In 1909 explorer Robert Peary, using nothing but his amazing mustache, became the first man to reach the North Pole, earning him numerous accolades and a permanent place in the history books. Of course, it was all bullshit. The one that should’ve been talked about was Matt.
Matt did not have good luck when it came to family. Born to a family of sharecroppers at the end of the Civil War his mother died when he was two. His father, seeking better opportunities, moved the family to Washington DC. However, instead of finding opportunities, Matt's father also died. Matt was then passed on to an uncle who paid for him to get some education, but of course the uncle soon died as well. Out of living family members, Matt worked as a dishwasher until he was 11, at which point he decided dish washing was bullshit, walked his ass to Baltimore, and became a cabin boy on an ocean freighter. The captain of the ship took a shine to young Matt, and took it upon himself to further educate him as they traveled around the world for the next seven years, at which point the captain died and Matt found himself out of work again.
Back in Washington DC, Matt found himself work at a hat shop. It was at this point that he met Peary who, ordered to lead an expedition to Nicaragua to map a possible route for a canal, was in the market for a sun hat. Peary, impressed with Matt's seamanship, offered him a job. Matt, not really into the whole hat selling gig, accepted. Peary found Matt to be most helpful in Nicaragua, leading him to look for the young man again in 1892 when he was planning an expedition to Greenland. Peary offered Matt a place as his right hand man. Matt, now a married man, apparently couldn't recognize Peary as a certifiable crazy person, and accepted without consulting his wife. The two men left soon after for Greenland, but the expedition hit a bit of a snag when Peary broke his leg only a few days after arriving. While Peary recuperated, Matt did some exploring, made friends with the Inuit, and learned their language. Peary mostly sat on his ass and wrote wild claims of his discoveries in his journal. After two years in the Arctic, Matt returned home to find an understandably upset wife who wanted a divorce.
The two men returned to Greenland in 1896 and 1898 where, thanks to Matt's work with the Inuit, they perfected their Arctic survival skills by basically doing whatever the Inuit did, an idea that had not been considered by previous explorers. Peary, never one to worry about who deserves credit for what, called the techniques they developed the Peary System. The Peary System mostly involved having Matt and their Inuit guides do all the work, laying supply caches for later use, and eating sled dogs. With the "Peary System" perfected, Peary decided it was time to start pushing for the North Pole. Despite funding from the U.S. government, which for some reason thought reaching the North Pole was a good use of tax dollars, expeditions in 1902 and 1905 both failed. It was at this time that Peary and Matt, despite Peary being married and both being in their forties, married Inuit women, by which I mean fourteen year old girls, who pumped out a couple of children, which the two men then subsequently abandoned when they went home.
In 1909, Matt and Peary, in their final expedition, managed to reach the North Pole. The prior sentence should actually read Matt and four Inuit guides managed to reach the North Pole, because at that point Peary had lost eight of his toes to frost bite and was unable to walk, making him pretty much luggage in the sled, something that he seemingly forgot to include in his journal. It being the very racist early twentieth century, Peary returned home to a hero’s welcome, while Matt was rewarded with a nice dinner at a so-so restaurant. The four Inuit guides meanwhile went back to their lives of desperately trying not to freeze to death. Peary lived out the remainder of his life living on a generous government pension and defending himself against claims he had lied and never actually reached the North Pole. Matt lived out the remainder of his life working a low level position at a Customs House until he died at the age of 89.
Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Henson#/media/File:Matthew_Henson_1910.jpg