Josiah Henson

Enslaved, Activist, Author, Abolitionist and Minister

Believed to have inspired the character in Uncle Tom’s Cabin

(June 15, 1789 – May 5, 1883)

Josiah Henson was born into enslavement at Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, on a farm owned by Francis Newman. His mother was known as Celia and his father’s name was Mason. As a child, he was considered “sickly”. Later in his childhood, he was sold to Issac Riley of Mongomery County, Maryland, who appointed him superintendent of the farm, at an usually young age, because of Henson’s strength and intelligence.

At age 22 Henson married Charlotte, an enslaved woman.  They had twelve children, four while enslaved. Henson showed extreme loyalty to Riley who, in turn, entrusted him with exceptional responsibilities and allowed him to become a preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. However, when Henson attempted to buy his freedom, Riley cheated him and made plans to sell him South. Fearing separation from his family, Henson fled north with his wife and children in the summer of 1830. After passing through Ohio and New York, they settled in Dresden, Ontario, Canada.

Henson became a preacher and a leader in the Afro-Canadian community, and he traveled back to the United States to help over 200 enslaved escapes. He also served the British as a captain of the Afro-Canadian volunteers in the Canadian Rebellion of 1837-1838, two uprisings in which the  Lower and Upper Canada were in conflict over political reform. Henson founded the British American Institute in 1842, an Afro-American community and industrial school intended as a refuge for escaped slaves. He also founded the Dawn House a settlement house. Henson made several trips to England, where he was received by high society and gave abolitionist speeches. Henson died in Dresden, Ontario, in 1883 at the age of 93.

Henson’s autobiography, The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself (1849), is believed to have inspired the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852).

His works include:

• The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself.1849
• Truth Stranger Than Fiction. Father Henson’s Story of His Own Life. 1858
• Uncle Tom’s Story of His Life: An Autobiography of the Rev. Josiah Henson. 1876

Additional Resources

• National Underground Railroad to History’s “Resistance to Slavery in Maryland,” p. 129f.;    http://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/discover_history/upload/ResistanceMDRpt.pdf
• Painting and story of Celia and Joshia by Don Zimmer.org
• The Road to Dawn: Josiah Henson and the Story that Sparked the Civil War, Jared A. Brock, Public Affairs, May 15, 2018. Book
• Josiah Henson Museum & Park, in North Bethesda, Maryland, contains the Riley/Bolton house, where Henson’s owner lived.