Rev. Josiah Henson

[Mike Serpa]

Print of Josiah Henson (1789-1883), clergyman, conductor of fugitive slaves, abolitionist, businessman, soldier and the model for "Uncle Tom" of Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin". ohiohistory.org photo

Portrait of Josiah Henson sitting next to an unidentified Caucasian man, both facing slightly left. LOC photo

Rev. Josiah Henson, better known as Mrs. H. Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom". LOC photo


Josiah Henson (June 15, 1789 – May 5, 1883) was an author,abolitionist, and minister. 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 character of the fugitive slave, George Harris, in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), who returned to Kentucky for his wife and escaped across the Ohio River, eventually to Canada. wikipedia