Matthew Henson at the Top of the World Biography by Jim Haskins
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Before Reading Matthew Henson at the Top of the World Biography by Jim Haskins VIDEO TRAILER KEYWORD: HML6-808 Why attempt the IMPOSSIBLE? Sailing across the ocean. Taking a walk on the moon. Once, these things were thought to be impossible. Then someone had the RI 3 Analyze in detail how a courage to try what had never been done. In the following selection, key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, you will see how a young explorer’s determination helped him go and elaborated in a text. RI 4 Determine the meaning of where nobody had gone before. words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative meanings. L 4b Use affixes as WEB IT What do you want to accomplish in your lifetime? Write clues to the meaning of a word. down one of your biggest ambitions in the center of a word web like the one shown. Then brainstorm different things you could do to make that achievement possible. take astronomy classes study all I can about outer space read books Become an about space Astronaut visit NASA 808 808-809_NA_L06PE-u07s01-brWrld.indd 808 12/31/10 5:13:40 PM Meet the Author text analysis: biography A biography is the true account of a person’s life, written Jim Haskins by another person. No two writers are the same, so every 1941–2005 biography is unique—even if many are about the same Bringing History to Light person. Still, all biographies share a few characteristics. Jim Haskins attended a segregated school in his Alabama hometown. • They are written from the third-person point of view. Although the school did not have • They explain how events, people, and experiences shaped the best facilities or the latest books, the person’s life. Haskins received a good education. • They include quotations from people who knew him or her. He recalled that his teachers acted “as if it were their mission in life to As you read this biography of Matthew Henson, look for educate us.” They emphasized the these elements. contributions African Americans had made to society. When Haskins reading skill: compare and contrast became a children’s book writer, he When you compare and contrast, you identify the ways wanted to do the same thing for his in which two or more subjects are alike or different. As readers. He wrote biographies of you read the following biography, use a Venn diagram to Martin Luther King Jr., Hank Aaron, compare and contrast the explorers Matthew Henson and and Stevie Wonder, among others. Robert Peary. Some points you may want to consider are background to the family background, education, and personal motivation. biography Henson Peary Arctic Exploration The Arctic is the area north of the grew up in Both Arctic Circle, 66° north latitude. Washington, D.C. The Dutch and the English began exploring the Arctic in the early 1500s. They hoped to fi nd a trade route to Review: Recognize Cause-and-Effect Relationships Asia. In early Arctic exploration, ships often became trapped in the ice, and vocabulary in context many sailors lost their lives. Jim Haskins uses the following boldfaced words to tell about By the late 1800s, nearly all of the a journey. To see how many you know, try to substitute a Arctic had been explored. Groups different word or phrase for each one. began to set records, pushing farther north each time. The race to reach the 1. Matthew Henson was an ardent adventurer. North Pole became an international 2. His difficult early years taught him resourcefulness. competition.competition. 3. His lack of money was a manifestation of prejudice. 4. Their expedition to the North Pole began in 1908. AuthorAuthor 5. First, Henson studied the feasibility of the expedition. OnlineOnline 6. If they succeeded, they would win prestige and fame. Go to thinkcentral.comthinkcentral.com. KEYWORD: HML6-809HML6-809 Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook. 809 808-809_NA_L06PE-u07s01-brWrld.indd 809 12/31/10 5:14:10 PM AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD Jim Haskins hile the explorers of the American West faced many dangers in W their travels, at least game and water were usually plentiful; and Based on the details in this photograph, what if winter with its cold and snow overtook them, they could, in time, can you infer about expect warmth and spring. For Matthew Henson, in his explorations Matthew Henson? with Robert Peary at the North Pole, this was hardly the case. In many ways, to forge ahead into the icy Arctic took far greater stamina1 and courage