The image is partially accurate but highly misleading in how it presents the facts.
What the document actually says (and why it’s real)
The screenshot shows a genuine historical document from Alabama Governor Andrew B. Moore in December 1860 (around December 8). It begins:
“Whereas, the election of Abraham Lincoln, a Black Republican, to the Presidency of the United States, by a purely sectional vote, and by a party whose leading and publicly avowed object is the destruction of the institution of Slavery…”
This matches verified historical records. Southern secession documents and letters from Alabama (and other states) repeatedly used the phrase “Black Republican” to describe Lincoln and the Republican Party. It appears in official communications, including appointments of commissioners to other Southern states to coordinate secession.
“Black Republican” was a common pejorative slur in the 1850s–1860s, especially among Democrats and Southerners. It did not mean Lincoln was racially Black. It meant:
- The Republican Party was “Black” in the sense of being pro-Black / abolitionist / sympathetic to African Americans (opposed to the expansion of slavery into territories).
- It was a race-baiting tactic to scare voters: “These Republicans want racial equality, negro superiority, or the end of slavery and the Southern way of life.”
Similar terms included calling Republicans “negro lovers” or accusing them of wanting interracial marriage. Stephen Douglas used it against Lincoln during the 1858 debates. After Lincoln’s 1860 election, Southern newspapers and politicians amplified it to justify secession. The Alabama document uses it exactly in that context—to portray Lincoln’s victory as an existential threat to slavery.
The misleading part: The photo and the implication
The image pairs the text with a portrait of a Black man (likely a 19th-century photo of an African American, possibly intended to represent Frederick Douglass or another figure, though it doesn’t match known photos of him exactly). This creates the false impression that the document is calling Lincoln racially Black or that he was secretly Black.
Abraham Lincoln was not Black. He was a White man of English and possibly other European ancestry, born in Kentucky in 1809 to Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Contemporary descriptions note his dark complexion, coarse black hair, and tall, lanky build (he sometimes jokingly called himself a “long black fellow”), but these refer to his appearance as a White man with a ruddy/swarthy look common in frontier life—not African ancestry. Rumors that Lincoln had Black heritage (or that his mother was part Somali, etc.) have circulated since the 1800s, often pushed by opponents or later conspiracy theorists, but they are unsubstantiated and rejected by historians. No credible genealogical or DNA evidence supports them.
The viral meme format (overlaid text + wrong photo + “we know the truth” hashtags like #weknowthethru) is classic historical misinformation. It takes a real document, twists the meaning of “Black Republican,” and uses a mismatched Black portrait to imply a “hidden Black president” conspiracy. This trope pops up in certain online spaces (TikTok, certain X/Instagram accounts) to rewrite Civil War history or push narratives about “hidden Black contributions” or “stolen history.”
Broader context
- Lincoln was anti-slavery (he opposed its expansion and saw it as morally wrong), but he was not a radical abolitionist like John Brown. He supported colonization (sending freed Blacks to Africa or elsewhere) for much of his career and explicitly rejected full social/political equality between races in the 1858 debates (while still arguing slavery was wrong).
- The Republican Party of 1860 was the anti-slavery-expansion party, not a modern-style “Black party.” Many Republicans were racist by today’s standards.
- Secessionists used fear of “Black Republican” rule to rally support. Lincoln’s election (without winning a single Southern state) was the trigger for Southern states to leave the Union.
Accuracy verdict
- The quoted text is real and historically accurate as a Southern secession document.
- The interpretation (Lincoln was Black) is false — it’s a deliberate or ignorant misreading of 19th-century political slang.
- The photo is almost certainly not Lincoln and is used deceptively.
This is a good example of how real primary sources get weaponized in modern rage-bait or revisionist content. The document proves how heated racial rhetoric was in 1860—it doesn’t prove a secret Black president. Lincoln was the first Republican president, elected on an anti-slavery-expansion platform, which the South saw as an attack on their system. That’s the actual history.
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