Databases vs. Google (2)

Utilizing three of Wayne State’s general biographical resources and one online encyclopedia, enabled me to learn more about John Hanson. There is some debate over when Hanson was born as I learned from my search. One of the biographical resources I checked along with an article from Google indicated that Hanson was born in 1715. Due to two biographical resources indicating the birth year of 1721, along with an online encyclopedia, I went with 1721. All of the resources I used to learn more about Hanson did indicate that he died in 1783. The resources I used for this research were Who2?: Find Famous People Fast, Notable Citizens of Planet Earth, Biography Resource Center + Marquis Who’s Who, and the Encyclopedia Americana. As Stanis recommended, I did Google “first presidents” to find an article about Mr. John Hanson. What I learned from Wayne State’s general resources and Google will be further discussed.

First, the article found on Google does state that John Hanson was the first President of the United States of America (“John” “Hanson,” 1997). This article was the only material I found throughout my search to firmly make that argument. It also alleges that Washington was the first President of the U.S. under the constitution we follow today, but that seven others preceded him to that title. Of course, John Hanson was one of the seven people who allegedly preceded Washington to the highest seat in the land.

Next, the other 4 resources I used gave titles to John Hanson which continued to raise speculation in my mind. In fact, Who2?: Find Famous People Fast stated that Hanson was best known as “the guy who was sort-of the first American president” (Who2, 2010). Biography Resource Center, however, never mentioned that he was the first president of the United States. Instead, they mentioned that in November 1781, Hanson was elected president of the Congress of the Confederacy (Biography Resource, 2010).

Even more interesting, Notable Citizens of Planet Earth states that in 1781 Hanson was elected by the Continental Congress “President of the United States in Congress Assembled,” an office he held for one year (Biographical Dictionary, 2007). This resource did mention that he is sometimes referred to as “the first president of the United States,” but he was a congressional presiding officer and had none of the powers of the president under the constitution (Biographical Dictionary, 2007). So does this mean that he only had the title of President of the U.S.?

Also, the Encyclopedia Americana states that Hanson was the first president of Congress under the Articles of Confederation. As such, he is sometimes regarded as the first president of the United States (Americana, 2010). There is some support to his claim of presidency, on Nov. 30, 1781, Gen. George Washington congratulated Hanson on his elevation to “the most important seat in the United States” (Americana, 2010).

Surprisingly, Hanson’s race wasn’t mentioned much in the resources used for this research. Biography Resource Center did mention that he was of Swedish descent, but it never mentioned an African background. While researching Hanson, I quickly gave up the idea of looking for actual details of his race. Conducting searches on his race even with databases or other credible resources just seemed to be impossible.

Although, I won’t say rather or not John Hanson was the first president of the U.S., I will admit the information I found was convincing enough to believe that he could’ve been. As for rather or not he was of African American descent, who knows? Since I found no material claiming he was or was not, that is left up to the reader to decide.

Overall, my preference would have to be the resources I used through Wayne State. Google wasn’t bad, but it never hurts to double check your information through the use of credible library resources.

References

Filler, L. (2010). Hanson, John (1721–1783). Encyclopedia Americana. Retrieved February 19, 2010, from Grolier Online http://ea.grolier.com/article?id=0193210-00

"John Hanson."Dictionary of American Biography Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2010. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

John Hanson, First President. (1997). John Hanson, American Patriot and First President of the United States. Retrieved from http://www.marshallhall.org/hanson.html.

Notable Citizens of Planet Earth. (2007). S9 Biographical Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.s9.com/Biography/Hanson-John.