Was Abraham Lincoln a man of color who changed his identity to avoid being lynched?
By Sarah Thompson
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NO
There's a photo of a man with a long, gaunt face and a beard who appears to be a man of color. He has often been identified as President Abraham Lincoln.
The man pictured is an unidentified person who sat for a portrait by Augustus Washington, a free man of color who worked as a daguerreotypist. Washington was born in New Jersey and emigrated to Liberia in 1853, where he took portraits of African American emigres, such as the one pictured, who returned to Africa.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Library of Congress [Unidentified man with beard, half-length portrait, full face]
Newsweek Newsweek: A Self-Made Man
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