this post was submitted on 16 May 2026
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Today I Learned

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From Wikipedia:

Caesar (c. 1737 (supposedly) – 1852) was a slave who is notable for possibly being the earliest-born person ever photographed while alive, when his daguerreotype was taken in 1851.[1] He was also the last slave to be manumitted in New York.

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[–] SalamenceFury@piefed.social 5 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

He does not look a day over 70. Black does not crack, indeed.

[–] arrow74@lemmy.zip 11 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

He probably wasn't. From my understanding his age cannot be confirmed. People do lie to have clout even 200 years ago.

Or more simply the rely on memory which is not trustworthy. He outlived everyone who knew his birth year. All he had to do was say I think I'm xx years old and then he was

But we can of course hope

[–] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 hours ago

I mean, looking at the timeline he was probably still over 100. Of course this could mean anything between 100 and 115 or technically he could be 200 for all we know. There are strange cases in churches for example where looking back at the records there should be 150+ yo people but most of these are proposed to be cases where two people are noted down with the same name and they miss the birth of one and miss the death of one. There are even tombstones that claim such long lives. Only with modern technology can we actually confirm the ages of people now, especially with digital records. For a while now the last people who were born in the 19th century are dead which makes confirmation easier with the years.