Maybe I’m just getting old, but the Internet (and even the local and national news) seems to be full of “factual” accounts and stories that are in fact, not true. This morning, I did something that I almost never do — I looked at Facebook. Actually, it was a mistake — I intended to open something else, but my finger must have activated Facebook on my iPad. I started to immediately close it, but something caught my eye — one of my “friends,” who I have no idea who he/she is, had posted in big, bold letters —“Robert E. Lee owned no slaves, but Ulysses S. Grant did own slaves during the Civil War.”
Well….. there was no source mentioned as where this information came from, or even why it was posted.
I closed Facebook and went on to what I originally started to do — but, as the day went on, I got to thinking about that statement — it just didn’t seem right. Pretty much everyone owned slaves around the time of the civil war, so it didn’t make sense that Lee wouldn’t. So a bit of quick extensive research put this statement in the false, or not true, category. I’d guess if it was in the news, the Washington Post would give it four Pinocchios.
Lee personally owned slaves that he inherited upon the death of his mother, Ann Lee. Following the death of his father-in-law, he assumed command of 189 enslaved people. I didn’t dig much more — that was enough to convince me that the statement was false.
When fake information is repeated, it becomes difficult for people to discern what’s real. Unfortunately, we seem to have gotten to the point that when we agree, it’s the truth — when we differ, it’s fake.
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