This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on

this show, from the arts to sports and from business to history and everything in between.

And we love telling stories about history. As always, all of our stories about American

history are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, where you can go to study

and learn about all the things that matter in life and all the things that are beautiful

in life. And if you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses.

Go to Hillsdale.edu.

And now, this is the story of our 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant.

But this story isn't about his time as Commander-in-Chief,

but rather the events in his life up to that point that shaped

and molded him as a man. Here's our own Monty Montgomery on the story.

Ulysses S. Grant was born on April 27, 1822 in the small town of Point Pleasant, Ohio,

to parents Jesse Root Grant and Hannah Simpson Grant.

Here's Dr. John Marsalak of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library with more.

His mother and father were very, very important people in his life in different ways. His father is more or less of an abolitionist, and he also wrote for a newspaper, which leaned

in an abolitionist's direction.

So he's very outgoing.

The mother, she is a very, very shy person.

She doesn't give Grant the kind of love or support that you might

expect for a mother to give the father was always the presence in his life and always you know told him

what to do et cetera et cetera et cetera grant is much more like his mother than he is like his father. So this whole idea

of Grant being a quiet person, I think you could trace back to the time when he's living at home.

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