Abraham Lincoln

Did Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the U.S., advise the public on how to predict the future by suggesting that they should create it, instead? No, that's not true: The quote is not authentic, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library confirmed to Lead Stories. The claim reappeared in a post published on Facebook on March 9, 2023. Its caption said:…

Did the driver for John F. Kennedy, Secret Service Agent William Greer, turn around and shoot the former president when JFK was assassinated in Dallas in November 1963? No, that's not true: A video posted on social media that makes this claim provides no supporting evidence beyond its grainy images. There also is no proof elsewhere that Greer played a…

Were there eight presidents of the United States before George Washington and did several Black presidents serve before Barack Obama was elected in 2008? No, that's not true: Washington was the first elected American president. There is a lack of historical evidence; plus, examples of genealogical research and, more recently, DNA testing that show no president prior to Obama was…

Did Americans keep "100%" of their earnings up until 1913? Not exactly: While the 16th Amendment, which taxed individual income, was ratified in 1913, some higher-earning Americans paid income taxes between 1862 and 1872 to pay off the cost of the Civil War to the U.S. government. A tax expert with whom Lead Stories spoke listed additional pre-1913 taxes that…

Is a post saying "Harriet Tubman is not a real person" accurate? No, that's not true: Multiple historians told Lead Stories this claim is false. One of them, the author of "Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom," wrote, "I can suggest that the notion that Harriet Tubman was not a real person, but a manufactured piece of fiction is categorically…

Is it against the law to sell alcohol in Bourbon County, Kentucky, which would make it "dry"? And is Christian County, Kentucky "wet"? No, that's only partly true: A map by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development titled, "Alcoholic Beverage Sales in Kentucky" shows that both Bourbon County and Christian County are "wet." This claim appeared in a Facebook post…

Did the U.S. Supreme Court find the Union -- the name for the United States led by then-President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War -- guilty of "Constitutional Treason" in 1867? No, that's not true: There was never any such ruling by the Supreme Court in 1867, and the quotation by then-Chief Justice Salmon Chase used to justify the claim…

Is this a picture of Abraham Lincoln, who was a runaway slave who changed his identity to avoid being lynched? No, that's not true: The man pictured is an unidentified person who sat for a portrait by Augustus Washington, a daguerreotypist, who was a free man of color and who emigrated to Liberia in late 1853. This daguerreotype was transferred…

Does Mike Lindell's "Absolute Interference" video, his third that purports to prove 2020 election fraud, contain only proven statements? No, that's not true: It contradicts itself and recycles claims that have been debunked before, relying on discredited and anonymous guests who make unsubstantiated and disproven allegations. The video's orienting claim is that foreign and domestic actors hacked the election through…

Is the United States a corporation in the way General Motors is? Is the president the head of a corporation called the United States of America? And are African Americans emancipated but not free? No, none of that is true: this conspiracy theory makes claims based on selection of only one of the several definitions of the word "incorporated" and…