The true stories behind the myths
The Boston Tea Party wasn't about high taxes: The real story behind it
Image: https://www.loc.gov/item/99405158/, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Was the Declaration of Independence really signed on July 4? Did Paul Revere actually shout, "The British are coming"? Was the Wild West truly a lawless frontier where everyone carried a gun? We all grew up learning about American history, but certain details have been greatly distorted and exaggerated over time. From George Washington’s "wooden teeth" to the truth about executions during the Salem witch trials , these are 10 famous moments in American history that aren’t quite what we were taught.
1
George Washington had wooden teeth
It’s hard to find a citizen who hasn’t heard about George Washington’s "wooden teeth." But although it’s one of the most repeated stories in U.S. history, it’s actually a myth.
Washington did have serious dental problems. He began losing his teeth in his twenties, around 1752–1755, and by his 1789 inauguration, he had only one natural tooth left. But he wasn’t walking around toothless. Washington wore several sets of dentures made from many materials available at the time. His four documented sets included hippopotamus and elephant ivory, brass screws, gold wire, lead, and real human teeth, but never wood. So where did the myth come from? Historians believe dark wines such as port or Madeira stained the hairline cracks in his ivory dentures over time, giving them a darker, wood-like appearance.
2
Paul Revere rode alone, shouting "The British are coming!"
"The British are coming!" is so ubiquitous that we rarely stop to question how much of the story actually happened.
Much of the version we know comes from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1860 poem, Paul Revere’s Ride . But the real events of April 18, 1775 were different. First, Revere didn’t shout the warning from horseback. He quietly knocked on doors to avoid British patrols and warned that "the Regulars are coming out," referring to British Army regulars, as recounted in a 1798 letter to Jeremy Belknap, the corresponding secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society. "The British are coming" would have been confusing because many colonists still considered themselves British. Revere also didn’t ride alone; he rode with William Dawes and later Dr. Samuel Prescott, while at least 40 riders spread the alarm. In addition, Revere was eventually captured outside Lexington, Mass., but Prescott escaped and continued to Concord.
3
George Washington chopped down a cherry tree
One of the most universally repeated stories about George Washington’s childhood is actually fiction.
Mason Locke "Parson" Weems, an early Washington biographer and traveling bookseller, published The Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington in 1800, less than a year after Washington’s death. But in the fifth edition, published in 1806, Weems added a new story: At about six years old, Washington damaged his father’s prized cherry tree with a hatchet. When confronted, he reportedly confessed, "I cannot tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet." However, there’s no evidence the incident ever happened. No letters, diaries, or family accounts mention it; not even earlier editions of Weems’ biography. But the story stuck, and by the early 1830s, it was already being taught in schools.
4
The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776
We tend to think the Declaration of Independence was voted and signed once and for all on July 4, 1776, but the truth is a little more complicated.
On July 2, the Continental Congress voted for independence, prompting John Adams to believe that the date would be celebrated forever. Two days later, on July 4, Congress formally adopted the Declaration’s final text, but none of them signed that day. The first printed broadside was signed only by Congress President John Hancock and Secretary Charles Thomson on July 5. On July 19, Congress ordered the Declaration to be handwritten on parchment so the delegates could sign it. I t wasn’t until August 2 that 56 delegates began signing the official document, and some signed even later.
5
People were burned at the stake in Salem
The infamous Salem witch trials are one of the most notorious and tragic events in American history. But one key detail many people believe about them is inaccurate.
Colonial Massachusetts followed English law, under which witchcraft was considered a serious crime and an offense against God. Between 1692 and 1693, the infamous witch trials took place in Salem, where a total of 21 people, 14 of them women, were executed by hanging. But none were burned at the stake. That part of the story comes from medieval Europe, where thousands of people accused of witchcraft, including Joan of Arc, were indeed burned at the stake.
6
Immigrants' names were changed at Ellis Island
Changes, differences, or unusual spellings in some foreign surnames are often blamed on alleged mistakes made by inspectors at Ellis Island in New York Harbor. But that’s not actually what happened.
From its opening on January 1, 1892, through 1924, Ellis Island received millions of immigrants from around the world, many fleeing wars or coming to America in search of a new life. But immigrants’ names weren’t changed when they arrived at the island. Inspectors didn’t write down or assign immigrants’ names. Instead, they checked each person against ship manifests, passenger lists that had already been prepared at the port of departure in Europe. In fact, roughly one-third of the inspectors were immigrants themselves, and translators were available for about 60 languages. Official name changes usually happened later, during the naturalization process, when immigrants became U.S. citizens. These changes were carefully documented beginning with the Naturalization Act of 1906.
7
The Wild West was a lawless gun-slinging frontier
The evocative idea that the Wild West was a lawless place where everyone carried guns, and chaos reigned, is one shaped by 19th-century pulp fiction and later cemented by Hollywood.
In reality, the American frontier was often more orderly and community-driven than we tend to assume today. In fact, many famous frontier towns had strict gun laws. Dodge City, Deadwood, and Tombstone, for example, required visitors and residents to surrender their firearms to the local sheriff or a hotel upon entering town. During its most notorious decade, 1876–1885, Dodge City averaged just 1.5 murders per year.
8
Prohibition banned alcohol completely
Many people still believe that Prohibition completely banned alcohol in the United States, but that wasn’t the case.
The Volstead Act, passed in 1919, and the 18th Amendment, which took effect in 1920, were intended to put an end to alcohol across the nation, but they also contained major exceptions and loopholes that people quickly learned to exploit. The law prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages, but it didn’t ban the possession, purchase, or consumption of alcohol. In addition, doctors could legally prescribe liquor for certain medical conditions, including anxiety, the flu, and depression. As a result, millions of gallons of "medicinal" whiskey were prescribed each year until Prohibition ended in 1933 with the 21st Amendment.
9
Betsy Ross designed and sewed the first American flag
The Betsy Ross legend claims that in 1776, a committee that included George Washington visited her and asked her to sew the first U.S. flag from a rough design featuring 13 red and white stripes and 13 six-pointed stars. But that’s not exactly how it happened.
Betsy Ross, born Elizabeth Griscom, was a Philadelphia upholsterer, flagmaker, and business owner who lived during the American Revolution. She did make flags for the government, making her a perfect historical figure for the story. But historians have found no diaries, letters, or official documents from the 1770s mentioning a meeting between Ross and Washington. The story didn’t appear until 1870, nearly a century after the American Revolution, when her grandson, William J. Canby, presented it to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Official records instead point to Francis Hopkinson, a Continental Congress delegate and signer of the Declaration of Independence, as the more likely designer of an early U.S. flag.
10
The Boston Tea Party was a spontaneous protest against high taxes
Popular myth portrays the Boston Tea Party of 1773 as a sudden, spontaneous outburst by angry colonists protesting high taxes on tea. But it was actually quite the opposite.
In fact, the Tea Act of 1773 lowered the price of legal tea by giving the British East India Company a tax exemption. Tea sold through the company could be cheaper than ever before. The protest was driven not by a tax increase, but by anger over the special privileges given to a powerful British corporation. Colonial merchants, including wealthy smugglers like John Hancock, feared the company’s advantage would hurt their businesses. Additionally, the December 16 protest was anything but spontaneous. It was a carefully organized political action led by the Sons of Liberty, an activist group associated with figures such as Samuel Adams, one of the most influential Founding Fathers.
