Abraham Africanus I. [from old catalog]. Main Title: His secret life. Library of Congress, LC Control Number: 12007713.
Barack Obama is not the first African-American President of the United States. According to several books, at least five, if not six, former Presidents of the United States had African ancestry. Let’s begin with one of the more, well, black and white examples:
Warren G. Harding, who held office from 1921 to 1923, reportedly never denied his African ancestry. A family genealogy written by William Chancellor, professor of economics and politics at Wooster College in Ohio, identified African ancestors on both sides of Harding’s family tree. Indeed, Harding was an Alumni of Iberia College (now known as Ohio Central College), which was founded to educate fugitive slaves. It is claimed that the Justice Department bought up and destroyed all copies of the genealogy.
In her book, Warren G. Harding U.S. President 29 (Death by Blackness), Harding’s descendant Marsha Stewart writes, “While growing up, we were never allowed to talk about the relationship to a U.S. President outside of family gatherings because we were ‘colored’ and Warren was ‘passing.’ In 1884 he was a teacher at the local ‘colored school’ in Marion, Ohio, until he crossed the color line and became the 29th President of the U.S. Biographies written about Harding are quick to note his parents were descendants of Ohio pioneer families with English and Dutch ancestry when, in reality, both of his parents were Negroes whose ancestors escaped through the Underground Railroad.” Chillingly, she claims, “he may have lost his life because of it.” (Amazon.com).
In his book, The Strange Death of President Harding, former FBI Agent Gaston B. Means claims Harding was poisoned on a trip to Alaska with his entourage. Means had been hired as a private detective in 1921 by Mrs. Harding. Harding died during his third year in office and was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge. After his death a series of scandals judged his presidency among the worst in American history.
Andrew Jackson, the 7th President from 1829 to 1837, was the son of an Irish woman and a Negro slave. According to the Virginia Magazine of History (Vol. 29) Andrew Jackson Sr. died long before Andrew Jr. was born, although mainstream history books claim he was born only three weeks after his father’s death. It is claimed that after her husband’s death, Elizabeth Jackson moved to the Crawford farm in South Carolina and that one of the Negro slaves on the farm was Andrew’s father. Both David Coyle’s book Ordeal of the Presidency and the Virginia Magazine of History make the compelling claim that Andrew Jackson had an older brother who was sold into slavery in the Carolinas. Although it is known that poor white children were kidnapped, tanned and sold into slavery in the 17th and 18th centuries when white slavery was rampant (see, Michael Hoffman, They were White and They were Slaves), it is unlikely that this brother was a “white slave” at this late date.
Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President from 1801 to 1809, was the son of a part Indian woman and a Virginia mulatto father, according to Thomas Hazard in his book The Johnny Cake Papers, written in 1867. In addition, writing in 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof, Joel A. Rogers claims, “Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States and father of the Declaration of Independence, was the father of a large number of mulatto children. His wife protested loud and long to no avail."
According to Samuel Sloan in The Slave Children of Thomas Jefferson, when his mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson, died on March 31, 1776, Jefferson went to “psychopathic lengths” to destroy all of her papers, portraits and personal effects in order, perhaps, to hide the details of his heritage.
Although it has not been proven that Thomas Jefferson himself had black heritage, there has been a persistent rumor that he did sire several children with Sally Hemings, one of his 200 slaves. According to web article, “Thomas Jefferson's Black Children,” the rumor began in 1802 during his presidency when someone claimed Jefferson had fathered children by one of his slaves. Jefferson didn't respond. But in 1873 a man named Madison Hemings told a newspaper that Jefferson was his father. Sally Hemings claimed Jefferson was the father of all six of her children. A man named Dr. Eugene A. Foster claims to have tested Jefferson's descendants and Hemings' descendants, finding they both had Jefferson as a forefather.”
William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd President, is alleged to be a descendent of one of the slave children of Thomas Jefferson. According to a web article entitled “President Clinton’s Unknown Father,” Clinton is a descendant of Thomas Jefferson Blythe, one of the slave children of Thomas Jefferson. Thus, if we discount Thomas Jefferson himself as being African-American, we need to consider his descendent Bill Clinton, as a black man.
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President from 1861 to 1865, was the illegitimate son of an African man, according to his mother, Nancy Hanks, writes Joel A. Rogers. Indeed, Lincoln’s Presidential opponents made cartoon drawings of him as a Negro and nicknamed him “Abraham Africanus the First.” William Herndon, Lincoln's law partner, said that Lincoln had very dark skin and coarse hair, and also made the claim that his mother was from an Ethiopian tribe; although his mother claimed it was the father who was African. In his book The Hidden Lincoln, Herndon wrote that Thomas Lincoln could not have been Abraham Lincoln's father because he was sterile from childhood mumps and was later castrated. Herndon, of course, had a reputation for making unfounded charges, but according to Wiki.Answers.com: Question: “Was Abraham Lincoln an African-American?” Answer: “Yes.”
Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President from 1923 to 1929, often claimed his mother was dark because of mixed Indian ancestry. According to Dr. Auset Bakhufu in Six Black Presidents: Black Blood, White Masks, by approximately the year 1800 New England Indians had intermarried with African-Americans and there were hardly any pure Indians left. According to Bakhufu, Coolidge's mother's maiden name was Moor. In Europe the term Moor was given to all African peoples just as the term Negro was used in America.
Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President, grew up in Hawaii, raised by his white grandmother. Some doubt Obama’s American citizenship. According to Obama's paternal grandmother, as well as his half-brother and half-sister, Obama was born in Kenya, not in Hawaii.
References
Bakhufu, Auset. Six Black Presidents: Black Blood, White Masks, Pik2 Pubs. (1993).
Coyle, David, Ordeal of the Presidency (1960).
Means, Gaston B. The Strange Death of President Harding, University Press of the Pacific (2001)
Rogers, Joel A. 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof, Helga M. Rogers (1980).
Stewart, Marsha, Warren G. Harding U.S. President 29 (Death by Blackness), Conquering Books (2005).
Vaughn, Leroy. “The Five Black Presidents of The United States Of America,” www.computerhealth.org/ebook/5blkpres.htm, from the book, Black People and their Place in World History.
“Thomas Jefferson’s Black Children,” http://www.keynews.org/archives/a_jefferson.htm
“President Clinton’s Unknown Father,” http://www.anusha.com/billsdad.htm
Addendum
From Wiki.Answers:
Question: Was Warren G Harding of African descent; is he black?
Answer: You tell me. Who knows.
Question: Was Abraham Lincoln an African-American?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Was Andrew Jackson part black?
Answer: Yes... His mother was a white woman from Ireland and had him with a black man. His Father's other children (who were black) were sold into slavery.
Question: Was Thomas Jefferson black?
Answer: He wasn’t black.... but there is serious evidence that he had kids with one of his slaves.
Question: Was Bill Clinton a black man?
Answer: No, he was white. Still is, matter of fact!
Yes, but if he’s a descendant of Thomas Jefferson …. Well, you tell me!
What? No Jimmy Carter?
ReplyDelete