Did you know the 1st President was a black man? John Hanson? Research it! He's on the back of the $2 bill?

Answer 1

Yes i have heard this one over and over again.

WE did not have a FIRST President for REAL until we had beaten the British. NO President of the Country was named until After the Revolutionary war.

sure their was a President of the Continetal Congress, but that is hardly the President of the USA or Country. Even today the Congress has its leaders that are not our President.

So yes their is truth to this but it is a bit inter twined with truth and fiction. He certainly lived and was a part of it as the site says, but of the whole USA, NO.

Only the Congress which was disbanded and reorganized when the constitution was written. So during the war, maybe yes, but we were not a true Nation yet. We were fighting for our independance. He most certainly was important but Washington IS the first TRUE USA PRESIDENT that is why he gets the title. He was never President of the Congress, just of the USA.

A minor difference in symantecs but your information is good and fairly accurate it just leaves out that our Nation was not official until after we won the war of independence.

He definitely deserves recognition as one of hte first Presidents of the Continetal Congress but not the Nation.

Answer 2

I researched it as well. And he was not the 1st President of the United States of America, he was the 1st President of The United States in Congress Assembled. A very different thing. The 13 colonies had agreed to act together in order to gain freedom from Britain, but the Articles of Confederation did not create the United States of America as a country, but as a league of independent states.
And while he may be the descendant of an 'enslaved' man, that man was Causcasian. He came to America as an indentured servant, and worked his way out of his debt and to freedom.

Answer 3

No. That's not right. I don't know where you got your information but the first President of the United States was George Washington; and he was not black.

John Hanson was never President of the United States.

Answer 4

I did. John Hanson is a white man. Sometimes he is considered the first President of the United States though. Your photography of him on that site didnt exist in the late 18th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hanson

Common Misconception too. John Hanson was the first President of Liberia. Not the Continental Congress Leader.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hanson_%28myths%29#Hanson_was_absolutely_a_black_man

Answer 5

John Hanson Black Man

Answer 6

From snopes.com.

Origins: A prime example of why history is best learned from history books, not comic books (or the modern equivalent, web sites of dubious validity).

John Hanson was not the "first president of the United States." John Hanson has not been purged from history books by a wave of revisionist historians who refuse to acknowledge his true importance to American history. The plain truth is that John Hanson was never considered "the first president of the United States," even in his own time. And John Hanson couldn't possibly have been the "first president of the United States," because neither the office of President of the United States nor the nation known as the United States of America was created until after he was dead.

When representatives of thirteen British colonies in North America, assembled in an organization known as the Continental Congress, declared in July 1776 that those colonies would henceforth be independent of Great Britain, they realized that unity would be necessary in order to sustain and win a war of independence (and to maintain that independence afterwards). Accordingly, they soon began debating the Articles of Confederation, a plan for a permanent union, which was approved and sent to each of the states (as the former colonies now called themselves) for ratification. Disputes over the several issues (including the western boundaries of some states) delayed the approval of the Articles of Confederation until 1781.

It is important to note that although both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation used the phrase "united states of America," neither of those documents was intended to create a single, unified country out of the thirteen former British colonies. Colonial leaders feared the creation of a too-powerful national government dominated by factions and so specifically refused to create a unified nation or to transfer sovereignty to a central government. Instead, they in effect created a national Congress to whom they could subcontract administrative tasks performed on behalf of all thirteen states: conduct foreign affairs, make war and peace, deal with Native Americans living outside the states, coin and borrow money, supervise the post office, and negotiate boundary disputes. Congress could not, however, raise money to carry out these tasks by levying taxes on the states, nor could it raise troops in order to defend the country or wage war, or even compel states to comply with the laws it passed. In short, the Articles of Confederation created a Congress extremely limited in authority, with insufficient power to carry out the duties assigned to it. Inevitably, Congress could neither pay off the war debt (because it could only print more paper currency, not raise money through taxation) nor protect the states' territories from encroachment by the Spanish and British (because it could not compel states to provide troops for the common defense); eventually the Confederation Congress lost much of what authority it had, often could not take legislative action because representatives had stopped attending meetings (thereby preventing the attainment of a quorum), and finally — out of money itself — transferred reponsibility for the national debt to the states in 1787. The Confederation government had been, in the words of George Washington, "little more than the shadow without the substance."

The key point here is that the Articles of Confederation did not create a nation called "the United States of America." They created, as stated in the first two articles, an alliance of thirteen independent and sovereign states who had agreed to "enter into a firm league of friendship with each other" while retaining their "sovereignty, freedom, and independence." The title of the confederacy so created was designated "The United States of America," but no nation with that name was created by the Articles of Confederation, any more than the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization resulted in the establishment of a nation known as "NATO."

The failure of the Articles of Confederation led to calls for establishment of a centralized federal government with much broader powers than the Congress of the Confederacy, a task accomplished through the drafting and ratification of a new Constitution in 1787-88. It was this Constitution, not the Articles of Confederation, that created the office of a chief executive as part of a truly federal government for the United States — an office bearing the title "President of the United States of America" and first filled by George Washington, unanimously selected as the first President in February 1789.

