Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

To: mcg2000

This is trash--do some research. From wiki:


MYTH-- Hanson was black
Dick Gregory, comedian and black activist publishes an on-line column called Global Watch. In one of his columns he repeated most of the myths and added a new one, that John Hanson was the descendent of a slave. (The column can be seen at [2].)

There are two possible origins for this belief. The first is that Hanson's grandfather, another John Hanson, was an early immigrant to Maryland; as was common at the time, he worked as an indentured servant on his arrival in the New World. In 1661, his first master, William Plumley, sold his contract to Edward Keene and recorded the contract with the court of Calvert County, Maryland; similar 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, and a few years afterwards had purchased his own small farm. There is no record that the grandfather was black, but if indentured servitude was confused with chattel slavery, it is easy to see where this belief would have appeared.

Another may be a simple case of confusion with Senator John Hanson, a politician from Liberia, who was involved with the resettlement of freed slaves in that country. Whilst this Hanson was indeed black, he also lived a hundred years too late.

Note: During the 1600s, blacks were in the USA as indentured servants. The law for chattel slavery didn't come completely into effect until around 1705. Looking at Hanson's picture, he has the appearance of the triads (Wesorts and others) that inhabited Southern Maryland. The black men that were initially there under indentured servitude inter-married with white women and bore children, until a law was passed making their union illegal.


11 posted on 01/22/2007 3:01:07 PM PST by Pharmboy ([She turned me into a] Newt! in '08)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: Pharmboy

We were all kings back in Africa too.


27 posted on 01/23/2007 4:57:11 AM PST by ichabod1 ("Liberals read Karl Marx. Conservatives UNDERSTAND Karl Marx." Ronald Reagan)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson