Assess the following as probably true, as probably false, as requiring further documentation before judgment, or as a claim that cannot properly be evaluated. Consider both the nature of the claim and the source.Huddie Ledbetter ("Leadbelly") was not only a writer and performer of songs but also an unusually powerful man. Alan Lomax, the historian of American folk music, wrote that "in the Texas Penitentiary he was the number one man in the number one gang on the number one farm in the state-the man who could carry the lead row in the field for 12 or 14 hours a day under the broiling July and August sun." He could pick a bale of cotton in a day-that's 500 pounds!-Adapted from liner notes to the record Leadbelly (Everest recording FS-202)

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Probably true. We find this more likely to be true than the item concerning Bach and an improvised six-part fugue, but one should be warned that claims like this are subject to exaggeration, especially over time. (Legends tend to grow after their subjects are gone.) No source is given for the last claim in the passage, but Lomax knew Ledbetter and probably had at least some firsthand information about his physical prowess.