Sam Hyde
Sam Hyde (sometimes spelled Hide) is an expression commonly used in New England as a measure of someone’s ability to utter falsehoods, as in “lie like Sam Hyde.” Some believe that he was a real person in colonial Massachusetts, others believe him to be purely apocryphal.
Most tales of Sam Hyde agree that the name was given to a Native American, likely of the Mohegan tribe, who lived several decades before the Revolution. This designation allows for the absence of any records describing the birth of a Sam Hyde or Hide in the Massachusetts colony, when all births (and deaths) were recorded in Parish registers.
Tales of Sam Hyde also support this belief by presenting Hyde’s use of broken English dialect, in the manner of “me good” and his lack of any visible means of support. The racial prejudices of the day also took into account the widely held belief that Indians lied habitually and without any remorse. Finally, the records of Dedham Massachusetts contain reference to a Sam Hide at the age of 105, noted as being a sachem – a leader of a Native tribe or group.
Besides being used as a measuring stick for stretchers of the truth, Hyde is referred to as being quick witted, entertaining, a prankster, and a great lover of cider, which in the pre-revolutionary days of New England refers to an alcoholic beverage today known as hard cider. Many of the tales told about Sam Hyde are based on his use of trickery to obtain cider.
For example, when confronted by one neighbor, whom he had fooled into giving him some cider by telling him there was a recently shot deer under a tree in a meadow (there was no deer) an indignant Hyde demanded if it was good if an Indian told the truth half the time. When informed that it was, Hyde claimed that there had been a meadow and there had been a tree, and even though there was no deer he had told the truth at least twice. Sam Hyde is likely a myth, based on old racial stereotypes and Puritan morality, but one never knows.