Who was Josiah Henson?
A minister, author, military officer, abolitionist, teacher, and businessman, Josiah Henson was born June 15, 1789 in Charles County, Maryland, as the son of two slaves.
While his mother was a slave of Dr. Josiah McPherson, she worked for Francis Newman, for whom Henson’s father was a slave. Because his father sought revenge for an assault on his mother, his father was brutally beaten and sent to Alabama. Josiah Henson never saw him again.
Afterward, when Josiah was around 5-years-old, his mother and five siblings lived together on McPherson’s plantation as a family, for a while. When McPherson died, the family was sold off, one by one. Mercifully, however, Isaac Riley, who “bought” Josiah’s mother, agreed to let the two remain together.
When Josiah Henson was 44, he escaped from slavery to Ontario, Canada (where many of his descendants still live today). But when he got there, he didn’t sit around lamenting the life that had so far been thrust upon him.
First, he founded a school for other fugitive slaves. By 1834, he created a black settlement on rented land. Eventually, he was able to purchase 200 acres that he called the Dawn Settlement. (By the way, Dawn is now called Dresden; it’s where Uncle Tom’s Cabin historical site is located. Have you been there yet?)
In addition, Josiah became a Methodist preacher and served as an officer in the Canadian military, where during the Rebellion of 1837 he is said to have single-handedly captured a ship that was threatening a nearby town.
*—Excerpted from “Uncle Tom’s Story of His Life: an Autobiography of the Rev. Josiah Henson” and www.yorku.ca research on black pioneers.
** This article was written by Leslie Green (daughter of Dennis and Katherine Green; granddaughter of Olive [Dean] McCaughan; great granddaughter of Mary Madeline [Nevels] and Walter Irving Dean; great, great granddaughter of Olive Thomas and Ezekiel Nevels, great, great, great granddaughter of Elizabeth Henson and William Thomas; and great, great, great, great granddaughter of Josiah Henson). Do you know your history?