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Title details for The Life of Josiah Henson by Josiah Henson - Available

The Life of Josiah Henson

An Inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom

by Josiah Henson
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Born into slavery on a Maryland farm, Josiah Henson (1789–1883) worked as a foreman, married, and became a preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Faced with the prospect of separation from his family, Henson fled with his wife and children to Ontario, where he became a leader in the Afro-Canadian community. The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself first appeared in 1849. The book's avid readers included Harriet Beecher Stowe, who later acknowledged its influence on her own masterwork, Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Henson's narrative recounts the circumstances of his bondage, his conversion to Christianity, and his fruitless attempts to buy his freedom. Risking starvation, exposure, and recapture, the Henson family walked from Kentucky to Ohio. Native Americans assisted the struggling family, as did sympathetic boatmen who ferried them across Lake Erie. Safely established as a tenant farmer and clergyman in a new country, Henson took an active role in organizing a self-sufficient community. His memoirs helped alert his contemporaries to the horrors and heartbreak of slavery, and they offer modern readers an authentic account of one family's triumph over injustice and inhumanity.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Dover Thrift Editions

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 14, 2015

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780486809281
      • File size: 703 KB

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780486809281
      • File size: 1684 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      November 1, 2015

      Henson, a man born into slavery in Maryland who escaped with his family to Canada, tells the story of his years in bondage, his futile attempts to buy his freedom, and his eventual heroic flight. Harriet Beecher Stowe cited this narrative as an inspiration for Uncle Tom's Cabin.

      Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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