# history of american govt

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-american-govt/200380>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 8, 2003, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-american-govt/200380 "2003-09-08T21:03:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chefIL11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chefIL11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chefIL11)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-american-govt/200380/1 "2003-09-08T21:03:18Z")

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I was told that before George Washington was president of America, there was a black president…  
Before the Federal Constitution was written, there were “Presidents” preceding Washington in charge of the constitution and in charge of the federal government… and the first president was black?

Can someone shed some light on this for me? Who was this first black president?

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**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-american-govt/200380/2 "2003-09-08T21:12:36Z")

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[There were no Presidents of the United States before George Washington.](http://www.snopes.com/history/american/hanson.htm)

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-american-govt/200380/3 "2003-09-08T21:21:43Z")

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You are probably thinking of the Presidents of Congress under the Articles of Confederation. Note that this was a legislative position, like the Speaker of the House or President of the Senate; the AoC did not have any executive authority.

[This page](http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States_in_Congress_assembled) has a list of the Presidents under the AoC. None of them, as far as I know, were black.

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**Author:** ![Mayor\_McJesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce73a5/32.png) [@Mayor\_McJesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mayor_McJesus)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-american-govt/200380/4 "2003-09-08T21:24:34Z")

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And Hanson was a slave owner descended from Swedish royalty, so he wasn’t black (as you can tell from the pic in the Snopes article).

Out of curiosity, who told you there was a black president?