than did the earlier explorers’ travels, and Henson possessed such hardiness. As Donald MacMillan, a member of the expedition, was later expedition to write: “Peary knew Matt Henson’s real worth. Highly respected by (DkQspG-dGshPEn) n. a journey taken by a group 10 the Eskimos, he was easily the most popular man on board ship. with a definite goal Henson . was of more real value to our Commander than [expedition members] Bartlett, Marvin, Borup, Goodsell and myself all put together. Matthew Henson went to the Pole with Peary because he was a better man than any one of us.” a a COMPARE AND Matthew Henson was born on August 8, 1866, in Charles County, CONTRAST According to the quote Maryland, some forty-four miles south of Washington, D.C. His parents from Donald MacMillan, 2 were poor, free tenant farmers who barely eked a living from the sandy how did Henson soil. The Civil War had ended the year before Matthew was born, compare to other bringing with it a great deal of bitterness on the part of former slave- expedition members? 20 owners. One manifestation of this hostility was the terrorist activity on manifestation the part of the Ku Klux Klan in Maryland. Many free and newly freed (mBnQE-fD-stAPshEn) n. evidence that blacks had suffered at the hands of this band of night riders. Matthew’s something is present 1. stamina (stBmPE-nE): physical strength or endurance. 2. tenant farmers: farmers who rent the land they work and live on and pay rent in cash or crops. 810 unit 7: biography and autobiography 810-818_NA_L06PE-u07s01-World.indd 810 12/31/10 5:14:34 PM 810-818_NA_L06PE-u07s01-World.indd 811 12/31/10 5:14:39 PM father, Lemuel Henson, felt it was only a matter of time before the Klan turned its vengeful eyes on his family. That, and the fact that by farming he was barely able to support them, caused him to decide to move north to Washington, D.C. b b RECOGNIZE CAUSE-AND-EFFECT At first, things went well for the Henson family, but then Matthew’s RELATIONSHIPS mother died and his father found himself unable to care for Matthew. Why does Henson’s The seven-year-old boy was sent to live with his uncle, a kindly man father move his family 30 who welcomed him and enrolled him in the N Street School. Six years to Washington, D.C.? later, however, another blow fell; his uncle himself fell upon hard times and could no longer support Matthew. The boy couldn’t return to his father, because Lemuel had recently died. Alone, homeless, and penniless, Matthew was forced to fend for himself. Matthew Henson was a bright boy and a hard worker, although he had only a sixth-grade education. Calling upon his own resourcefulness, he resourcefulness found a job as a dishwasher in a small restaurant owned by a woman named (rG-sôrsPfEl-nDs) n. the ability to act effectively, Janey Moore. When Janey discovered that Matthew had no place to stay, even in difficult she fixed a cot for him in the kitchen; Matthew had found a home again. situations 40 Matthew Henson didn’t want to spend his life waiting on people and washing dishes, however, no matter how kind Janey was. He had seen enough of the world through his schoolbooks to want more, to want adventure. This desire was reinforced by the men who frequented the restaurant—sailors from many ports, who spun tales of life on the ocean and of strange and wonderful places. As Henson listened, wide-eyed, to their stories, he decided, as had so many boys before him, that the life of a sailor with its adventures and dangers was for him. Having made up his mind, the fourteen-year-old packed up what little he owned, bade good- bye to Janey, and was off to Baltimore to find a ship. c c BIOGRAPHY 50 Although Matthew Henson’s early life seems harsh, in many ways he What inspired Matthew Henson to become an was very lucky. When he arrived in Baltimore, he signed on as a cabin explorer? boy on the Katie Hines, the master of which was a Captain Childs. For many sailors at that time, life at sea was brutal and filled with hard work, deprivation, and a “taste of the cat”: whipping. The captains of many vessels were petty despots,3 ruling with an iron hand and having little regard for a seaman’s health or safety. Matthew was fortunate to find just the opposite in Childs. Captain Childs took the boy under his wing. Although Matthew of course had to do the work he was assigned, Captain Childs took a 60 fatherly interest in him. Having an excellent private library on the ship, the captain saw to Matthew’s education, insisting that he read widely in geography, history, mathematics, and literature while they were at sea.