Josiah Henson

Artwork of Josiah Henson by Janet Northcutt Huse ( ())

Josiah Henson was born June 15, 1789 in Charles County, Maryland as slave on a farm belonging to Mr. Francis Newman. After stopping an overseer attempting to rape his mother, his father was punished and then later sold to another master in Alabama. He's never seen his father after that. A few years later following the death of his master, Henson, his siblings, and mother were bid off as property in an estate sale. After being bought, his mother begged her new owner to buy Josiah so that she could have her youngest child with her. The owner agreed as long as Josiah worked the fields. Josiah tried to buy his freedom with $450, only to find out that the price had been increased to $1350.

After escaping to Ontario, Canada in 1830, he founded a settlement and laborer's school for other fugitive slaves. He first worked farms, then became an active Methodist preacher and spoke as an abolitionist on routes between Tennessee and Ontario. Henson also served in the Canadian army as a military officer. He led a Black militia unit in the Rebellion of 1837. Though many residents of the Dawn Settlement returned to the United States after slavery was abolished there, Henson and his wife continued to live in Dawn for the rest of their lives. Henson died at the age of 93 in Dresden, on May 5, 1883.