I chose Matthew Henson because I though it would be cool to do a modern day exploer!  If I could meet him I would ask him how it felt to be ignored by the white community.  He was born in1866 and died in1955.   He was a great salior and was very intelagint.  For more information go to Profile: African-American North Pole Explorer Matthew Henson Go Matthew Henson!  Here is a recoded interview whith the one and only Matthew Henson!

Matthew Henson podcast

You’ve heard of Columbus who sailed in 1492.  You’ve heard of Hudson, the bay and the explorer, and you’ve heard of those big hairy Vikings with their battle axes.  But have you ever heard of Matthew Alexander Henson?  This article will state the amazing and brave things that the black explorer Matthew Henson did to be a truly Famous American! 

       Matthew Alexander Henson was born on August 8, 1866 in Charles County Maryland.  He moved to Washington D.C. when he was young.  He moved because of the great opportunities for blacks, including voting rights.

 His mother died when he was seven so he went to live with his uncle who lived in the same city.  His uncle sent him to N-Street school which was one of the first schools to open for African Americans.  He attended school until the sixth grade (which in that time was a long time).  At 14 he got a job as a cabin boy for Captain Childs.  As a cabin boy he went to the Philippines, China, Japan, France, Spain, North Africa, and Southern Russia.  After one trip he soon became a great seaman and could build sea chests and could fix the engine if it broke.  Captain Childs also taught Matthew reading, math, and history using a huge library with books on multiple subjects.  Matt (Matthew) was devastated when his mentor, Captain Childs died on a voyage and was buried at sea.

       After the death of Captain Childs, Matt decided to get a job on land.  As an adult he lived in Washington D.C.  For a while he did many jobs and eventually worked as a stock boy at a store, Steinmetz and Sons.  There, he met Lieutenant Robert E. Peary, a civil engineer for the Navy. 

Peary was ten years older than Matt.  Peary wanted Henson as a personal servant on a trip to Nicarague.  Peary was going to survey a canal for the United States government.  They started sailing to Nicarague in November 1887.  He was 21 years old when he set sail toNicarague. 

During the voyage he started to manage the camp.  Unfortunately, the canal Peary surveyed was never built.  The U.S government later built the Panama Canal rather than the one Peary surveyed. 

During the trip Peary got to know Henson as a hard working man, and decided to share his dream of being the first man to lead an expedition across the ice cap of Greenland, with Matt.  After the trip Matt returned to his old job while Peary set off to raise money for the expedition.  Unfortunately another man beat them to crossing Greenland while Peary was still raising money. The man that beat them was a Norwegian named Fridtjof Nanson.  Nanson had only crossed the southern part, so Peary decided to explore the Northern bigger part and requested Matt’s assistance.

  Peary also thought Greenland would lead to the North Pole which he was hoping to discover.  So Matt joined him in Philadelphia.  They raised just enough money to do the expedition that year but Matt would not get paid.  He went anyway.  They left in June 1891.  Their ship was named the Kite.  Peary’s wife was coming on the trip.  The ship was filled with enough food and supplies for 18 months.  The Kite dropped bay in McCormick Bay.  There, Matt built a house for the men to live out the winter in.  Some other men went to find some Inuit to hire.  They would make fur clothing and hunt for the men.  August 8, during the trip, was Matt’s twenty-fifth birthday.  Mrs. Peary cooked him a huge dinner.  This was his first party.  Matt was deeply moved by this action. 

A few days later the other men returned with a family of Inuit.  Because of Matthew’s black skin the Inuit thought that he was one of them (the Inuit had black skin as well).  The Inuit called him ‘Mi Paluk’.  His name meant dear little Matthew.  He was moved by this too.  Matt hunted with the Inuit and learned from them how to build and use igloos and dog sleds.  Plus they taught Matt how to survive in the cold, barren landscape.  Over the trip he soon learned to love the Inuit. 

Unfortunately, during their first expedition, Matt got a frozen heel and Peary sent him back to the camp to recuperate and watch over Mrs. Peary.  Only Peary and one other man made it across Greenland but they had not found out if Greenland led to the pole.

Once they returned to New York, Henson helped Peary raise money for a second expedition on a three month speaking tour where he brought dogs and dogsleds which he used to illustrate arctic life. While they were raising money, Peary found out that Nansen also wanted to reach the pole and knew that he had to work quickly or be out done again by the Norwegian.

   Their second expedition left from Philadelphia on June 26, 1893, the same day as Nansen’s.  Their second ship was named the Falcon.  During this second expedition Matt was asked to stay back again, not because of an injury but because Peary thought only a college educated man could deal with the problems that could arise (Matt never got to go to college).  The others set out without him on March 6, 1893 and returned on April 20, only having gone 128 miles.

In July 1894 all but three people on the previous expedition left to go back to the states, this included Mrs. Peary who was expecting a baby.  Only Matthew and a man named Hugh Lee stayed with Peary to give Greenland another shot.  The remaining men set off on their third try on April 1, 1895.  They were accompanied by three Inuit, six sleds filled with supplies, and 60 dogs.  The Inuit turned back at the Ice Cap but the others trudged on.  Fifteen miles from the Ice Cap Lee got sick and they had to stop and take shelter.  The dogs grew so hungry they attacked the men.  The men tried to find a route but failed that expedition.  They returned back to the base camp on June 25.  When they returned they had one dog left and the men were close to starvation. 

Even though they did not reach the pole Matt was happy, he had proven to Peary that even though he did not go to college he could still deal with the problems that could arise.  When they returned to New York Matt presented The Museum of Natural History with walrus hides.  The curator was very impressed with the preparation of the hides that he offered Matt a job.  During his future expeditions Matt would bring back the largest collection of arctic artifacts the museum had ever gotten. 