Sometimes historical figures are relegated to the background because societal attitudes have led to a minimalization of their accomplishments, leaving future generations to re-discover and re-emphasize their contributions. Sometimes, however, they're relegated to the background simply because they were minor figures to begin with. John Hanson was far from an insignificant figure in American history, but if few Americans know that he was the first person chosen to preside over Congress under the Articles of Confederation, the primary reason is that the office wasn't one of much importance. Claiming that John Hanson was the first President of the United States doesn't help to preserve the memory of his real accomplishments — it merely perpetuates historical misinformation for trivia's sake.

Answer 7

He wasn't black, he was blue. The first president of the confederacy was a f*%&# smurf!

Answer 8

LOL....Thanks for the laugh, but you should have placed this in the jokes and riddles section.

Answer 9

Umm, I'm afraid not:

A prime example of why history is best learned from history books, not comic books (or the modern equivalent, web sites of dubious validity).

John Hanson was not the "first president of the United States." John Hanson has not been purged from history books by a wave of revisionist historians who refuse to acknowledge his true importance to American history. The plain truth is that John Hanson was never considered "the first president of the United States," even in his own time. And John Hanson couldn't possibly have been the "first president of the United States," because neither the office of President of the United States nor the nation known as the United States of America was created until after he was dead.

When representatives of thirteen British colonies in North America, assembled in an organization known as the Continental Congress, declared in July 1776 that those colonies would henceforth be independent of Great Britain, they realized that unity would be necessary in order to sustain and win a war of independence (and to maintain that independence afterwards). Accordingly, they soon began debating the Articles of Confederation, a plan for a permanent union, which was approved and sent to each of the states (as the former colonies now called themselves) for ratification. Disputes over the several issues (including the western boundaries of some states) delayed the approval of the Articles of Confederation until 1781.

It is important to note that although both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation used the phrase "united states of America," neither of those documents was intended to create a single, unified country out of the thirteen former British colonies. Colonial leaders feared the creation of a too-powerful national government dominated by factions and so specifically refused to create a unified nation or to transfer sovereignty to a central government. Instead, they in effect created a national Congress to whom they could subcontract administrative tasks performed on behalf of all thirteen states: conduct foreign affairs, make war and peace, deal with Native Americans living outside the states, coin and borrow money, supervise the post office, and negotiate boundary disputes. Congress could not, however, raise money to carry out these tasks by levying taxes on the states, nor could it raise troops in order to defend the country or wage war, or even compel states to comply with the laws it passed. In short, the Articles of Confederation created a Congress extremely limited in authority, with insufficient power to carry out the duties assigned to it. Inevitably, Congress could neither pay off the war debt (because it could only print more paper currency, not raise money through taxation) nor protect the states' territories from encroachment by the Spanish and British (because it could not compel states to provide troops for the common defense); eventually the Confederation Congress lost much of what authority it had, often could not take legislative action because representatives had stopped attending meetings (thereby preventing the attainment of a quorum), and finally — out of money itself — transferred reponsibility for the national debt to the states in 1787. The Confederation government had been, in the words of George Washington, "little more than the shadow without the substance."

The key point here is that the Articles of Confederation did not create a nation called "the United States of America." They created, as stated in the first two articles, an alliance of thirteen independent and sovereign states who had agreed to "enter into a firm league of friendship with each other" while retaining their "sovereignty, freedom, and independence." The title of the confederacy so created was designated "The United States of America," but no nation with that name was created by the Articles of Confederation, any more than the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization resulted in the establishment of a nation known as "NATO."

The failure of the Articles of Confederation led to calls for establishment of a centralized federal government with much broader powers than the Congress of the Confederacy, a task accomplished through the drafting and ratification of a new Constitution in 1787-88. It was this Constitution, not the Articles of Confederation, that created the office of a chief executive as part of a truly federal government for the United States — an office bearing the title "President of the United States of America" and first filled by George Washington, unanimously selected as the first President in February 1789.

Sometimes historical figures are relegated to the background because societal attitudes have led to a minimalization of their accomplishments, leaving future generations to re-discover and re-emphasize their contributions. Sometimes, however, they're relegated to the background simply because they were minor figures to begin with. John Hanson was far from an insignificant figure in American history, but if few Americans know that he was the first person chosen to preside over Congress under the Articles of Confederation, the primary reason is that the office wasn't one of much importance. Claiming that John Hanson was the first President of the United States doesn't help to preserve the memory of his real accomplishments — it merely perpetuates historical misinformation for trivia's sake."

"John Hanson was born in Charles County, Maryland in 1715 and died in Oxen Hills, Prince George County, Maryland on November 22, 1783. There is much debate about John Hanson's ancestry with one camp claiming he was descended from Swedish Royalty while the other group claiming he was a Moor. Neither of the assertions have merit."

Answer 10

I did research it. This site says you are correct.