|
Historical Myths, Lies And Untruths
(U.S.)
RELATED LINKS:
PAGE CONTENTS: Some Myths of American History
Other Stuff
Abraham
Lincoln's Gettysburg Addsress Davy Crockett's Death
at the Alamo Jesse James The Telephone Betsy Ross and the First American
Flag Looking at Civil War Black History Myths Baseball's Greatest Myth
Some Myths
of American History
There is no evidence that Betsy Ross sewed the first U.S. flag.
The story didn't even flutter forth from her relatives until 1870.
George Washington did not toss a dollar
across the Potomac. Even if he did toss something, the dollar didn't come into being until after the U.S. gained
independence.
Francis Scott Key did not write our national anthem. He penned the words then set them to an old
English drinking song. It did not become our national anthem until 1931.
Most of the midnight ride of Paul Revere
was accomplished by other horsemen. It was Samuel Prescott, in fact, who carried the warning to Concord.
The Declaration
of Independence was not approved on July 4, 1776. Only John Hancock, for the assembly, signed it that day. The other signatures
were made on August 2.
George Washington wasn't the first U.S. President. John Hanson was the president of
the Congress of the Confederation and carried the title of president of the U.S., as did eight men after him.
"Yankee
Doodle" is not an American song. It was a British ditty designed to harass ragtag colonists during the French and Indian
War.
We have all heard of the puritans and their extremely
dull ways, but what most people don’t know is that they were not anti-alcohol. In fact, when the Mayflower sailed to
America, its cargo hold contained more beer than water and not long after settlement, the production of rum became the largest
industry in colonial New England.
Other Stuff Boston Tea Party
American colonists
did not protest the Tea Tax with the Boston Tea Party because it raised the price of tea. The American colonists preferred
Dutch tea to English tea. The English Parliament placed an embargo on Dutch tea in the colonies, so a huge smuggling profession
developed. To combat this, the English government LOWERED the tax on tea so that the English tea would be price competitive
with Dutch teas. The colonists (actually some colonists led by the chief smugglers) protested by dumping the tea into Boston Harbor.
Prohitition
The 18th Amendment to the Constitution
(Prohibition) did not outlaw drinking. Drinking alcohol was never outlawed – only making, transporting, and selling
it. Liquor could legally be consumed provided it was purchased before Prohibition. If you want to get pedantic about it, the
18th Amendment did not even outlaw that. It was the Volstead Act that implemented Prohibition that made making, transporting
and selling alcohol illegal. The 21st Amendment would later repeal this amendment but still
make it illegal to transport alcohol in areas where it was still banned (so-called “dry counties”). From
time to time, the 18th/21st Amendment still is the basis for lawsuits between a state and the federal government. For example,
in South Dakota v. Dole (1987), South Dakota claimed that the federal government’s national
minimum drinking age of 21 was a violation of the 21st Amendment but the federal government’s position was upheld 7-2
under the Tax and Spend clause.
Paul Revere's Ride
Paul Revere did not ride all the
way to Concord on 16 April,1775, to warn American Minutemen that the English army was invading. And Charles
Dawes didn’t finish the ride either. Dr. Joseph Warren sent Paul Revere
and Charles Dawes to Concord to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams of the invasion and soon
met Dr. Samuel Prescott returning home from an evening out. All three were soon captured by
the British, but Dawes and Prescott (not Revere) quickly escaped. Some say that Dawes was then thrown from his horse and had
to walk back to Lexington but others claim after the escape he was lost and had to ride back to Lexington. Of the three, only
Prescott finished the ride all of the way to Concord. Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was not
a Republican when he won the 1864 election. By changing the name of his party to “National Union Party”,
Lincoln was able to court Copperhead (War Democrat) voters who would never vote Republican. More than just a name change,
he selected the only southern Democrat senator not to resign his seat, Andrew Johnson,, to
run as vice-president. Despite a convention to raise support for mid-term elections, the Republicans in the party joined
the ranks of the radicals. By March of 1867, Johnson was the only Unionist in office that had not defected and it became a
splinter group of the Democratic Party although ironically the Republicans kept the name of
National Union Republicans for a while and consider it part of their lineage. The Clermont
Robert
Fulton's famous steamship was not named the Clermont. All of the official records list the boat as North River Steam
Boat and even Fulton called it the North River. A later biographer accidentally called it the Clermont,
which was the city it was berthed at. There were other steamboats before the North River and, but like many inventors, Fulton
is given credit because he made the first practical one. His boat ferried passengers on the New York
City/Albany run and usually took all day including an overnight stop. Two side notes: the engine for the North River was built
by another famous inventor who took an existing idea and made it practical – James Watt.
