On a summer day in the year 1866, a baby boy named Matthew Alexander Henson was born to a family of poor sharecroppers in Maryland. Little did these parents know that their son would leave a mark in the history books. However, those parents never got to witness this, as they both had died by the time he was eleven (Virtual Exploration Society - Matthew Henson). He went to live with his uncle, which he promptly left two years later and gained a job with Captain Childs (Profile: African-American North Pole Explorer Matthew Henson). Matthew Henson might have possibly been the first to stand at the top of the world; his journeys with Captain Childs, Robert Peary, and the race for the North Pole itself made him into the person he was, and he could not have made it without those experiences, though. …show more content…
Captain Childs of the ship Katie Hines took him on as a cabin boy when he ran away from his uncle (Henson, Matthew 1866–1955). While a skipper on the ship taught Henson how to read and write, the captain himself taught him how to navigate, use maps, and how math worked )Virtual Exploration Society - Matthew Henson). The ship traveled all over the world, to places like China, Europe, and northern Africa (Henson, Matthew 1866–1955) . In the end, Henson spent six years on the ship Katie Hines (Henson, Matthew 1866–1955). Captain Childs finally died at sea, and it provided Henson with the opportunity to meet Robert Peary (Henson, Matthew 1866–1955). Not only that, Captain Childs had made him into a experienced sailor, which proved to be a factor of Peary hiring