Peary had finally decided that Greenland did not lead to the North Pole.  So Peary decided to go through the frozen Arctic Ocean.  Peary requested Mat’s assistance once again.  Mat liked his job at the museum and did not like the cold arctic but went to bring honor to blacks. 

Peary, Matt, and a doctor named Dedrick set sail on their new ship the Windward on a fourth year expedition.  They left on their forth expedition on July 4, 1898.  Unfortunately their ship became icebound 300 miles from the Arctic Ocean.   They had to move 250 miles to Fort Conger.  During the move Peary lost eight of his toes. When they returned to New York Matthew got a job as a Pullman car porter for the Pennsylvania Railroad.  Matt planned to marry Lucy Ross but Matt wanted to do one more expedition. 

Their ship set off for their fifth expedition on July 1905 and returned on December 1906.  Their ship was named the Roosevelt.  It had been specially made to crash though ice.  Peary, Mat and three other men, a doctor, a teacher, and the ships captain would be on the expedition.  Matt was the arctic expert and along with the Inuit that would accompany them, Matt would teach the others how to survive.  Their ship, the Roosevelt, barely made the voyage.  The ship was battered by hurricanes and almost crushed by ice. 

Luckily the ship made it to an area of the Arctic Ocean that had not frozen.  But the men ran out of food before they could press on.  They were only 175 miles from the Pole. 

There was no doubt they would try again.  Peary was 50 and Matt 40 and the two men realized that their next expedition could be their last.  In his autobiography he wrote “This time to be the last and this time to win”.  They returned to the states and Matt married Lucy Ross. The Roosevelt was repaired and it set sail from New York on July 6, 1908.  On the voyage there was a doctor, two teachers, a young graduate from Yale, and Captain Bartlet (the captain of the ship), along with Matt and Peary.  They all kept diaries because they all thought that this expedition would be the one that made them famous.  Their ship arrived in Cape Sheridan on September 5, 1908.  The men made camp and waited for February to begin their trip over land and frozen sea. 

By April 1^st, it was time to travel the last 135 miles to the pole.  Everyone knew who would accompany Peary the last 135 miles and that man was…Matthew Henson.  Peary said “I can’t get along with out him”.  They took four Inuit and 40 dogs.  Two days later Matt’s sled broke though the ice (luckily one of the Inuit grabbed his hood and pulled Matt out).  Three days later Peary took measurements.  They were three miles from the pole. 

After that, Peary continually took measurements every six a.m, six p.m, and at noon.  Finally, they reached the pole!  Peary took a picture of Matthew holding the flag at the pole.  Then Peary ripped a strip from the flag and buried it in a bottel, along with a record of the trip, in the ground. 

On the way back Peary did not speak to Henson.  Matt had a feeling that the reason for this is because he was worried about bringing a black man to the pole.  On July 18, 1909 they started home.  On the trip back the men learned that Dr. Fredric Cook (he had been on the first Greenland expedition) had claimed to have reached the pole in April 1908.  When the men returned to New York they learned that Cook was getting all the glory.  Peary turned his proof into a group of scientists (Cook had no proof) and refused to talk about his accomplishments until they were finished analyzing it.  Matt on the other hand was happy to talk about his accomplishment.  Anyone who heard him was impressed.  After people heard Matt speak, people understood why Peary brought a black man to the Pole.  Finally, the scientists decided who the first man to reach the pole and that was…Robert E. Peary but Matt was not mentioned (probably because of his skin color). The National Geographic Society presented both Peary and Captain Bartlet with gold medals and the Naval Affairs Committee considered Peary for rear admiral.  The committee asked Peary why he brought Matt rather than Captain Bartlet to the pole.  Peary lied and answered “I did not think a black man could make it back to the base camp alone”. 

Mat was ignored by the white community but by the blacks, quiet the opposite he was given a gold medal by the Colored Commercial Association of Chicago.  Apparently, Matt was not to upset with Peary lacking the courage to tell the truth because when he published his autobiography in 1912 he asked Peary to write the introduction.  In 1937 Matt was asked to join the Explores Club in New York.  In the 1940s America finally started to realize Matthews’s accomplishments.  In 1944 all men in the expedition were given a medal and in 1945 Matt was given a silver medal for Outstanding Service to the U.S.A. 

When Peary died he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery for heroes, but when Matt died in 1955 he was buried in a cemetery in the Bronx.  His decedents pressed the U.S government to rebury him with Peary.  In 1988 this was done.  His headstone reads “Matthew Alexander Henson, Co-discoverer of the North Pole! 

 Matthew Henson was a Famous Amercain because he was one of the explorers that paved the way for future explorers and discoverers.  He gave up a job he loved to go on an expedition, on which he could bring honor to blacks.  Now that’s a man that thinks of others before himself!

       Matthew was one of the African-Americans that stood out and made a difference for colored people.  He proved that it doesn’t matter what your race or size is, we can all come together to form one place, one nation, one America and that is why Matthew Henson is a truly Famous American!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Works Cited

By: Bryce Rogers

Haskins,Jim.  One More River To Cross.  New York: Scholastic, 1952.

Hudson,Wade.  Five Brave Explorers.  New York: Scholastic, 1955. 

Gains,Ann,Ghrahm.  Matthew Henson and The North Pole Expedition.  New York: Childs World, 2001.

Matthew Henson.  3/12/08.  www.Biography.com.

                                      Matthew Henson