How many presidents before George Washington: The complicated truth about America's first leaders

Ask a random person on the street who the first president of the United States was, and they'll say George Washington. Every time. It’s ingrained. It's on the dollar bill. But history is rarely that clean, and if you start digging into the period between 1774 and 1789, you realize the answer to how many presidents before George Washington actually existed depends entirely on how you define the word "president."

Some people say eight. Others swear it's fourteen. A few historians might even argue the number is zero because the office as we know it didn't exist until the Constitution was ratified. It’s a mess of legal definitions, wartime chaos, and a very different idea of what a "United States" actually looked like back then.

Honestly, it’s kind of wild that we just skip over a decade of American leadership. We think of the Revolution ending and Washington just appearing out of thin air in a powdered wig. But someone had to sign the papers. Someone had to keep the Continental Congress from imploding while the British were literally burning towns down.

The Men Who Held the Gavel Before 1789

To understand how many presidents before George Washington there were, you have to look at the Continental Congress. This wasn't the executive branch we have today. There was no White House. No Air Force One. No veto power. These guys were basically moderators. They were the "President of the United States in Congress Assembled."

Peyton Randolph was the first. He took the chair in 1774. He didn't lead an army; he led a meeting. He was followed by Henry Middleton. Then came John Hancock. You know him for the big signature, but he was actually the one presiding when the Declaration of Independence was signed. If "President of the United States" just means the guy whose name is at the top of the official government documents, Hancock has a much better claim to the title "first" than George does.

But wait.

The government changed in 1781. The Articles of Confederation were ratified, creating a slightly more "official" version of the country. This is where the "Eight Presidents before Washington" theory comes from. These men served one-year terms. They were:

• John Hanson (The guy often cited as the real first president by trivia buffs)
• Elias Boudinot
• Thomas Mifflin
• Richard Henry Lee
• John Hancock (He came back for a second round, though he was too sick to actually show up most of the time)
• Nathaniel Gorham
• Arthur St. Clair
• Cyrus Griffin

Cyrus Griffin was the last one. He resigned in 1788 because the new Constitution was about to make his job obsolete. So, if you're counting by the Articles of Confederation, the answer to how many presidents before George Washington is eight. If you count the guys from the First and Second Continental Congresses before the Articles were official, you're looking at fourteen.

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Why John Hanson gets all the credit (and why he probably shouldn't)

There’s this persistent myth that John Hanson was the first "true" president because he was the first to serve under the Articles of Confederation. You'll see this pop up in Facebook memes or "did you know" emails from your uncle. Hanson was a merchant from Maryland. He did a fine job. He dealt with mutinous soldiers and established the first Treasury Department.

But calling him "The First President" is a stretch.

The job was exhausting and mostly ceremonial. Hanson actually hated it. He tried to resign multiple times because his health was failing and the work was incredibly dull. He spent most of his time dealing with mail and trying to get enough delegates to actually show up so they could vote on things. He wasn't a "Commander in Chief." He was more like a Chairman of the Board.

The massive difference between "President" then and "President" now

The reason we don't usually count these guys in the official lineup is simple: power.

When we talk about how many presidents before George Washington there were, we’re comparing apples to oranges. The guys before 1789 had zero executive power. They couldn't tax people. They couldn't raise an army on their own. They were basically the face of a committee.

When George Washington took the oath in April 1789 at Federal Hall in New York, the job had changed. The Constitution created a brand-new office. This new President was the head of a separate branch of government. He had the power to check Congress. He had the power to lead the military.

Think of it like a startup. The guys before Washington were the founders sitting around a kitchen table. Washington was the first CEO hired once the company actually incorporated and got a bank account. Both are "leaders," but the roles are totally different.

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The "Fourteen" Argument

If you want to be a completionist, you have to look at the list of all the men who presided over the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1788.

1. Peyton Randolph: The Virginian who started it all.
2. Henry Middleton: Served for just a few days.
3. John Hancock: The longest-serving president of the bunch.
4. Henry Laurens: He actually got captured by the British and held in the Tower of London. Talk about a bad day at the office.
5. John Jay: Later the first Chief Justice.
6. Samuel Huntington: Presided when the Articles were finally finished.
7. Thomas McKean: Only served for a few months.
8. John Hanson: The "first" of the new era.
9. Elias Boudinot: Signed the preliminary peace treaty with Britain.
10. Thomas Mifflin: Accepted Washington’s resignation as General.
11. Richard Henry Lee: A heavy hitter from the Lee family of Virginia.
12. Nathaniel Gorham: Served during the chaotic lead-up to the Constitutional Convention.
13. Arthur St. Clair: A Scottish-born soldier.
14. Cyrus Griffin: The man who turned out the lights.