Also, Fulton built a working submarine and called it the Nautilus. John Kennedy was not the
first to say “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
Yes, the misconception is American but the backstory is international. American politicians are renowned for plagiarizing
their best lines from foreign sources. For example, Abraham Lincoln took the phrase “a
government of the people, by the people and for the people” from the preface of John Wycliff’s 1384 edition of
the Bible and current Vice-President Joe Biden cribbed a few speeches while in the Senate
from Labour Party MP Neil Kinnock. This quote thought by many
Americans to be pure Kennedy was actually from Lebanese writer Khalil Gibran in an article
advocating his Lebanese brethren to rebel against the occupying Ottoman Turks.
Copyright ©2010,
Listverse. All rights reserved.
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Addsress Abraham Lincoln did not write the Gettysburg Address on an envelope,
enroute by train, to Gettysburg. Lincoln wrote at least one page of the first draft of the speech in Washington, on
White House stationery, on November 17, 1863. He added the final nine and a half lines, in pencil, when he went to his
bedroom in the Gettysburg home of David Wills the following evening. On the morning of the address, November 19, Lincoln
wrote a new draft, copying the first, and making few changes. There were 239 words in the first and 269 words in the
second draft. Lincoln made a copy of the speech and sent it to the Metropolitan Fair in New York, to be sold for charity.
Lincoln inserted two words which every newspaper had quoted him as using, but which were not in the original draft: "under
God". It is uncertain whether Lincoln actually spoke these words when he gave the speech.
Davy Crockett's Death at the Alamo At 5:00 A. M.on Sunday, March 6, 1836, the epic Battle
of the Alamo began. By 6:30 A. M. the battle was over.
"It was but a small affair" Santa Ana
reportedly said of the Alamo, but Texans tend to think of it as a bit larger affair, contrasting it to the Persians and Spartans
at Thermopylae.
The storming of the Alamo was not so much a battle as a melee and a slaughter. The Mexican dead and wounded
numbered about 600. Five or six prisoners were brought before the commanding general, Santa Ana. He was furious
that these men had been spared, even momentarily, and ordered them executed on the spot. Among the captives was David
Crockett. Though tortured before they were killed, these unfortunates died without humiliating themselves before their
torturers. Santa Ana ordered the bodies of all the Texans burned. The Mexican dead were either paced in trenches and covered
over, or thrown into the San Antonio River.
Even the most Texan of Texas historians eventually abandoned the beloved image
of Davy clubbing the enemy with his rifle "Old Betsy" until overwhelmed and killed in the heat of battle.
Most with an interest in the unvarnished truth agree that we do not need a rifle-swinging balm for our national psyche,
and there is nothing dishonorable in the way Davy died at age 49. The defenders of the Alamo died herically and David
Crockett died as he lived - with courage.
Copyright 1997,
by Dale L. Walker, "Legends and Lies, Great Mysteries of the American West"
Jesse James Jesse James was the equivalent of a modern-day Robin Hood. He stole
from the rich and gave to the poor. Robin Hood probably never really existed except in Middle English folklore.
Jesse James' role as Robin Hood is a similar myth. There is no evidence that any of the loot Jesse stole was distributed
anywhere except amoung his gang members. Jesse James stole from the rich, and the poor, and kept all of the proceeds.
Copyright 1997, by Dale L. Walker, "Legends and Lies, Great Mysteries of the American
West"
The Telephone Antonio Meucci invented the telephone, not Alexander Graham Bell. On June
15, 2002, the United States Congress oficially recognized Meucci as the true inventor of the telephone. Bell received
the patent for a telephonic device mere hours before a patent for a similar device by an inventor named Elisha Gray was filed.
Bell most probably stole the idea for the telephone from designs and drawings by Antonio Meucci that were stored in the laboratory
where Bell Worked. The United States Supreme Court annulled Bell's patent in 1887 on the grounds of fraud and misrepresentation.
Between 1850 and 1862, Meucci developed at least 30 different models of working telephones. He never profitted from
his invention and died poor in 1889. Excerpted
from the book "American Firsts (Innovations, Discoveries, and Gadgets Born in the U.S.A.)", by Stephen J. Spignesi,
©2004 by Stephen J. Spignesi. Used without permission, but with the best of intentions.
