia Ran a Porn Site First

Wikipedia is so ubiquitous on the internet these days it’s essentially just what everyone thinks of when they need to know literally anything they don’t already know. It’s one of the top ten most visited sites on the internet and has been for ages. Just a random sampling shows that, in November 2021 alone, the site traffic reached 5.97 billion, making it the fourth most visited site online after Google, YouTube and Facebook.

Despite not generally being accepted as a “real” source for info, it’s a great starting point if nothing else and, according to Wikipedia itself, it has published over 57 million pages of information. 

The site was founded by Jimmy Wales back in 2001. But before that he had started a site known as Bomis which featured things like the “Bomis Babe Report” which featured galleries of half naked women, the Babe Engine which was a search engine for sexy women and, of course, Bomis Premium which was $2.95 per month and gave you access to X-rated content.

It was the money that Wales made from Bomis that allowed him to start Wikipedia and, in fact, Wikipedia was borrowing bandwidth from Bomis in its early years to stay active. He used money made from Bomis to pay to keep the servers online. So while Wikipedia may be a hub of knowledge today, it’s built on a foundation of soft core porn with a dash of hardcore on the side. 

3. The Founder of Toho Also Founded a Railway

Long before Godzilla was a multi-million dollar blockbuster franchise in America it was a multi-million dollar blockbuster franchise in Japan, but with less savvy special effects. Everyone knows the classic man-in-a-suit Godzilla and the Toho company still makes Godzilla movies the same way. 

Toho was founded by Ichizo Kobayashi in 1932 as the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater Co. Kobayashi was a man who dabbled in just about everything and, years before his company would create everyone’s favorite radioactive lizard, he was doing things like starting railroad companies and department stores. 

It was the railroad that inadvertently led to Godzilla, as Kobayashi wanted more customers on his trains so he devised a theater troupe to entertain people. The train theater evolved to normal theater and then later that turned into film. Later his company would not just create Godzilla but Akira Kurosawa’s legendary The Seven Samurai as well. 

2. Donald Duncan Made a Fortune in Yo-Yos and Parking Meters

Donald Duncan counts as a serious threat to the wallet because this man was all over the map with his business dealings and had success on multiple, disparate fronts. While he was once a franchise owner of a Good Humor Ice Cream, it’s not true that he invented the Eskimo Pie as some sources claim. That aside, he did make a name in yo-yos and parking meters. 

In 1946, Duncan Yo-Yos was making 3,600 yo-yos per hour. They sold 45 million in 1962. And when Duncan wasn’t keeping kids busy with a simple hobby, he was annoying their parents with parking fees. The Duncan Parking Meter Company was an idea he came up with years earlier and he managed to convince cities it would be a good way to make money. Though he sold the company in 1959, when he was still in charge, 80% of all parking meters in America were made by Duncan. 

1. Gavin McInnes Founded Vice Media and the Proud Boys

If you don’t know the name Gavin McInnes, that’s alright. His name tends to pop up most often in media circles in terms of his relationship with the media as he’s best known for being on both sides of that world.

McInnes founded Vice magazine in 1994, which grew into Vice Media, which is still very much a media company on the internet. The magazine was a sort of counterculture Canadian news magazine that was very much focused on the punk scene, or at least it filtered news through a sort of punk perspective. Vice Media is maybe best known in the mainstream for its documentary-style videos that were aired on HBO and covered a variety of topics. 

In more recent years, Vice Media has had to go on record to state they are no longer affiliated with McInnes because his other claim to fame is that he founded the Proud Boys. The Proud Boys are described as a neofascist white nationalist organization by Encyclopedia Britannica, and an extremist group with a violent agenda by the Anti-Defamation League.