Tons encyclopedia of american biography

Abolitionist, minister, writer

During the period of slavery in the United States and afterward in the ongoing struggle for equality and opportunity for people of African descent, Josiah Henson was a man who lived his conviction of being honest in both word and deed.

Even while a slave and enduring violence, when given the choice of defiling his word or gaining freedom, Henson kept his word. When Harriet Beecher Stowe read The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself (1849), she was determined to meet Henson.

Tons encyclopedia of american biography

They met in 1851 and Henson's life became the basis for the character Uncle Tom in her 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. After escaping from slavery and finding freedom in Canada, Henson learned to read and write and became a religious and community leader both there and in the United States.

He traveled throughout the United States, Canada, and England, preaching and speaking for the abolition of slavery. H