By: Jabuki

John Hanson (circa: birtdate unknown -1860)

John Hanson was the descendent of a slave. An early Hanson immigrant to Maryland was the John Hanson who was this John's grandfather. Like many, he arrived as an indentured servant, bound by contract to a farm owner. In 1661, his first master, William Plumley, sold his contract to Edward Keene and recorded the contract with the court of Calvert County, Maryland. These same kinds of court records were also used to transfer title to land and slaves. But, in six years, the immigrant John had worked his way out of debt. A few years after he purchased his own first small farm. Source: Dick Gregory (The column can be seen at [2].)

According to the Smithsonian Institute, "On August 11, 1827, John Hanson arrived in Monrovia [Liberia, Africa which the US created] aboard the brig Doris. A former slave who had purchased his freedom, Hanson was thirty-six years old when he left Baltimore and immigrated to Liberia. Settling in Grand Bassa County, he engaged in commerce and in time joined the ranks of Liberia's influential merchant class. In December 1840, Hanson won election to the newly created Colonial Council, Liberia's first popularly elected legislative body. Seven years later, when the independent Republic of Liberia held its first elections, Hanson was one of two senators elected from Grand Bassa County. He served several terms in the Liberian Senate and took a keen interest in his nation's economic development. When Hanson died in 1860, President Stephen Allen Benson mourned him as "a faithful and patriotic servant" whose loss was "very severely felt in Liberia." Source: National Portrait Gallery

The Two Dollar Bill

Who is the black man on the back of the $2.00 bill in the position of honor?

John Trumbull's painting, Declaration of Independence, is the source of the picture on the reverse of the Series 2003A two-dollar bill.

Because the Declaration was debated and signed over a period of time when membership in Congress changed, the men in the painting had never all been in the same room at the same time. Mr. Trumbull also decided to depict several participants in the debate who did not sign the document.

Two unknown figures are superimposed in the engraving in between Samuel Chase and Lewis Morris and between James Wilson and Francis Hopkinson, bringing the total number of figures on the reverse of the two-dollar bill to 42. Could John Hanson be one of the unknown figures on the back of this bill?

Note: The video above inaccurately states the $2.00 bill has been discontinued, a common misconception. However, the Treasury states, "The $2 bill remains one of our circulating currency denominations"...in 2005 alone, 61 million $2 bills were printed by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Black or White

The majority opinion is John Hanson that was President of the United States was a white man.

Curiously, both John Hanson's:

1) Were from Maryland

2) Lived during the time at issue

3) Grew up under a farmer/planter

4) Were indentured servants, or children of, who continued their tradition as planters, extending and improving their holdings

5) Ultimately served in politics

But if the white John Hanson's father, Samuel Hanson, was a "planter who owned more than 1,000 acres" as the Wikipedia states, why did this John Hanson have "no extended formal education while growing up in Maryland" as the Wikipedia entry also states. Not logical for a family of that affluence.

Washington Not The First

However, one fact does appear certain. George Washington was not the first, but the 8th President of the United States.  

The first President of the United States, under the Articles of Confederation [which led to the Constitution] was John Hanson, his term lasting from 1781-1782.

The new country was actually formed on March 1, 1781 with the adoption of The Articles of Confederation which are still on display in the White House today. This document was actually proposed on June 11, 1776, but not agreed upon by Congress until November 15, 1777. Maryland refused to sign this document until Virginia and New York ceded their western lands (Maryland was afraid that these states would gain too much power in the new government from such large amounts of land).

Once the signing took place in 1781, a President was needed to run the country.

John Hanson was chosen unanimously by Congress (which included George Washington). In fact, all the other potential candidates refused to run against him, as he was a major player in the revolution and an extremely influential member of Congress. As the first President, Hanson had quite the shoes to fill. No one had ever been President and the role was poorly defined... 

Sources: Smithsonian Institute, Britannica.com, DickGregory.com, nowpublic.com, JohnHanson.net

Dr. Carter G. Woodson

Americans have been celebrating the recognition of Black History Month since 1926 when historian, Dr. Carter G. Woodson started "Negro History Week". Black history had barely begun to be studied or even documented when the tradition originated.

Enrolled in high school at age twenty, Dr. Woodson was born to parents who were former slaves and spent his childhood working in the Kentucky coal mines. He graduated from high school within two years and later went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard.

The scholar was disturbed to find in his studies that history books largely ignored the black American population-and when blacks did figure into the picture, it was generally in ways that reflected the inferior social position they were assigned at the time.

He established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now called the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History) in 1915, and a year later founded the widely respected Journal of Negro History

In 1926, he launched Negro History Week as an initiative to bring national attention to the contributions of black people throughout American history. Woodson chose the second week of February for Negro History Week because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black American population, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

Sources: Infoplease.com & PJC Corsair