So, when someone asks how many presidents before George Washington, tell them 14 if they want the full list of presiding officers. Tell them 8 if they only care about the "legal" United States under the Articles. Tell them zero if they're a Constitutional originalist.

The Forgotten Crisis of the 1780s

We tend to think of the time between Yorktown and Washington's inauguration as a peaceful transition. It wasn't. It was a disaster.

The "presidents" of this era were presiding over a country that was basically falling apart. States were printing their own money. New York and Connecticut were having trade wars. Shays' Rebellion was scaring the living daylights out of the elite class. These pre-Washington presidents had no way to fix it.

Richard Henry Lee, for instance, was president when the Northwest Ordinance was passed. That was a huge deal—it basically set the rules for how the U.S. would expand westward. But even with that win, Lee knew the system was broken. The "President" couldn't even force states to pay their debts.

This is why the answer to how many presidents before George Washington matters. It shows why the Constitution was necessary. If the "Presidency" of John Hanson or Elias Boudinot had worked, we wouldn't have needed the office Washington filled. We would have stayed a loose confederation of bickering states.

Why history erased them

It’s not a conspiracy. It’s just branding.

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Washington was the "First" because he was the first of the current system. The United States government we have today began in 1789. Everything before that was the "beta version." Historians in the 19th century wanted a clean narrative. They wanted a Great Man to start the story. Washington, with his height, his war record, and his willingness to step down from power, fit the bill perfectly.

Poor Cyrus Griffin didn't stand a chance against that legacy.

Facts you can use at your next trivia night

If you really want to dive into the weeds of how many presidents before George Washington, keep these specifics in mind:

• The First African American President Theory: There is a fringe theory that John Hanson was Black. This is based on a photograph of a different John Hanson (a Senator from Liberia) taken decades later. The John Hanson who was President of the Continental Congress was very much a white man of English descent.
• The Salary: Most of these early presidents weren't paid much, if at all. They often went broke serving because they had to pay for their own housing and entertaining in cities like Philadelphia, Princeton, or Annapolis.
• The Terms: They were strictly limited to one year. The founders were terrified of creating a king, so they made sure no one stayed in the chair long enough to get comfortable.

How to actually answer the question

If you’re writing a paper or just trying to settle a bet about how many presidents before George Washington, you need to be specific.

• If the question is "Who was the first person to hold the title President of the United States in Congress Assembled?": The answer is Samuel Huntington (under the Articles) or Peyton Randolph (under the Continental Congress).
• If the question is "Who was the first president under the Articles of Confederation?": The answer is John Hanson.
• If the question is "Who was the first executive president of the United States?": The answer is George Washington.

The reality is that "President" was a title before it was a job description. The 14 men who came before Washington were important, but they weren't "The President" in the way we use the term today. They were the guys holding the pen until the country figured out it needed a sword.

Moving forward with this history

To get a better handle on this era, you should check out the Journals of the Continental Congress. It’s all digitized now. You can see the actual notes these men took and the mundane, daily struggles they faced. It makes them feel more human and less like names on a trivia list.

Next time you see a list of presidents that starts with Washington, remember that there’s a whole "prequel" series most people have never seen. Those 14 men were the bridge between being a colony and being a nation. They might not have had the power, but they definitely had the stress.

What to do next

1. Visit the National Archives website: Search for the "Articles of Confederation" to see the original structure of the presidency.
2. Look up the "Committee of the States": This was the group that tried to run things when the full Congress wasn't in session. It’s a fascinating look at how close we came to not having a central government at all.
3. Read "The Perils of Peace" by Thomas Fleming: It’s one of the best books on the period between the end of the war and Washington taking office. It gives a lot of credit to the men who kept the country together during that messy decade.
4. Check your state's local history: Many of these "forgotten" presidents, like Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania or John Jay of New York, have statues and landmarks in their home states that explain their roles in much more detail than national textbooks.