Canadian Characters - Josiah Henson

Encaustic Wax and Pigment on Pine

Framed in Maple

42” x 66”

( 106cm x 167cm)

2009

An abolitionist, author, map maker and minister, he escaped to Ontario from slavery in the US in 1830. Travelling with his family only by night, sometimes even carrying them on his back when they were too tired because it was too dangerous to be slow. He founded a settlement, school and church for other fugitive slaves near Dresden, Ontario.

He wrote an autobiography entitled, “The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself” in 1849 and it was the inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. Well read and a leader, he helped numerous other individuals escape to Canada and helped organize a self

sufficient community for those looking for a new life in their newly developing country. He fearlessly aided in developing secret communications and maps to help find a way to freedom.

Born in 1789 into slavery in Maryland, USA

Died in 1883 a free man in Dresden, Ontario