"When somebody that famous and that beloved dies, it's very hard for people to accept that just an ordinary person killed them."
She didn't find evidence to support that rumor but has an explanation for its existence. She also looked into the allegation that Johnson was somehow connected to the plot that murdered Lincoln. Gordon-Reed wasn't able to ascertain with certainty whether the story is true, but "in deference to Dolly, a teenage enslaved girl," she thought it was worth mentioning in the story of Johnson's life. "Within a few years, she had two children that were listed as mulatto in the census, and she was listed as black," she explains. The woman in question was Dolly, whom Johnson bought when she was a teenager. "As you can imagine, in political campaigns people throw lots of things around," says Gordon-Reed.
For example, the allegation has been made that one of his slaves was his mistress, and that she bore him children. Gordon-Reed also investigated a number of stories that have circulated about Johnson since the time he took office.
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