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Martin Van Buren holds a pair of remarkable firsts in American history. He was the only U.S. president whose first language was not English and he was the first president born after American independence as a true U.S. citizen rather than a British subject. Born in 1782 in the Dutch speaking community of Kinderhook, New York, he grew up speaking Dutch at home and only learned English later as a second language. That combination of Dutch roots and post independence birth set him apart in an era when most leaders still came from English speaking colonial backgrounds. His political instincts later earned him the nickname “The Little Magician,” honoring the clever way he built one of the earliest modern political machines in New York.