Betsy Ross and the First American Flag
by Jone Johnson Lewis & Elizabeth Griscom Ross
Ashburn Claypoole
Betsy Ross made the first American flag after a visit in June
1776 by George Washington, Robert Morris, and her husband's uncle, George Ross. She demonstrated how to cut a 5-pointed star
with a single clip of the scissors,if the fabric were folded correctly.
So the story goes -- but this story was not told until 1870
by Betsy's grandson, and then even he claimed it was a story that needed confirmation. Most scholars agree that it was not
Betsy who made the first flag, though she was a flagmaker who, records show, was paid in 1777 by the Pennsylvania State Navy
Board for making "ship's colours, &c."
She was born Elizabeth Griscom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
to Samuel and Rebecca James Griscom. She was the great-granddaughter of a carpenter, Andrew Griscom, who had arrived in New
Jersey in 1680 from England.
Young Elizabeth probably attended Quaker schools and learned needlework
there and at home. When she married John Ross, an Anglican, in 1773, she was expelled from the Friends Meeting for marrying
outside the meeting. She eventually joined the Free Quakers, or "Fighting Quakers" because they did not adhere strictly to
the historic pacifism of the sect. John and Elizabeth (Betsy) Ross began an upholstery business together, drawing on her needlework
skills.
John was killed in January 1776 on militia duty when gunpowder exploded
at the Philadelphia waterfront. Betsy acquired property and kept up the upholstery business, beginning to make flags for Pennsylvania
as well.
In 1777 Betsy married Joseph Ashburn, a sailor, who had the misfortune
of being on a ship captured by the British in 1781. He died in prison the next year.
In 1783, Betsy married again -- this time, her husband was John Claypoole,
who had been in prison with Joseph Ashburn, and had met Betsy when he delivered Joseph's farewells to her. He died in 1817,
after a long disability.
Betsy lived until 1836, dying on January 30. She was reburied in the Free
Quaker Burying Ground in 1857.
When Betsy's grandson told his story of her involvement with the first
flag, it quickly became legend. published in Harper's Monthly in 1873, by the mid-1880's the story was included in
many school textbooks.
What made the story turn into legend so quickly? Probably three social
trends helped:
- changes in women's lives, and social recognition of such changes, made
discovering a "founding mother" to stand alongside "founding fathers" attractive to American imagination. Betsy Ross was not
only a widow making her own way in life with her young child -- widowed patriotically in the American Revolution not once,
but twice -- but she was earning a living by a traditionally women's occupation: seamstress. (Notice that her abilities to
buy and manage land never made it into her legend, and are ignored in many biographies.)
- A growing patriotic fever connected with the American flag required a
tale that was more than just a business transaction, such as the probably-true story of Francis Hopkinsin.
- The growing advertising industry made the woman with a flag a popular
image, used to sell a variety of products (even flags) - see a sample image at the right.
Ignoring many other stories of women's involvement in the American Revolution,
Betsy Ross became a prominent character in the telling of the story of America's founding.
Today, a tour of Betsy Ross' home in Philadelphia (there is some doubt
about its authenticity, too) is a "must-see" when visiting historical sites. The home, established with the aid of two million
ten-cent contributions by American schoolchildren, is still an interesting and informative tour. One can begin to see what
home life was like for families of the time, and to remember the disruption and inconvenience, even tragedy, that war brought
to women as well as to men.
Even if she did not make the first flag -- even if the visit by George
Washington never happened -- Betsy Ross was an example of what many women of her time found as the reality in time of war:
widowhood, single motherhood, managing household and property independently, quick remarriage for economic reasons (and, we
can hope, for companionship and even love, too).
Did Betsy Ross make the first flag or not? It seems unlikely that she did.
The first person to tell the story was her grandson, many years after her death.
I've received emails telling me that I should not be "unpatriotic"
by debunking this story, beloved of generations of schoolchildren and teachers.
But what's "unpatriotic" about telling the truth? Isn't history
about trying to get to the truth behind the stories that people tell?
Betsy Ross was, indeed, a flagmaker, a successful businesswoman
who transcended personal tragedy both during the American Revolution and after.
Like many women in times of war, she supported herself and
her child, managing a household and a business, and making the best of the circumstances of her life. What's unpatriotic
about that, even if she didn't make the first American flag?
| ©2007 About, Inc., A part of The New York Times Company. All
rights reserved. |
Looking at Civil War Black History Myths
by Eddie L. Johnson
I've never been a big fan of Black History Month. While the intent is
good, I'd like to see black history become a far more integral part of our national consciousness and educational system.
