Josiah Henson

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A photo of Josiah Henson, taken in 1877

Josiah Henson (June 15, 1789 – May 5, 1883) was born into slavery in Charles County, Maryland. He escaped to Ontario, Canada in 1830, and founded a settlement and laborer's school for other fugitive slaves at Dawn, near Dresden in Kent County. At the time of his arrival, Ontario was known as the Province of Upper Canada (U.C.), becoming the Province of Canada in 1841, then Ontario in 1867, all within Henson's lifetime there. Henson's autobiography, The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself (1849), is widely believed to have inspired the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). Following the success of Stowe's novel, Henson issued an expanded version of his life story in 1858 titled, Truth Stranger Than Fiction. Father Henson's Story of His Own Life (published Boston: John P. Jewett & Company, 1858). Interest in his life continued, and nearly two decades later, his life story was updated and published under the title Uncle Tom’s Story of His Life: An Autobiography of the Rev. Josiah Henson (Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe’s ‘Uncle Tom’) from 1789 to 1876, with a preface by Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe and an introductory note by George Sturge and S. Morley Esq. MP. Henson later died at the age of 94 in Dresden, Ontario, May 5, 1883.

[edit] Life

Henson's Dawn Settlement near Dresden, Ontario, offered Blacks the chance to carve a life in a young province.

When Josiah was a young boy, his father was punished for standing up to a slave owner, receiving one hundred lashes and having his right ear nailed to the whipping-post, and then cut off^[1]. His father was later sold to someone in Alabama. Following his family's master's death, young Josiah was separated from his mother, brothers and sisters, when he was sold as property in an estate sale. After his mother pleaded with her new owner Issac Riley, Riley agreed to buy back Henson so she could at least have her youngest child with her; on condition he would work in the fields. Riley would not regret his decision for Henson rose in his owners' esteem, and was eventually entrusted as the supervisor of his master's farm, located in Montgomery County, Maryland (in what is now North Bethesda). He tried to buy his freedom by giving his master $350 which he had saved up over the years, only to find that it had been increased to $1000. Cheated of his money, he escaped to Kent County, U.C., in 1830, after learning he might be sold again. There he founded a settlement and laborer's school for other fugitive slaves at Dawn, Canada West. Henson also became an active Methodist preacher, spoke as an abolitionist on routes between Tennessee and Ontario. He also served in the Canadian army as a military officer, having led a Black militia unit in the Rebellion of 1837.

Henson crossed into Upper Canada via the Niagara River in 1830, with his wife and four children. Ontario had become a refuge for slaves from the United States after 1793, when Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe passed "An Act to prevent the further introduction of Slaves, and to limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude within this Province". The legislation did not end slavery in the province, but it did prevent the importation of slaves, meaning that any U.S. slave who set foot in Ontario was free. By the time Henson arrived, Blacks had already made Ontario home, including Loyalists from the American Revolution, and refugees from the War of 1812.

Henson first worked farms near Fort Erie, then Waterloo, moving with friends to Colchester by 1834 to set up a Black settlement on rented land. Through contacts and financial assistance there, he was able to purchase 200 acres in Dawn Township, in next-door Kent County, to realize his vision of a self-sufficient community. The Dawn Settlement eventually prospered, reaching a population of 500 at its height, and exporting black walnut lumber to the United States and Britain. Henson purchased an additional 200 acres next to the Settlement, where his family lived.

Josiah Henson is the first black person to be featured on a Canadian stamp. He was also recognized by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada in 1999 as a National Historic Person. A federal plaque to him is located in the Henson family cemetery, next to Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site.

Matthew Henson, the arctic explorer who accompanied Admiral Robert E. Peary on his expedition to the North Pole in 1909, is Josiah Henson's great-grand nephew. The state of Maryland named an undeveloped state park site in Montgomery County after Matthew Henson^[2] in 1991.

[edit] Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site—Ontario

Located near Dresden, Ontario, this cabin was home to Josiah Henson during much of his time in the area (1841 until his death in 1883). The cabin takes its name from the famous novel, and although it has been moved approximately three times, it has remained on the original Dawn Settlement lands. First opened as a museum in the 1940s, it was moved to its present location in 1964, and restored to an 1850 appearance in 1993–94. The site includes:

A federal plaque marks Josiah Henson a National Historic Person

The Henson Family Cemetery

Modern gateway to a historic site

Josiah Henson's House (Uncle Tom's Cabin)

• Outbuildings: a sawmill, smokehouse, and a pioneer church—including the pulpit from the original church from which Rev. J. Henson preached in Dresden
• The Harris House—one of the oldest houses in the area, and one of several final stops on the Underground Railroad
• The Henson Family Cemetery
• The Josiah Henson Interpretive Center—A visitor center and museum containing 19th Century books and artifacts related to abolition and Henson's life. The North Star Theater offers educational films. Gift shop.
• The Underground Railroad Freedom Gallery—A geographic history, taking visitors on the path from Africa, through slavery in the United States, and on to freedom in British North America.

The historic site was first managed by individuals, eventually purchased by Kent County in 1984, transferred to the St. Clair Parkway Commission in 1992, before being acquired by the Ontario Heritage Trust in 2005.

[edit] The Henson Cabin—Maryland

The 'Josiah Henson' cabin in Maryland

The cabin in which Josiah Henson and other slaves were housed remains standing and is currently nestled amidst a residential development in Montgomery County, Maryland. The cabin is attached to a modern three-bedroom home^[3] at 11420 Old Georgetown Road in North Bethesda.^[4] While the dirt floor had been replaced by a wooden floor, the original stone fireplace was still in the house.^[5] After having remained in the hands of private owners for nearly two centuries, on January 6, 2006, the Montgomery Planning Board agreed to purchase the property and the acre of land on which it stands for $1,000,000.^[4][6] The house was opened to the public for one weekend in 2006.^[7][8] The Board plans to open the cabin to the public on a regular basis when possible.^[6]

[edit] Reference

[edit] External links

• North American Slave Narratives, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Josiah Henson commemorative stamp
• Digital History: Josiah Henson
• Josiah Henson
• Josiah Henson's Autobiography at UNC's Documenting the American South
• Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site, near Dresden, Ontario
• National Historic Person plaque, and cemetery photo near Dresden, Ontario