The Life of Josiah Henson

Josiah Henson (1789-1883) was an author abolitionist and minister born into slavery in Charles County Maryland. In 1830 he escaped to Upper Canada (now Ontario) where he later founded a settlement and laborer's school for other fugitive slaves. His autobiography is a tense gripping account of how he escaped from his owners a pair of sadistic cruelly duplicitous brothers. Henson's life story is said to have inspired the character of the fugitive slave George Harris in Uncle Tom's Cabin.