Relegating the celebration to the shortest month of the year gives short
meaning to the many contributions African Americans have made to this nation.
The often stated myth, Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, is the first
one I shall mention.
The Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on Jan. 1, 1863,
didn't free a single slave that Lincoln was in a position to set free. It ordered the release of slaves in "any state or designated
state" that was in rebellion against the federal government. Even worse, Lincoln exempted from his order slaves held in parts
of the south that were under control of the Union Army. He excluded 48 counties of Virginia that would later become West Virginia.
His order also left enslaved Africans Americans in New Orleans and twelve Louisiana parishes, as well as slaves in Portsmouth
and Norfolk, Virginia, and seven surrounding counties occupied by Union forces.
Slavery was actually ended on Dec. 18, 1865, eight months after Lincoln's
assassination, when the Constitution's 13th Amendment was ratified.
The second greatest myth about slavery is entitled "The Reason for
the Civil War." The Civil War was fought over states' rights, not slavery. In his famous speech, Confederate Vice
President Alexander Stephens acknowledged the central role slavery played in the Civil War. "Our government is founded upon
the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man, and that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural
and normal condition."
Stephen was no off the wall loose cannon. He helped draft the Confederate
Constitution, and his words were backed up by a section of the document, which forbade the Confederate Congress from enacting
any law "denying or impairing" the right of white to own slaves.
© 1995-2007 Ottaway Newspapers, Inc., the Local Media Group of Dow
Jones.
Any reproduction for other than personal use will be considered a violation of copyright.
Baseball's Greatest Myth In my opinion, baseball's greatest myth and untruth is
that Abner Doubleday invented baseball. There is not the slightest bit of evidence that he invented the
game of baseball in 1839, or ever. In fact, he probably never even played the sport.
Quite frankly, there is no reason to honor Cooperstown, New York, as the birthplace of baseball. It's
quite unlikely the citizens of Cooperstown knew what baseball looked like until the 1860s, or later.
A report
prepared by A. G. Mills, in 1907, named Abner Doubleday, of Cooperstown, New York, as the game's founder, and claimed
1839 as the year Doubleday invented the sport. Mills was the third president of the National League, and
his report, for unknown reasons, contained very little factual information regarding baseball's beginning.
From beginning to end, his report was filled with inaccuracies. Until Mills issued his report on
December 30, 1907, no one in Cooperstown was aware that anyone named Abner Doubleday ever played baseball there.
Mills was the person responsible for creating the reserve
clause, in 1880, which bound a player for life to the first team with which he signed - until the advent of free agency
in the early 1980s, a result of the players' strike in 1981.
Nobody
knows for certain how baseball began, or who invented it. By the 1830s, baseball was being played in several
cities along the Atlantic seaboard under a variety of names. It was known as “Town Ball” in
Boston and Philadelphia, and “One Old Cat” or “Two Old Cat” in New York. No one
knows for certain when the term “base ball” - two words - was first used.
Around
1841, teams in New York decided that more and better rules were needed. The New York Knickerbockers formed
a committee to develop standard rules, and a draftsman named Alexander Cartwright headed the committee.
It
was Cartwright's idea to put the bases 90 feet apart. It was also his idea that,
to retire a base runner, the ball had to be thrown to a defensive baseman rather that at
the runner, a practice in use at the time, called “plugging”. He also determined that each
side's time at bat be limited to three outs, and that there were to be nine players to a a side. Previously,
anyone available got to play in the game. Other improvements were also made. Canvas
sacks were put down as bases. The pitcher's distance was forty-five feet from home plate.
In 1881, the distance was increased to fifty feet. In 1893, it became sixty feet. When
a surveyor misread “60 f.” as “60-6”, he established the pitching distance at sixty feet, six inches,
the distance it is today.
In the last half of the 19th century,
Cartwright's rules were amended occasionally. A rule was introduced in 1857 stating that a game was
to be decided by nine innings of play, and not on the basis of the first team to score 21 runs. The called
strike was introduced in 1858. Most of the rules introduced by Cartwright are still in force today.
Most baseball historians generally regard Alexander Cartwright as the true inventor of baseball. Abner
Doubleday should be remembered only as a capable Civil War general and certainly not as
the inventor
of America's pastime, and New York City, instead of Cooperstown, should be honored as the birthplace of baseball.
Resource: “Great Sports Hoaxes” by George
Sullivan, copyright 1983 by George Sullivan.
|
