Matthew Henson, African American Explorer of the North Pole

Matthew Alexander Henson, a talented African-American explorer who accompanied Peary to the North Pole and many other expeditions during the early 1900s, is still recognized today as one of the most renowned explorers ever. Henson and Peary are considered the first in history to reach the North Pole. Henson’s success helped to reduce racial tensions in America and to change the perception of the roles of blacks in society.
Henson is a symbol of the rapid transformation of society during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. At the beginning of the book Ragtime, Doctorow tells us, “there were no Negroes. There were no immigrants” (4). But by page 80 Matthew Henson accompanies Peary to the North Pole (while Father, a white explorer, is sent back to the boat). And by the end of this passage Peary takes a picture of Henson and the Eskimos and the author describes them as “indistinguishable” (81), suggesting a reshaping of society and the roles people play.
On the one hand the change is exciting and revolutionary, but on the other hand it is very unsettling. “On this watery planet the sliding sea refused to be fixed” (80). Doctorow uses a beautiful scientific allusion of the fluid, yet unstable and unsafe future of America. Peary measures persistently, trying to find the “exact” location of the North Pole, but is unsatisfied again and again, suggesting people’s difficulty of finding their place in an ever-changing society. This motif appeared earlier in the novel when the novelist Theodore Dreiser moved his chair around the room (26), in dissatisfaction, trying to find his right place.

By Colten McCormick

Henson, Matthew. N.d. American History Online. Library of Congress, n.d. Web. 5
May 2011.

Morrissey, Katherine G. "Biography." American National Biography. Oxford
University Press, 2000. American National Biography Online. Web. 26 Apr.
2011.
"Henson, Matthew." American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?
ItemID=WE52&iPin=afph0188&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 28, 2011)