‘Uncle Tom’s Story of His Life’ is a slave narrative written by Josiah Henson, who would later become famous for being the basis of the title character from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The narrative provides a detailed description of his life as a slave in the south.
Josiah Henson (1789-1883) was an author, abolitionist, and minister. Born into slavery, in Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, he escaped to Upper Canada, now Ontario, in 1830, and founded a settlement and laborer’s school for other fugitive slaves at Dawn, near Dresden, in Kent County, Upper Canada, of British Canada.
Contents:
My Birth and Childhood
My First Great Trial
My Boyhood and Youth
My Conversion
Maimed for Life
A Responsible Journey
A New Home
Return to Maryland
Taken South, Away From Wife and Children
A Terrible Temptation
Providential Deliverance
Escape From Bondage
Journey to Canada
New Scenes and a New Home
Life in Canada
Conducting Slaves to Canada
Second Journey on the Underground Railroad
Home at Dawn
Lumbering Operations
Visit to England
The World’s Fair in London
Visits to the Ragged Schools
Closing Up My London Agency