Mathew Henson 

Explorer

I think I am going to do a series of PLEASE SOMEONE IN HOLLYWOOD MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT THIS PERSON

Tell me at the end if you would not sit and binge an entire series about Mathew Henson one of the first people to go to the NorthPole in our Black History month for I Can’t Believe That Happened.

Born August 8 1866 on a farm in Maryland

He was the middle child with an older and a younger sister

His parents were free sharecroppers who escaped to Georgetown after the KKK made southern Maryland too violent to stay.

Mathew was orphaned at a young age and raised by his uncle in Washington DC.

He earned money by washing dishes in a restaurant.

During the speeches of 1863 Mathew was deeply inspired by Fredrick Douglas.

At the age of 12 he became a cabin boy on the Katie Hines traveling to ports in China, Japan, Africa, and the Russian Arctic. 

During his time on the Hines he was educated by the ship’s captain

When he returned to land he worked in a clothing store where he met Commander Robert E Peary. Once Robert learned of Mathew’s sea experience eh recruited him for a surveying tour of Nicaragua. Mathew impresses Peary on the voyage and became first man on all upcoming trips.

For twenty years the expeditions centered around the arctic where they traded heavily with the Inuit. Mathew learned their language and was said to be the only non Inuit who became skilled in driving the sled dogs and training the dogs in the Inuit way.

He was a skilled craftsman who learned to build igloos from snow and other mobile housing.

In 1909 Peary mounted an expedition to reach the North Pole. He and Mathew boarded the Roosevelt leaving Greenland along with four Inuit assistants, Four Inuit guides named Egingwah, Ooqueah, Ootah, and Seeglo, and were the first people to set foot on the North Pole.

Mathew was one of six chosen to make the final leg of the journey. Reports have it that Henson was no longer able to continue by foot and used the dog sled to scout ahead of the group.

Henson was the one to plant the American flag.

There was much controversy about the story but their accounts are backed up by the National Geographic association as well as the Naval Affairs Subcommitee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 1912 he wrote a book about his experiences traveling widely to give speeches about his experiences. Though Henson was a very important part of the expedition it was Peary who received most of the fame and focus. Henson spent years working as a clerk.

Long overdue in 1937 Henson was given membership to the New York Explorers Club.

Congress awarded him the Peary Polar Expedition Medal in 1944

He was honored by President Truman and President Eisenhower before he died in 1955

Bibliography

https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/explore/notable-graves/explorers/matthew-henson

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/may/24/matthew-henson-arctic-explorer-first-man-to-north-pole

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